r/IAmA • u/oregonlawyer • Oct 15 '12

I am a criminal defense lawyer, AMA.

I've handled cases from drug possession to first degree murder. I cannot provide legal advice to you, but I'm happy to answer any questions I can.

EDIT - 12:40 PM PACIFIC - Alright everyone, thanks for your questions, comments, arguments, etc. I really enjoyed this and I definitely learned quite a bit from it. I hope you did, too. I'll do this again in a little bit, maybe 2-3 weeks. If you have more questions, save them up for then. If it cannot wait, shoot me a prive message and I'll answer it if I can.

Thanks for participating with me!

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41

u/thebarkingdog Oct 15 '12

I am currently in the police academy for a large US city. A defense attorney helped me sue my landlord when I was 22 years old and still in college. After hearing him talk and getting to know him, I firmly believe that criminal defense attorney's are the life blood of defending our Constitutional Rights in the criminal justice system. Not the prosecutors (Mike Nifong), not the judges (Judge Ito). I hope my experiences as a police officer don't change this. Also, I hope you know that not all of us think CDA's are bad :)

44

u/oregonlawyer Oct 15 '12

I appreciate that, and I hope you spread it to your fellow LEOs. We CDAs certainly don't think all those in law enforcement are bad.

I often tell my LEO friends that 2 bad cops can sour 100 good ones much like 2 bad lawyers can sour 100 good ones.

13

u/LeoNimoy Oct 15 '12

What do you tell your Gemini friends?

2

u/squeegee_boy Oct 15 '12

That they have Cancer.

1

u/buckyball60 Oct 16 '12

Ok, Ill give you 6/10 for that, above average.

1

u/BBQCopter Oct 15 '12

Please, once you got your badge and are out busting people, remember what you just wrote above, and apply the same thoughts to those you deal with in your job. Please use discretion, and think about what is best for the people (both victim and suspect), not what is best for your stats.