By Timothy P. Flynn

Since March 2009, our law firm has been steadily contributing content to this blog.  Here we are, coming-up on our 5-year anniversary, and we would like to take a moment to thank the Oakland Press, our loyal followers, and readers that have taken a moment to scan a post or to post a comment to this blog.

Our 350 posts have garnered nearly a quarter million page views and thousands of comments.  We are looking forward to the next 5-years. What will blogs look like in 2018?

We here at the Law Blogger have imparted law-related content that we hope our target audience has found informative and interesting.  Keeping up with the law is what we do.

Every so often, one of our attorneys is asked, "how do you know what to post?"  Invariably, we respond that, in the continuous perusal of our legal news feeds, we "know-it-when-we-see-it".

Here is a sample of what we've served-up on tap over the past half-decade:

• Our first blog post in March 2009; 

• First post on California's same-sex marriage case that went all the way to SCOTUS, decided last June.  We saw this issue early on and have been tracking the collection of cases ever since; 

• Michigan's passage of the so-called "Super Drunk" law; 

• Medical Marijuana; since September of 2009, we've been tracking this interesting law here in Michigan and across the country [note: we utilized the funky spelling adopted in the MMA -marihuana- but have since dropped that convention for obvious serarch-related reasons];

• More recently, we picked-up the trail on the NSA's invasion of privacy and the secret federal surveillance courts; and 

• The occasional tip or topic related to divorces and family law; we've even tried to make probate law worth the read.

We sincerely hope that you enjoy this blog and get some useful information from our posts from time to time.  Thanks again for taking a moment to peruse our content.  We would love to hear from you about what you find most interesting.

www.clarkstonlegal.com

info@clarkstonlegal.com

This is the 5th year the ABA Journal has conducted an on-line poll to determine the best law blogs out there in Cyber-Space.  If you like our law blog, please vote for us by clicking here. 

The Amici form required to register your vote can be anonymous and only takes a minute.  Non-lawyers can vote for this blog.

The scope of content covered by the ABA's top 100 blogs is truly amazing.  One of the best features of such a poll is the diverse legal specialties that come into focus.  Niche areas such as intellectual property, patents, tax law, Internet law, and estate planning are ideal for blog coverage.  The attorneys that administer blogs in these areas are specialists devoted to the development of their respective niches.

Our blog, on the other hand, reflects matters of more general interest to lawyers and consumers of legal services in Michigan.  This is consistent with our firm's general practice in areas of divorce, criminal defense, and probate law.

By drilling into the ABA Journal's website, you can get an idea of the subject matter covered in the law blogs honored by this Top-100 contest. 

As a long-standing member of the ABA, this blogger was recently provided with several complimentary annual membership cupons.  I still have a few left.  If you are a Michigan lawyer with a P-number greater than 65000, send me an email with your contact information.  Interested attorneys must act quickly as these cupons expire in a few weeks.

info@clarkstonlegal.com

http://www.clarkstonlegal.com/

Since March 2009, we here at the LawBlogger have had the distinct privilege of posting law-related content via the Oakland Press in Pontiac, MI.  It has been a great relationship.

Over the past two and a half years, we have posted 150 times to this blog, attracting over 40,000 page views.  Very small by national standards, but we're proud of our readership.

On a daily basis, we know that many of our readers scan and absorb fresh content by:

• checking their email(s);
• perusing their news feeds;
• browsing several on-line newspapers and trade publications;
• surfing their social media feeds; 
• actually reading a home-delivered newspaper (old school); and
• occasionally watching news on television or the Internet.

We also know that our readers only have a brief moment to read our posts, so we try to make that moment count.

Going over some of our first posts was painful; the posts were soooo long, laden with detailed links.  When we first started blogging, I think we tried to publish a law review article in each post.

As a result, no one read past the first 3 paragraphs and we were only able to produce one or two posts a month.  That is no way to develop a readership.

When blogging, less is more.  Get to the point; stick to the point.

Thanks to our readers that have hung in there over the years.  We appreciate your feedback and comments.  Please keep them coming.  For our part, we will continue to deliver frequent relevant law-related content for your perusal.

info@clarkstonlegal.com
www.clarkstonlegal.com

From its inception in 2003 until January 2009, this Blogger (Timothy Flynn) was a member of the 52/2nd District's Sobriety Court.  This post is an update on a blog our firm posted back in May 2009.

In the earlier post, The LawBlogger addressed the situation with the Oakland County Prosecutor refusing to participate in sobriety courts across the county.  Jessica Cooper has stuck to this decision and she has been receiving much (negative) attention from discrict court judges and now, the Oakland Executive, Brooks Patterson.  Click here for the full article from the Oakland Press. 

In the article, Cooper makes clear that she does not think the sobriety court program is worth the expenditure.  Her comments, however, seem more directed to the Oakland Circuit Drug Court, which was a recent victim of budget cuts.  The statistics she cites (i.e. only 10 graduates) do not apply to the hugely successful district sobriety courts; they graduated thousands of defendants, sustain sobriety throughout the community and may have saved dozens of lives.  No one was ever sitting around singing "kumbaya" as Cooper imagines.  Rather, her APAs were working day after day, session after session, keeping people sober and out of jail.  I often found myself in discussions where I would be arguing for more jail time than the APA.

Here is the original post:

Jessica Cooper has demonstrated a top-down command structure since taking over the prosecutor's office in January. One of the commands from the top is that first-time drunk drivers charged with operating while intoxicated (OWI) are no longer offered the customary plea reduction to operating while "impaired". This new policy may result in unnecessary jury trials.


Having an OWI reduced to "impaired" provides two advantages: less stringent mandatory driver's license sanctions ordered through the Secretary of State (60-90 day restricted license compared to a 6-month hard suspension), and a lower driver's responsibility fee ($500 for two consecutive years, compared to $1000 each year). Other fines, costs and attorney fees are higher in the OWI context.

Even for first-time offenders, a reduction to impaired is not always offered in cases where the blood-alcohol level (BAC) far exceeds the legal limit. With the proscutor's new policy, however, there are no apparent exceptions, even where the BAC is relatively low.

The new policy has been informally acknowledged by numerous Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys over the past several weeks. Defense attorneys are now considering jury trials, where a simple plea to impaired would have resolved the case.

For repeat offenders, alcohol abuse treatment is mandatory and other punishments are increased. Sobriety or "drug courts" have sprang-up in the past several years to address the problem.

In another important policy development from Cooper's office, the Oakland County Prosecutor will no longer participate in these sobriety courts, now spread throughout Oakland County. A sobriety court emphasizes drug and alcohol treatment and rehabilitation over incarceration. Such courts utilize a team approach to manage the intensive probation process. Obviously, the "team" includes the prosecuting attorney, along with a therapist, probation officer, defense attorney, and judge.

The statistics emerging from these courts have forged a consensus among professionals throughout Michigan, and the nation; sobriety-style courts are effective in dealing with drug and alcohol abuse crimes. The Oakland County Prosecutor's office should be participating in society's effort to address irresponsible addictions. The end-result is safer public roadways.

Post Script: The public should not be confused by Cooper's blunt commentary regarding sobriety and drug courts. In the felony context, theraputic courts are dealing with a much tougher customer; in most cases such defendants are three-time felons with serious drug addictions. In the district courts, most defendants are simply struggling with alcohol and overall, have less troubling criminal records.

To contact our firm, click below:

clarkstonlegal.com

info@clarkstonlegal.com