Why hasn't my phone broken yet?

I'm not trying to break it. I just seem to drop it a whole lot. Just now for instance, I was coming home from soccer, getting all my stuff out of the car, and it slipped out of my hand and landed on the concrete driveway. It bounced twice and landed on the grass. I picked it up and it was bright and ready to make a call, or send an email... just another scratch and/or dent. I've dropped it so many times now, I am shocked that it still receives any calls at all.

I hate having the late game on soccer night. By the times I get all the way home from Marietta it's almost time to get up for work... OK, so not that late, but I do have a Motions Hearing at 8:30 tomorrow (today). Yikes, I need to plan on some catch up sleep this weekend: Sometime between Adam and Holly moving in with us and doing all the tax crap. What lovely weekend plans! At least there are no blueprints involved with the weekend plans, that's always a sure sign of a busy weekend to come.

Happy Birthday Pete!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My bro is the MAN! Happy birthday to the man!


Just for fun, here we are on Little Tybee Island a few years ago:

Gotta Get Out

I think my time in my current position has run its course. Since I started this job I have grown increasingly frustrated with the inefficiency with which my office is run. I've been staying here based on promises of progress within the office and within the county. Needless to say, no progress has been made to improve client representation, nobody is held accountable, and the depressing status quo is held onto tighter than a fat baby grabbing a lollipop. Innovation and quality assurance are both still very much frowned upon.

So... do you need a new co-worker? Are you looking for a trial attorney with second-chair Felony trial experience? Yes, sadly I have not tried my own case yet. I've been second chair on a Child Molestation case, and also one Trafficking Cocaine case. I've picked a jury or two also. I am supposed to second-chair a murder trial starting May 21st.... maybe I need to hang on until then. I'd probably have a much better chance at landing a job in another PD office if I could say that I've been involved in a Murder trial. Even if I am not lead counsel.

In other circuits PDs start off in State Court with misdemeanor cases, or even traffic court. I can't really say that I'm interested in traffic court. Though, if I were to go into private practice it would be a good experience to have. As would State Court. There are plenty of college students who get busted for misdemeanor charges who will pay good money to keep things off their record. BUT: I don't even feel like I want to go into private practice any time soon. I really want to stay a PD. I just want a better place to be one.

Picked another jury, took another plea

We had a repeat from a few weeks ago. That Armed Robbery trial never happened, and now an Aggravated Assault trial didn't happend. I'm getting some good practice picking juries though.

My trial partner filed a demand for speedy trial, so the court had two months to try this case or it would be dismissed. So, Wednesday we picked a jury and were ready to open on Thursday morning. Thursday morning I was sitting at our table across from the prosecutor who looked and me and shook her head.... and started laughing. She said, "why are we here?" She had just talked to the victim in the case who said that this "Aggravated Assault" was just a misunderstanding and that he didn't think they should even go forward.

"It's a battery, give her time served."

So, our client was released from jail and will only get a misdemeanor on her record. She plead guilty to battery, got put on misdemeanor probation, and will get anger management along with alcohol and drug treatment. All good things.

It's a good outcome for our client who was facing 20 years in prison, so we're happy about that. It was a waste of time, but good practice I guess. It was only a waste in time in that we could have taken this plea earlier in the process, but it was well worth the time and effort to get this result for our client.

Hard work and perseverance ARE worth something! ! Luckily, my trial partner has both in spades. I won't take any credit for this one, since it's his case. I just hope I can be as good as he is some time soon.

What happened to Scrubs?

I fear they've jumped the shark!

I've liked the show Scrubs for a while now. I didn't start watching it from the beginning, but I've had a season pass on TiVo for a few years now. It's quite quirky and funny, and it's always had good writing to acompany the good comedic actors.... but.... The past few weeks have been pretty bad. Last week there was the sit-com suicide "clip-show" where, instead of coming up with another creative and funny show, the entire cast had flashbacks from prior years. Then, this week there was not much funny about the episode because they alternated between trying to hard to be funny and attempting drama. The episode opened with one character trying to make a joke and another character telling her that she's not the comic relief of the cast of characters. Sort of a post-modern crack at themselves which fell flat on its face. "Look at us pointing out that we're a cast of characters while trying to be funny by pointing out how not funny some of us are." It just didn't work at all.

This has prompted my fear that they've jumped the shark. If you are not familiar with that term you can google it, but in short it means that they're on the way downhill for the rest of the series. It stems from the Happy Days episode where Fonzie jumps a shark on water skis. Since then, it stands for the turning point where only darkness lies ahead.

The Simpsons actually had a clip show a few years ago which they feared may lead to their tanking. They were very clever about it though, ending the show with still frames and a new ending credit song, "We're sorry for the clip show." Very clever and funny indeed. One of the stills was even Homer jumping a shark!

That clip show did not spell disaster for the Simpsons, which remains pretty good still. Hopefully Scrubs will be able to bounce back from their sad bump in the road.

Happy Birthday Julie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's The Wifey's birthday. She's 31, just like me.

We're headed for The EARL for a Guac burger.... mmmmmmmm guac.

Malpractice

I was just talking to one of my co-workers about Malpractice. His
wife is a psychiatrist who is being sued for wrongful death. That got
us to talking about our clients, and potential cases where we're
PERSONALLY on the wrong side of the v. You never know if someone is
going to file suit against anyone and everyone they can think of, just
because they are in jail.

He has a very interesting case right now that's getting ready for
trial. His client is charged with Kidnapping, Aggravated Assault,
Aggravated Sodomy and other assorted felonies. His client was in
jail, was offered a plea to Misdemeanor Simple Batter to be time
served (let out of jail with a Misdemeanor!!) and rejected that offer
in the expectation that he could only do better if he went to trial.
The client must have thought that the victim would either not show up,
or recant her story. What he didn't think was that the DA would have
over a thousand hours of taped conversations between him and the
victim from the jail phones. In those thousands of hours, he can be
heard convincing the victim to lie for him and say that this incident
did not occur. Once the DA got wind of these recordings, he withdrew
the offer for Simple Battery and is going to ask for Life Without
Parole after the inevitable guilty verdict. I guess that verdict
isn't inevitable. The victim could sound believable, she could decide
not to show up for trial, she could have a skydiving accident...
anything could happen.

It blows my mind that this guy would be in jail and reject an offer of
Time Served to a Misdemeanor while he's facing Life Without Parole.
But I guess if he was a real genius he wouldn't be in this situation
in the first place. So, if he does get LWOP, one of his claims will
be that our office did a terrible job before and during trial. Anyone
ca end up beneath the v.