ONE DOWN

363 days to go. 
Welcome to 2018.  Don't forget that when you write a check or fill out a certificate of service. 2018. Not 2017. And no more Happy New Years please. We've have had quite enough of those.

If you are a long-time and careful reader, then you have followed our advice and you are reading this post from the comfort and safety of your home, vacation home, or hotel suite. You have been smart enough to not allow a judge to set your case for trial for the first week of the year.

This is because, as we have warned our readers for the last decade and a half, the very worst time to have your case set for trial is the first week of the year. Judges and prosecutors have spent the last few weeks pondering 2017 and lo and behold, they have determined that their problems all stem from being too lenient and not trying enough cases. Thus opportunity meets timing, and the result is some of the most massive, severe sentences being handed out at the end of the week, that you will ever see. 
"That will show them" the judge will say to herself, fully ignorant of the implications of the Sixth Amendment right to trial and the case law against vindictive sentences. "The word will go out, and people will start pleading guilty." Because that's what we want right? To do away with trials and the right to confront and cross examine witnesses and accusers.  

So if you are a learned reader of this blog, then sometime starting in late October or November, you began making excuses for why your case could not be set on January 2 or January 8, 2018.

And if you did not learn your lesson, then you get what you deserve tomorrow when the judge denies your continuance, and the prosecutor offers you a plea above the guidelines.

From Occupied America, year two of the occupation, Fight The Power.