Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Your Employer Can Take Adverse Actions Against You Even Before A Jury Finds You Guilty Beyond A Reasonable Doubt
You can sue your employer for employment discrimination if your employer takes an adverse action against you because of a protected characteristic, such as your race, age, sex, national origin, religion, family status, or disability. Likewise, you can sue for retaliation if your employer fires you for engaging in a protected activity such as… Read More »
South Florida Entrepreneur Who Avoided Conviction On Drug Charges Faces New Case
If you get arrested on suspicion of a crime, it could mean that your life will never be the same. The only way that your case can truly go away is if you get acquitted at trial or if the court dismisses the charges; the latter scenario is more common, since only a small… Read More »
Who’s Afraid Of Scopolamine?
One might argue that the legal status of various drugs is based on lawmakers’ subjective associations with them. It is not hard to find documentaries about how the media spread stereotypes about various ethnic minorities being fond of various intoxicating substances, and how this was the catalyst for the criminalization of these drugs. The… Read More »
Is It A Crime If Other People Think That You Are A Narcissist?
One of the scariest parts of facing criminal charges are when your personal enemies go to the witness stand and say terrible things about you. Yes, your lawyer can cross examine them and make closing arguments that cast doubt on their credibility; if the witness was once a co-defendant, you have the right to… Read More »
Why Would Someone Waive The Right To A Jury Trial?
Disputes over the validity of evidence, and sometimes even appeals of verdicts that have already been returned, occur when the state does not notify defendants in criminal cases of their rights or when defendants waive those rights as a result of deception or duress. For example, courts have overturned convictions on appeal in cases… Read More »
Is A Mistake Of Fact Defense Your Ticket To An Acquittal?
Law students realize, by the time they finish their first semester course on criminal law, that the ways you can legitimately cast doubt on a defendant’s guilt are virtually endless. From alibis to prosecution witnesses with ulterior motives to unfairly obtained evidence, defenses go well beyond saying, “I didn’t do it.” You could spend… Read More »
Hope Cards And Florida Domestic Violence Cases
In public, everyone says that there is no such thing as a minor incident of domestic violence, but you probably know a couple that got in a fight, called the police, and then smoothed things over with few legal consequences, if any. Perhaps they are still together, even after multiple calls to the police… Read More »
Ketamine’s Hellish Cousin Is Gaining A Foothold In Florida
If you had surgery at an outpatient surgery clinic, chances are that you were not asleep through the entire procedure. The surgeon might have talked to you, and you might have understood. Perhaps you even responded, or maybe you just gibbered like a Minion, in response to an interlocutor visible only to you. If… Read More »
Opening Statements At Criminal Trials
In eighth grade, you learn that the first paragraph of an essay should contain a thesis statement, usually preceded by some introductory remarks that lead up to it. Teachers who have read enough such essays tend to joke that this rule leads to students beginning their essays with sentences like, “Throughout history, students have… Read More »
What Is The Difference Between A Question Of Law And A Question Of Fact?
In criminal trials, the role of the judge is different from the role of the jury. The case has not proceeded according to the dictates of the law or of justice if the judge or jurors overstep their roles. Jurors are supposed to be completely unbiased for or against the defendant. They must simply… Read More »
