May 2, 2010 by Zale.

In both criminal court and juvenile court, I have to deal with people’s charges or allegations related to sexual misconduct.  The government criminalizes it and even sets up registries for those guilty of certain crimes.  Sometimes this changes the offenders behavior, but does it really get to the root of the problem?  No, only God can deal with that.

If you struggle with pornography, addiction or other sex oriented problems, one resource that might help you is XXXCHURCH.  If you thought your church was “on the edge”, I doubt its as far out on the edge as XXXCHURCH.  Their mission is to bring the trappings of pornography and sexual sin out into the open so God can deal with it.

If you are struggling with sexual issues, whether these issues are hidden or out in the open, check out XXXCHURCH.  I recommend you do it before you have to talk to an attorney because your sexual issue has gotten you into court.  A life on the Sex Offender Registry isn’t what I would wish on anyone.

Posted in Juvenile, Criminal Law | No Comments »

February 13, 2010 by Zale.

It’s an unfortunate truth, but appearance matters in court.  It may even be the small things of putting on a nice plain shirt and shaving that makes the difference.  Maybe its covering up some of the tattoos or having a natural hair color.  Whatever you can do to make your appearance better is helpful, regardless of whether you are in front of a judge, a jury, your probation officer, your adjuster or a DCS worker.  Check out this article for more details.

Posted in Child Advocacy, Litigation, Criminal Law, Injury Law | 1 Comment »

October 13, 2009 by Zale.

An officer pulls over soon to be DUI defendant.  The officer asks the soon to be DUI defendant to do some standard field sobriety tests.  Obviously at the “top of his/her game” the soon to be DUI defendant says, “sure, if you’ll do them with me.”  The questioning officer declines off handed offer, but the officer’s partner, who has been watching up to this point, gladly accepts the offer.  The officer’s partner completes the tests perfectly while the very soon to be DUI defendant falls all over his/herself.  Of course, all of this is caught on the officer’s dashboard camera.

So, whether you comply or not with an officer’s request to do a field sobriety test is up to you, but please, don’t ask an officer to serve as a bench mark on how the test should be completed, unless you know FOR A FACT that the other officer is drunker than you are.

Posted in You've got to be kidding!, Criminal Law | No Comments »

August 4, 2009 by Zale.

Tennessee recognizes a duty for business owners, in high crime areas, to take reasonable measures to protect their customers. It make sense right? If a business owner knows there is a lot of crime in their area and continues to invite customers to their business premises, then they should take the appropriate measures to protect those customers (and employees) from the criminal element that abounds in their area. This duty comes from the 1996 Tennessee Supreme Court decision McClung v. Delta Square 937 SW2d 894.

Recently, there was a case where a security company tried to escape liability by alleging that, even though they were hired to supply security for a business, they had no duty to Ms. Maggie Barron, an employee of one of the businesses.

Ms. Barron was abducted by two juveniles from her employer’s parking lot.  This was the parking lot the security company was paid to secure. The delinquents abducted her, threatened to kill her and assaulted her while driving her car around. Their activities ended when they eventually wrecked Ms. Barron’s vehicle. Fortunately, Ms. Barron lived to tell her story.

Ms. Barron sued several folks, including the security company. The security company filed a motion to allow them to be dismissed from the case. This had to have been an interesting argument for the security company’s attorney to make. Let’s see, “Your Honor, this was clearly not a high crime area, after all, they didn’t kill her.” Or maybe, “Your Honor, my client is a security company and therefore, clearly had no duty to protect anyone.”

For some reason, the trial court judge bought their argument and let them out of the case.  Ms. Barron, rightly so, was having none of that and she appealed the trial court’s decision. She won, as she should have, based on the McClung case.

What’s this tell us? If your business is in a high crime area, take the appropriate measures to make sure your customers and employees will have a chance to frequent your business again.

Posted in Criminal Law, Injury Law, Business Law | No Comments »

April 16, 2009 by Zale.

It’s no big deal, right? It’s just a misdemeanor, right?

Well, it is a misdemeanor, but as long as you don’t mind spending 11 months and 29 days in jail, then I guess a misdemeanor is no big deal.  For the rest of us, any jail time is a big deal.

Take Mr. Martin for example, he received his third driving on suspended license charge.  For his sentence, he received 120 days in jail and the balance to be served on probation.  He felt this was excessive, after all, a misdemeanor is no big deal, right?  The court didn’t agree with him.  The court of appeals upheld his sentence.  If nothing else, the court knew that for 120 days, he would not have the opportunity to drive without a license.

The moral of this story?  Driving is a privilege, not a right.  If you habitually drive without a license in Tennessee, and get caught for it, don’t expect many breaks from the court.

Posted in Criminal Law | No Comments »

January 29, 2009 by Zale.

I’m a gun owner.  I always have been.  Soon I will have my carry permit.  Here is a great comment from a Tennessee judge to a residential burglary victim,

“There should be a law that law abiding citizens with no felony convictions should own a gun.”

Way to go judge!  He went on to tell the defendant,

“If it had been my house you came in on, you would have wound up at Coulter Funeral Home.”

That would have been a good time to have been in court.  Here’s the whole story.  Check it out.

Posted in Gun Law, Criminal Law | 1 Comment »

January 6, 2009 by Zale.

Criminal law is not my biggest area to work, but I do some.  Its a bit of a fascination to me, since it has to do with the state’s taking away someone’s liberty, possessions and sometimes life.

Ever since my first Criminal Law class in law school, I remember there being a question as to whether or not Miranda warnings were still necessary and viable.  Why?  Because there all over TV.  Watch any given police show at least twice and you will be introduced to them.  Matter of fact, most frequent TV watchers can cite the warning better than any law student, because they hear it, or hear of it, all the time.

So, in Tennessee v. Dailey the question was raised in a Tennessee case as to when the officer’s should have Mirandized the accused.  The officers effectively used the “question first” technique on their target suspect, got him to confess, then Mirandized him.   So, it was not a question of whether or not he was Mirandized.  They did that.  It was a question of when.

It seems to me that this case is about changing the way interrogations have been conducted in Tennessee.  The “question first” technique was ruled against in 2004 by the US Supreme Court.  Apparently that memo didn’t make it to the officers.  Hence, a person who plead guilty to murder walks.  Man, that’s a hard lesson for society to swallow.

Posted in Criminal Law | No Comments »

October 13, 2008 by Zale.

I’m hoping that this will be a fun activity for all.  I have a pretty good number of subscribers to this blog, but I’ve not gotten many comments.  So, that tells me that I have a good number of passive readers.  Thank you to all.

Here’s where you get to participate.  What’s your question?  Surely you have to have some legal question you would like to  have addressed.  So here’s your chance.  I’ll address the questions in upcoming posts.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Posted in Criminal Law, Litigation, Negotiations, Diminished Value, Injury Law, Insurance Practices, Business Law, Right To Life, Insurance Law, General Law | No Comments »

September 4, 2008 by Zale.

For those of you who have visited my website in the past, you might notice that it is different.  Instead of trying to focus my practice on Injury, Criminal AND Business Law, I’m now trying to emphasize the Injury portion of my firm.  Why? Because I spent so much time assisting people with their injury claims when I was an adjuster, I want to do that now as an attorney.  Sure, I still take the other cases, but that is not the focus of the firm.

Posted in Criminal Law, Injury Law, Business Law, General Law | 1 Comment »

August 23, 2008 by Zale.

So often it seems like there is a disconnect between Conservative Christians and the Criminal Justice system.  I don’t know why.  Jesus died from capitol punishment, as did most, if not all, of the Apostles.

Saul, before he was renamed Paul, was a prosecutor, before he found Christ.  He was responsible for the conviction and subsequent death of many of Christ’s followers before becoming a Christ follower himself.  From that point, most of his writings were from jail.

Before becoming an attorney, I did not know much about the Criminal Justice system.  Now that I’m taking criminal cases, I’ve met quite a few people who find themselves the the title of “Defendant” or “Accused”.

Most of them are good people, who have made bad decisions, choices, or have simply found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Those that have to get court appointed attorneys, often don’t have anywhere else to turn.  It’s with these folks that I see an overlooked ministry on the part of the church.  I know that there are some ministries to inmates, but so often the Conservative Christian community forgets what Jesus had to say about ministering to those that have been less fortunate or have found themselves in a bad spot in life.

So does this make me a Liberal? No.  This is what it means to be a Christian.

Posted in Criminal Law | No Comments »