Dear Readers,I only knew Jessica Wolfe, in passing, as one of the able assistants at the Houston County District Attorney's office. Her colleagues there, and in Houston County's criminal justice system, still weep for her too young death.  Her family mourns her absence, probably every minute of every day.Today, many of these champions for Jessica are in a state of shock.  Powerless, they watched last week while her murderer, Russell Holt, was permitted to plead guilty to only Manslaughter.  Sadl...

Dear Readers,We get asked about "grandparents' rights" from time-to-time and, since Georgia changed its law last May, this is a good time to review past and present law with respect to a grandparents and child custody issues.In acknowledgment of the importance of grandparents, the Georgia Legislature has provided some legal muscle for grandparents' rights.  One such reference you will find is at O.C.G.A. §19-7-1(b.1), concerning the rights of "third party" relatives, including grandparents, wher...

Dear Readers,I have, in the past, extolled the virtues of private lawsuits, pointing out that sometimes it takes trial attorneys to "right a wrong."  In watching news reports and reading articles about the Boston Marathon Bombing, I discovered a legal development that may change the face of the war on terrorism and, ironically, came to pass just two (2) days before Boston.Our reliance on our laws to combat evil in the world is not limited to criminal justice.  A different type example of how our...

Dear Readers,We seem to have no consensus on what to do with firearms in this country.  Some states are rushing to pass laws makingit easier to own firearms; other states are tightening their laws.  The NRA warns politicians to "toe the line"; Mayor Michael Bloomberg is using his impressive financial muscle to back gun reform candidates running in elections against "pro-gun" opponents.All of this cognitive dissonance is the wake from the Newtown massacre.  Presently, only brick and mortar firear...

Dear Readers,As discussed last week, popular opinion washes up on the steps of the United States Supreme Court, leaving the inner moving parts of a Supreme Court exposed in the "fish bowl" of public opinion.To quickly recap, both of the cases recently argued before the Supreme Court traveled different paths to the courthouse, but both involved an odd set of litigants – the executive government officially denouncing laws enacted by popular opinion or Congress. The appeals were brought by private ...

Dear Readers, Several weeks ago, I commented on the absurdity of Oklahoma's anti-Sharia Law statute. One of the observations I had made was that it overreached by trying to prohibit the use international law in Oklahoma courts. This brings me to think about international custody disputes.. The United States is a signatory to The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction ("Hague Convention"), along with 63 other countries. Congress has enacted the International Child...

Dear Readers, College sports used to have a high-minded veneer of student-athletes competing with honor for the joy of the sport and spirit of their school. Each year, it becomes increasingly ugly, especially with College Football. Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy has been shipped in disgrace back to New York. Cam Newton's storybook ascension is threatened by the swirl of a father accused of selling his enrollment to Auburn. These scandals happen, though, because of the NCAA's rules trying to p...

Dear Readers, We still live in dire economic times – the perfect opportunity to cut our correctional bill and restore spending painfully cut out of our educational system. Last year, while teachers were being furloughed, Georgia added over 800 prisoners to our bloated prison system, to the tune of between $15M to $30M, at least. According to the Pew Center on the States, a report showed that while, for the first time in 40 years, the 50 states experienced a collectively modest drop (0.3%) in th...

Dear Readers, "Oh Noooo!" A sound of anguish poured from the depths of a wounded Cub's fan soul; you can even hear Ron Santo's head impact the desk in front of him, as he collapsed in disbelief. The Cubs were beating the Brewers 7-5 with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth. They were on the verge of clinching an improbable wild card berth, when Brant Brown dropped a "can of corn," clearing the bases and snatching loss from the jaws of victory. "Oh Nooo!" It's on youtube – listen to it! This ...

Dear Readers, There are rumblings from conservative politicians who want to use the false promise of lowered health care costs to attack Trial Lawyers. They argue that limiting malpractice lawsuits will result in substantial savings by eliminating the waste of "preventive medicine." Really? The lion's share of the costs driving up healthcare expenses are from "end of life care" – some from preventible conditions, such as obesity. This is not to advocate for any particular reform, however. T...

Dear Readers, The modern explosion of social media is both a blessing and a curse to our teachers. It opens all kinds of options, for good or ill, in communicating with their students. Children growing up 50 years ago, lived in a world of playing football, hockey, and baseball on the front lawns of their houses or the streets of the neighborhood. The telephone was for adults and television was three broadcast stations and maybe an independent station or two. Transistor radios were snuck under...

Dear Readers, According to Newt Gingrich, the fabric of our country is weakened by a "radical judiciary." While he has some offending instances in mind, he lacks a universal definition. For example what would Mr. Gingrich say if a President Obama refuses to recognize a Supreme Court decision overruling his healthcare program? Mr. Gingrich asserts, as a basic principle, that we are captive to an "elitist" class (i.e., lawyers). He proposes common folk regain their proper place as the front-se...

Dear Mrs. Sandusky ... “I know you are dumbfounded by what your husband did to me; he spent his life being perfect in your eyes.  You probably don’t remember a day without him in your life, having been together since college.  You are 68 years old and your mind cannot comprehend his malevolence.  Why compound my pain by denying Truth?  How can you know what was really going on in the basement? While he was molesting me in the basement, you were upstairs with the other childr...

Dear Readers, I have written before, about how attorneys "police their own." This is in stark contrast to, say, the medical community, where butchers can injure patient after patient and never be stripped of their privilege to practice medicine. Of course, to be fair, lawyers lose their bar license for ethical reasons which may or may not have anything to do with clients being injured. Attorneys can't help but fight for clients. Most of us try to do so ethically, but we still have to spend u...

Dear Readers, It is ironic that we, as a nation of opportunity, always turn on the downtrodden in times of trouble. Just recently we observed two (2) Georgia lawmakers, Rep. Jason Spencer, R-Woodbine, and Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, propose an idea that, if it takes hold here in this state, would add another insult to the disadvantaged amongst us. They want all welfare recipients to be periodically drug-tested in order to be eligible for benefits. The impulse may be from a good place. Drug a...