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In: Chattanooga Criminal Defense Attorneys, General Legal Issues, law firm

Should Police Be Able to Track you Electronically? Will the Requirement to Obtain a warrant Survive in the Supreme Court The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the US v.s. Jones case last week and according a Washington Post Op-ed the “Court has a chance to keep big brother at bay.”    The  Supreme Court had recently granted the US Department of Justice’s petition to review the decision of the US Court of Appeals which struck down the conviction of a man based in large part upon the use of GPS tracking without a warrant. The ustices are tasked to review and toRead More →

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In: Civil Litigation, Legal Terms, Not Legal Advice

The Georgia Constitutional right to a jury trial is often at odds with Georgia’s Civil Practice Act which provides for summary judgment under O.C.G.A. §9-11-56. Does summary judgment actually expedite litigation and save legal expenses? Not always, in fact it sometimes adds to the complexity at an extraordinary legal cost. Read More →

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In: Chattanooga Criminal Defense Attorneys, Criminal Law, Off Beat

Burden of Proof- Should it be lower so Someone Like Casey Anthony Gets Convicted Bill O’Reilly of Fox News “The O’Reilly Factor” says ” Dumb, beyond a reasonable doubt.” Seriously?  What burden of proof should the State have to meet to deprive a person of life? Mr. O’Reilly asks “is the burden of proof too high? ” and claims that Casey Anthony’s attorney did not raise reasonable doubt as a defense, implying that the jury should not have followed that line of thinking.  Fortunately, whether or not a defense attorney “raises” reasonable doubt, the American system of justice requires criminal juries to convict if andRead More →

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In: Criminal Law

Can Police Track Suspect by GPS Without a Warrant? Is this a Violation of the Fourth Amendment Rights Regarding Search and Seizure? The U.S. Justice Department is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court decision requiring police to get a warrant before attaching a global positioning device (GPS) to a suspect’s car.  Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal urged the Supreme Court to grant cert (review of lower court’s decision) to resolve a circuit split, according to the Washington Post. At issue is whether use of the device is a “search” under the Fourth Amendment and whether a person has an expectationRead More →