As most of you know, I’m a tech-geek. I love technology and I love new gadgets and new software and cool things like that. I’ve started using technology in my day-to-day job and maybe you’ll find it useful too.

The tool I’m talking about is Microsoft’s Virtual Earth (you could use Google Earth too, but – surprise! – I prefer the MS version). Virtual Earth is software you download on your computer, which lets you view locations in 3D. I use it in conjunction with Live Maps (just pull up a map and then click on 3D – you will be prompted to download).

This is not a replacement for actual investigation, but merely a complement. I use this most frequently when reading police reports, to give myself a preliminary sense of the location and to orient myself with the streets and places mentioned in the report.

Say the police report states that the cops observed some activity taking place behind a building. I’d pull up that location on Live Maps and go to the 3D view. From there, I’d be able to tilt the map in all directions to see if, in fact, the police could have observed anything happening there. Gives you a sense of what the cops might have seen, without having to actually go there while you read the report.

A few examples follow. I’ve focused the map on that veritable hotbed of criminal activity: Iranistan Avenue, Bridgeport, CT. Continue reading →

Which might explain why lawyers love to hear themselves talk (I’m guilty of this too). The problem is that while this may we tolerable outside the courtroom, it can have disastrous consequences inside the courtroom.

Reflecting on Norm’s coverage of the Fieger trial some other nonsense I’ve read in the past week or two, I’ve come to the conclusion that we have to learn to talk less. It seems that sometimes we just can’t get out of our own way.

Maybe we need to have second chairs that will tell us to just STFU and sit down. The oft-repeated advice about cross-examinations is to never ask that final question that’s just sitting there on the tip of your tongue. You’ve made all your points and the conclusion is obvious. You don’t need to ask it, but you just want to. There’s this uncontrollable urge that comes from deep within you that eggs you on, pushes you to ask that question, just to see if you can push the envelope, just to see if you can make it any more painfully obvious that, say, the witness lied. Your training tells you not to, there’s a little voice in the back of the head telling you not to. And yet you do – and everything unravels. The question isn’t as slam dunk as you imagined it to be, the witness starts to waffle and wiggle out of the iron-clad suit you’d dressed them in and suddenly the impenetrable wall has been breached.

So stop talking, be aware of what’s happening in the courtroom and don’t ask that question just because you want to.

Oh, and while you’re at it, make sure you prepare your client to testify. Don’t just throw him up there and think it’ll all go okay. Even the best prepared defendants are itching to embellish and throw their version of the case down the toilet. Imagine what the ill prepared ones are doing.