College students sometimes get themselves into trouble, and an incident could bring them not to the dean's office but a police station. When stopped and questioned by police in Virginia, they may feel nervous and assume they could explain their situation. Anyone with...
Criminal Defense
What are my rights during a police traffic stop?
When you are on the road and see the flashing lights behind you, your heart might stop. Even once you pull over, you’re thinking about what will happen next. With multiple cases of police brutality after traffic stops or during arrests in recent years, you may be...
Probable cause and electronic information
When Virginia police officers want to search a suspect's home, car or possessions, they generally must first obtain a search warrant, and the judges who issue these warrants only do so when they are presented with probable cause to believe that useful evidence will be...
False confessions and ignored evidence in high-profile cases
Police officers in Virginia and around the country are often put under great pressure to make an arrest when the cases they investigate attract a lot of media attention. A study published in the Northeastern University Law Review suggests that this pressure results in...
Supreme Court declines to expand double jeopardy protections
Virginia readers might be interested to learn that, on June 17, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a bid to expand double jeopardy protections for individuals charged with state and federal crimes. Experts say the case could impact President Donald Trump's former...
Neighborhood crime apps may cause racial sterotyping
Violent crime has decreased sharply over the past decades in Virginia and across the United States. According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, violent crimes fell 49 percent from 1993 to 2017. New neighborhood crime prevention apps, though, may have...
How some breath tests may react to a low-carb diet
Some people in Virginia have medical conditions that may cause false positives on a breath test for blood alcohol content. An attorney for a man in Texas got the man's DUI charge dropped because the man was in ketosis from his low-carb diet. In ketosis, people may...
DUI charges and breathalyzer tests
There has always been tremendous controversy surrounding breathalyzer tests used to convict suspected drunk drivers. Disputes continue over whether breathalyzer devices can always be relied upon in providing accurate readings.Last July, when a news organization tested...
Police arrest man on domestic assault and other charges
While most cases of domestic assault are perceived to involve a person and a spouse or a person with whom he or she is in a relationship, there are many other ways in which there can be these types of charges made. Simply getting into a physical dispute with a family...
What is expungement?
Many people in Virginia may have heard of expungement, but may not know what it means. Expungement, in its simplest term, is the "sealing" of one's legal record of an arrest or criminal conviction. While the arrest or conviction for most intents and purposes does not...