The Long Odds in Criminal Cases

By Mani Dabiri | Published June 16, 2019 | Posted in Federal and State Criminal Defense, Government Subpoenas and Investigations, White-Collar and Regulatory Defense | Tagged Tags: billofrights, dueprocess, fifthamendment, pleabargaining |

They are not for the faint of heart. The fact is very few cases go to trial, and of those that do, most people go down swinging. But according to the latest data, we are seeing even fewer trials than ever. The analysis comes from a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, and the underlying data comes from Read More

When in Doubt, File the Appeal

By Mani Dabiri | Published March 3, 2019 | Posted in Federal and State Criminal Defense, Post-Conviction Defense and Appeals, White-Collar and Regulatory Defense | Tagged Tags: billofrights, dueprocess, habeascorpus, pleabargaining, sixthamendment |

Last week it was the Eighth Amendment; this week, it’s the Sixth. The Sixth Amendment says, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to … have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.” On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court said the right to counsel means you decide whether to appeal, not your lawyer. If Read More

USDOJ Revisits Its Approach to Corporate Cases

By Mani Dabiri | Published December 10, 2018 | Posted in Civil Business Litigation and Investigations, Federal and State Criminal Defense, Government Subpoenas and Investigations, White-Collar and Regulatory Defense | Tagged Tags: briberyandcorruption, businessandcommerce, departmentofjustice, DOJ, FCPA, immunityandcooperation, pleabargaining |

On November 29, the Justice Department announced changes to its policy toward corporate prosecutions. These changes pivot from the ones announced three years ago that emphasized the prosecution of people, not just organizations. Among other things, they had required an organization that sought to cooperate with the government to identify all individuals involved before it would receive any Read More

The Trial Penalty

By Mani Dabiri | Published July 27, 2018 | Posted in Federal and State Criminal Defense, White-Collar and Regulatory Defense | Tagged Tags: billofrights, dueprocess, grandjuries, pleabargaining, probablecause, publicdefense, punishment, sixthamendment |

That’s the title of this new report by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. It looks at the steep decline of jury trials in our system, explains why that matters, and examines how to preserve this important right to trial by jury. What is the trial penalty? It refers to the big difference in Read More

A New Day in the City of Brotherly Love

By Mani Dabiri | Published March 23, 2018 | Posted in Federal and State Criminal Defense, Government Subpoenas and Investigations, Post-Conviction Defense and Appeals, White-Collar and Regulatory Defense | Tagged Tags: cannabis, overcriminalization, paroleandprobation, pleabargaining, punishment, rehabilitation, sentencingalternatives, sexoffenses, smartoncrime, theftlarcenyrobbery |

If you haven’t heard, the new district attorney of Philadelphia is a lifelong defense lawyer who used to sue the government for violating people’s civil rights. He even ran on a campaign against overcriminalization. It’s a pretty amazing thing. Now the city’s top prosecutor has put his money where his mouth was during the campaign. Read More

New California Criminal Laws: Part Deux

By Mani Dabiri | Published February 2, 2018 | Posted in Federal and State Criminal Defense, Government Subpoenas and Investigations, Post-Conviction Defense and Appeals | Tagged Tags: CDCR, dueprocess, DUIs, expungements, juvenilejustice, miranda, paroleandprobation, pleabargaining, punishment, rehabilitation |

To conclude the series, here’s the fab five we promised last week. Kids age 15 or younger must talk to a lawyer before the police interrogate them. This is Senate Bill 395. It amended the Welfare and Institutions Code to require that kids consult a lawyer before they waive their Miranda rights. They can do the Read More

New California Criminal Laws in 2018

By Mani Dabiri | Published January 26, 2018 | Posted in Civil Business Litigation and Investigations, Federal and State Criminal Defense, Government Subpoenas and Investigations, Post-Conviction Defense and Appeals, White-Collar and Regulatory Defense | Tagged Tags: cannabis, DUIs, expungements, juryselection, laborandemployment, pleabargaining, rehabilitation, rulesofevidence, sexoffenseregistration, warondrugs |

We’ve already touched on four of them: Recreational pot. A ban-the-box law for employers. An overhauled sex-offender registry beginning in 2021. New rules for picking juries in civil and criminal cases. Here are five more this week, with five more to come next week. Lawyers can advise clients on cannabis. This is Assembly Bill 1159. It amended the Read More

Medical Board Metes Out Discipline Based on a Police Report

By Mani Dabiri | Published January 12, 2018 | Posted in Civil Business Litigation and Investigations, Federal and State Criminal Defense, Government Subpoenas and Investigations, Post-Conviction Defense and Appeals, White-Collar and Regulatory Defense | Tagged Tags: administrativehearings, collateralconsequences, healthcare, licensingandregistration, pleabargaining |

If you’re a doctor or other licensed healthcare professional in California, remember. Your board or agency can discipline you for alleged conduct in a police report even if you’re never charged with or convicted of anything. Just this week, the California Court of Appeal ruled that the medical board could discipline a doctor based on a police Read More

Two Tears

By Mani Dabiri | Published September 22, 2017 | Posted in Federal and State Criminal Defense, Government Subpoenas and Investigations, Post-Conviction Defense and Appeals | Tagged Tags: cruelandunusual, eighthamendment, miranda, overcriminalization, pleabargaining, punishment, rehabilitation, sexoffenseregistration, sexoffenses |

Two true stories, that is, of people on a sex-offender registry. The first. Today, she’s a 34-year-old mother of two great kids. Back then, she was a teenager herself when she slept with a boy on the night of her 19th birthday party. The boy was mature enough to pursue her but, as it happened, he was 14. His Read More

A Model Penal Code for the 21st Century

By Mani Dabiri | Published June 2, 2017 | Posted in Federal and State Criminal Defense, Post-Conviction Defense and Appeals, White-Collar and Regulatory Defense | Tagged Tags: billofrights, collateralconsequences, dueprocess, overcriminalization, pleabargaining, punishment, rehabilitation, sentencingalternatives, smartoncrime |

Charging decisions, which we wrote about last week, matter for many reasons. They drive plea bargains, and they affect sentencing. You file a felony, for example, so that the guy will plead to a misdemeanor without giving you much trouble. It happens all the time. Bad charging decisions, though, don’t just cause wrongful convictions or unjust sentences. They cause other consequences that Read More

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