{"id":4202,"date":"2017-06-04T10:43:57","date_gmt":"2017-06-04T14:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=4202"},"modified":"2017-06-04T10:43:57","modified_gmt":"2017-06-04T14:43:57","slug":"justice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/justice-2\/","title":{"rendered":"JUSTICE"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is good to read a letter from a prosecutor to the defense lawyer that says, \u201cSince meeting with you and your client I have personally undertaken a thorough review of this matter and am dismissing the charges against your client\u2026Please find enclosed the Nolle Prosequi<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, about four cases cleared from my personal expert witness docket without having to go to trial.\u00a0 This one, in the Southeast, involved a murder charge against a woman whose estranged husband had pounced her from the back seat of the car and was strangling her from behind when she drew the handgun she was licensed to carry and fired over her shoulder, ending the assault. The charges had been brought by a senior prosecutor infamous for her obvious dislike of armed citizens. That prosecutor lost the last election.\u00a0 A highly competent defense lawyer sat down with the prosecutor from the new administration, who took her role as minister of justice seriously.\u00a0 Kudos to the defense lawyer and prosecutor alike.<\/p>\n

Out West, an idiot show-off bully wielded a gun to intimidate a professional rival. He claimed it \u201cwent off accidentally\u201d and that he had never fired it before. The bullet inflicted a grievous, personal injury. I was retained by the plaintiff.\u00a0 The defendant\u2019s insurance company caved and settled for the max of the policy, a couple million dollars. Case closed.<\/p>\n

In the heartland, a burglar attacked an armed homeowner who caught him in the act. Bad move: the armed citizen shot and killed him. His survivors sued.\u00a0 For much less than cost of trial, the case was settled. How much? I figure after the plaintiff\u2019s lawyers take their cut, their clients will get enough money to buy a nice lawnmower.\u00a0 Full trial might have gone over $100,000; my fee as expert witness for the homeowner\u2019s side would have been among the least of that.<\/p>\n

Not far from that one, a manslaughter charge against a homeowner who\u2019d killed a burglar was dropped in return for a plea to a misdemeanor, again saving the ordeal and six-figure expense of trial.\u00a0 The respected defense lawyer who had retained me had shown all his cards to a respected prosecutor, and the latter had made a decision both sides were happy with.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an analogy between gunfights and court fights.\u00a0 History shows that when a stalwart, competent cop or civilian alike point a gun at a violent criminal and make it clear that if the assault continues, the criminal will die, the criminal generally surrenders or flees.\u00a0 When a stalwart, competent legal defense team faces an unmeritorious allegation with facts, the lawyers on the other side often have the same epiphany: realizing they can\u2019t win, they either offer an acceptable compromise or drop the matter entirely.<\/p>\n

For the most part, the system works.\u00a0 Thus the old saying among lawyers: \u201cIn the halls of justice, most of the justice is in the halls.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is good to read a letter from a prosecutor to the defense lawyer that says, \u201cSince meeting with you and your client I have personally undertaken a thorough review of this matter and am dismissing the charges against your client\u2026Please find enclosed the Nolle Prosequi.\u201d Last month, about four cases cleared from my personal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-legal-issues"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}