New Law: OWI Stop via Anonymous Tip

The United States Supreme Court has held that an anonymous tipster can now justify the stopping of a vehicle.  In Prado Navarette et al. v. California, an anonymous tipster reported to 911 that a vehicle nearly ran the tipster off the road and described the make, model, color, plate number and approx. location.  The officer located the vehicle and followed it for 5 minutes and then stopped the vehicle after observing no traffic violations.  Anonymous tipsters are generally unreliable, but given the detail of the potential offender and description of the violation, the court held the OWI stop was justified.  Did the floodgates just open?

The 'Madonna Effect'

I posted yesterday about Madonna being called to jury duty and it reminded me of when I was called to jury duty.  No, I am not a pop star, but I got the impression that I wasn't going to be on a jury the last time I was called because I am a lawyer.  It got me thinking about whether a juror can be disqualified for cause because of the effect another juror has on them. No lawyer would think that Madonna should be excused because of her status, but what about the other jurors.  In this case, it seems that the jurors who are adoring fans may be excused for cause if they say that they could not be fair and impartial on account that Madonna is sitting right next to them. Should the court have private questioning of the jurors dealing with the 'Madonna effect'?

First Post

Greetings from Milwaukee!

I started using G+ because I wanted to get to know what G+ was all about.  Posting, sharing, and plussing involves a cyber socialization that can not only be tailored to what you find interesting but it can be quite fun.  In one place, you can receive information on any topic you can think of.  For instance, I play banjo - I can join a banjo group sharing banjo music.  I am also an attorney and can get specific news nearly immediately after it comes out.  Clearly, this is clearly very different from FB.  The only shortcoming if this program seem to be that there aren't more users.

Using G+ more seriously over the past month has prompted me to think about what information is being exchanged and how it is done.  While using the program, I noticed that when making a post under "Share what's New," you have to write without the use of a program like Microsoft Word.  This brought me here, to Blogger. 

For more info about my practice, you can visit my website at:
 
http://www.dobolaw.com

Sincerely,

John Dobogai