Recent Articles

The Innocent and the Guilty

Jamie Spencer
December 09, 2008 20:23

Received a big box at work today and didn’t have the faintest idea what it could be. Since it was addressed to me, I opened it up, and tada… two bottles of wine. It was a thoughtful gift from Houston DWI lawyer Mark Bennett. I had done some local co-counseling of a DWI/POM...

Letting Your Web Designer Write Your "DWI Content"...

Jamie Spencer
December 04, 2008 03:45

…is a bad idea. I won’t link to it, but I just ran across an attorney’s web page that I hope was not written by him. (N.B. It was not an Austin lawyer.)   The website first acknowledges that in today’s world you need to drive: work, school, church, groceries,...

Can You Say Challenge for Cause?

Jamie Spencer
November 19, 2008 09:19

My friend and Lubbock DWI lawyer Steve Hamilton on a recent Q&A in a DWI voir dire: So in this trial I asked the potential jurors about a hypothetical. What would you do if you only had one option, either convict an innocent person or set a guilty person free? Out of 20 people, 7 or 8 said they...

More on What's Good or Bad in a Potential Juror

Jamie Spencer
November 16, 2008 02:51

Following my post on the criminal defense lawyer’s dream juror comes an Austin American Statesman article “Internet aids trial lawyers doing background checks on clients, jurors”. What caught my eye of note towards DWI defense was this bit: Sometimes the drunken-party photos...

Austin, Texas and the DWI / No Refusal Weekend

Jamie Spencer
November 10, 2008 01:39

Several folks – prosecutors and defense lawyers – that I see on a regular basis in the Travis County Courthouse have asked me why I didn’t blog about the No Refusal Weekend that started on Halloween. (Short version: Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo announced that anyone who...

Continuing Legal Education: DWI for Civil Lawyers

Jamie Spencer
November 09, 2008 23:54

A few months back local Austin appeals lawyer Todd Smith asked me to speak, albeit briefly, at the Austin Bar Association’s monthly meeting. My assigned topic was a natural one: DWI. Lawyers who attended would be given credit toward their yearly CLE requirements.  I was...

How Long Have You Been a Certified Peace Officer?

Jamie Spencer
October 15, 2008 04:24

There are certain boring yet inevitable questions that often begin an examination of a police officer in a DWI (by a prosecutor) or an administrative license revocation ALR case (by a defense attorney): State your name for the record please… You’re employed by Austin Police...

Do I Need To Sign a Form If I Refuse a Breathalizer?

Jamie Spencer
September 22, 2008 17:24

[Question via email.] Since I don’t even know the jurisdiction this question comes from it’s pretty broad but let’s answer it from the Texas DWI perspective.   In most Texas DWI cases the officer will read the subject a form called the DIC-24 entitled “Statutory...

Can a DWI Really Ever be Murder?

Jamie Spencer
September 18, 2008 23:16

Scott Henson at Simple Justice writes about the word Murder losing its meaning. Of a man recently convicted of second degree murder in New York for an Intoxication Manslaughter offense, Scott wrote: It's not to say that McPherson was an innocent man.  He was not.  It's not to say...

Blawg Review #175

Jamie Spencer
September 01, 2008 16:03

Labor Day. A day off for working citizens. The end of summer and the beginning of fall. Still the start of the football season and in decades past the last day before school. Barbeque. Fireworks. The whole nine yards. After my last Blawg Review the anonymous editor...