Local reviews

Blonde Justice ponders a blogging lawyer's dilemna:

"I've thought about whether or not I would want a client or D.A. to find my blog. (The answer is no, and that's why I try to keep my blog a little vague.) But I've never given any thought to finding a client's or D.A.'s blog. Well, tonight, it happened."

Well, that's something I might have contemplated before I typed up the story of losing my last trial in Idaho. Perhaps I should have contemplated it earlier still, before I began hiding in plain sight with this little blog. Writing an hour after the verdict did have its therapeutic benefits. However, I might have paused to remember that courthouse personnel can be a force for good or for mischief. Late last week, my hits from the co.twin-falls.id.us domain increased exponentially, and first time visitors from Idaho's courts and law enforcement spiked too. My investigator coming in on Friday and chortling, "you're in trouble! you're in trouble!" was also a clue: the jig was up.

So now I'll spend my last week on the job making amends and excuses. For instance, I'll need to explain that "Donahue" was an old Ada County way of referring to a style of jury questioning en masse as opposed to one at a time; it does not mean that anyone in the courtroom was being compared to Phil Donahue. On the other hand, in Friday's inter-office mail I got a print-out of the infamous story with a post-it saying, "Can I have this autographed? - Snarky." The one individual to whom I meant to give offense appears to be the one who didn't take offense. I suppose being a narcotics detective means not expecting to feel the love from everybody, in that respect, not too different from being a public defender.