The Wright Firm's Weblog

Reality check of the day

Yeah...

The recession, a divorce - neither are particularly good for business. 

That is, unless you're the divorce lawyers.

Maybe she was at least aiming for the carseat

You're walking out the front door with the baby on your hip.  You see some guy trying to repossess your SUV.  Quick!  What do you do?

A 24 yr-old Dallas woman is now in police custody because her answer to that question was to toss her baby through the vehicle's open window into the back seat.  Pretty quick thinking, since state law forbids a car from being reposessed with someone inside it.  The repo man did stop the SUV and got out, which allowed enough time for a 15 yr-old male to come out of the house and shoot the repo man in the leg with a 12-guage shotgun.

The tactic was not so great, however, from a parenting standpoint.  The mother is now facing charges of endangering a child, and the case has been referred to Child Protective Services.

Look, noone wants their car repossessed. But really, next time try not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.  More specifically - try not to throw the baby. Period.

Remember what we said about social networking?

A few days ago, I posted about how Facebook, Myspace and other social networking sites were becoming quite the mining ground for evidence in divorce cases.  Same applies to criminal cases.  See Exhibit A below:

A criminal conviction will (probably) not be based solely on your listing yourself as a "Meth Cooker" on Myspace.  However, detailing your illegal activites online is only slightly less terrible of an idea than making a "there's a bomb in my undies" joke at the airport.  Or you could, you know, just not DO any illegal activities...
 

*Image found on FailBlog.org

Tweet This

A recent article on NJ.com speaks about the new trend toward using Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and other social networking sites as evidence in divorce and custody cases.  This blogger has herslf found evidence of an opposing party's adultery on Facebook, to be used as evidence in an impending divorce trial.

Are we really surprised by this?  It seems these days that EVERYONE is on some social networking site. Even The Wright Firm now has its own Facebook fan page (click here to become a fan!). It also always seems like the exact people reckless enough to post incriminating images of themselves on a site are the same ones who are reckless enough not to heighten their profile's privacy settings.

Advice for all Wright Firm clients:

1) don't cheat on your spouse, drink excessively or use illegal drugs

2) if you do any of the above, don't put pictures of it on Facebook

3) if you do put pictures of it on Facebook, turn your privacy settings as high as they'll go, and "unfriend" your ex/soon-to-be ex AND your children.

4) If you think we won't know that you ignored points 1-3, my legal assistant is printing the pictures right now.

The Final "Don't" -  don't let your kids find out about your divorce like this:

Image by failbooking.com.  For full article text from NJ.com see: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/facebook_plays_havoc_in_marria.html
 

Too true

The Wright Firm will aggressively fight for your legal rights... but maybe not THIS aggressively.

This legal lol brought to you by VeryDemotivational.com of the Cheezburger family of blogs.

A New Breed of CSI

In a recent criminal case in London, England, a man was convicted of murder based on his dog's DNA.  The assailant, Chrisdian Johnson, was accused of having his pitbull-mix dog attack a 16 year old victim. Once the dog had the victim "down" Johnson stabbed the victim to death. 

Police forensic experts were able to use DNA samples from the Johnson's dog to prove that the dog's blood was at the crime scene, and on the assailant's clothes.

The case used a new technique for analyzing canine DNA with greater accuracy. Scientist Rob Ogden, who helped develop the technique, said it "allows you to identify dogs to a fairly high level of certainty." Police said the chances the blood was not from Johnson's dog were a billion to one.

Johnson is facing a minimum of 24 years in prison for the murder, which is believed to be a result of a gang fued.  The dog is facing lethal injection.

In this blogger' s opinion:

The idea of using animal DNA evidence does fascinate me, as I frequently walk around with pet fur stuck stubbornly to my black pants.  If I rob a bank, will they subpoena my cat?  In all seriousness, any contribution modern science can make towards solving crimes and finding the truth is worthwhile.  Should be interesting to see how this area of evidence develops.

The Prenup

This is a video clip from the Today show discussing the merits of prenuptial agreements. It's a very sensitive subject - particularly because a "prenup" is generally used as a means of planning for the divorce before you have the wedding. But we do live in a country and culture where around 50% of marriages end in divorce. Is it wise to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst? Or does it set your marriage up for failure?

Listen to these ladies weigh in on the subejct and decide for yourself.

http://lifestyle.msn.com/your-life/video/default.aspx?t=v&vid=33074069-39ed-47ac-9437-9b7445ba670c