Chinman Law

03/22/2025

11/22/2024

Yesterday, my client walked into Clinton District Court charged with four motor vehicle offenses. A short time later, after the hearing on my motion to dismiss, he walked out of court charged with NONE. The DA's office opposed my motion, the judge allowed it from the bench, complete dismissal with prejudice.

09/24/2024

Perhaps because I started the day off on the wrong foot--being late to court--yesterday's jury trial involved butting heads with the judge, again and again. We just disagreed about what the law allowed or required, but, as the judge pointed out repeatedly, "I know you disagree, but I'm the judge!"

Minutes before the 5PM deadline the judge had set for sending the jury home, they came back with their verdict: Not Guilty. Later that night, my grateful client sent a text, making clear the all-day battles with the judge did not go unnoticed.

07/12/2024

Prosecuting crimes truly is Not. That. Hard. You make a list of the elements of the crime(s) you are prosecuting, and you put in evidence that proves those elements. I did it for 15 years.

Things are going to go south when prosecutors deliberately decide not to reveal things in their possession. Just disclose it! Nothing bad is going to happen by disclosing it, don't be scared of the truth if you're a prosecutor.

And if you don't disclose, suck it up and bear the consequences when things go badly. 

02/01/2024

"NOT GUILTY." A Norfolk Superior Court jury this week, right before lunch, four-and-a-half years after I began representing my client, falsely charged with a heinous crime. The jury deliberated for less than an hour and a half. A fast result to a l o n g prosecution that should have never happened in the first place.

With much relief, I celebrated with a burger at the Dedham Five Guys. 🍔

10/25/2023

Have you ever been out at night--maybe walking your dog, maybe just on a walk by yourself--and noticed you can see inside the illuminated windows of the houses you pass? What if you got charged with being a *criminal*, a "Peeping Tom," for that?

My client in Uxbridge District Court was charged by the police as a criminal when a homeowner reported she "felt like" someone was watching her inside her home, her husband went outside to investigate, and supposedly saw a neighbor--my client--in a wooded area near their house.

Today, based on my motion to dismiss, and over the Commonwealth's objection, all charges against my client were ordered DISMISSED. My client had multiple arguments to raise about why my client was not guilty, but those were all *trial* arguments. Much better to avoid trial and get the charges dismissed as a matter of law.

01/18/2023

The government does not act fairly in prosecuting people. It indicted my client for a heinous crime, punishable by life imprisonment, without conducting a *scrap* of investigation of the alleged victim’s claim that my client had committed the crime five years previously; it presented false information (it later acknowledged the falsity) in requesting and obtaining very high cash bail, that kept my client in jail until his trial; it ignored extensive information I supplied indicating my client could not have committed the charged crime, insisting instead that the matter go to trial.

Yesterday, at 4PM, after a two-week trial, the jury foreperson, in a loud voice in a quiet courtroom in Salem Superior Court, declared “NOT GUILTY,” acquitting my client of all charges.

I waited until the jury was leaving the courtroom to give my client a congratulatory hug, his tears of immense relief wet on my neck.

01/18/2023

Educating people, one friend at a time

10/28/2022

A grateful Greek client just brought me a whole bunch of food his wife cooked, including (delicious!) samosas, and a huge container of what he called pilaf, but said it has beef in it, and he apologized that he couldn’t find any quail eggs to put in.

(He also said, “you look like you’ve put on some weight since I saw you last…“ “OUT, GET OUT!” I replied)

06/28/2022

What happened this past week: client (represented by a different lawyer) had been found guilty by a jury of OUI, immediately followed by the judge finding that it was a third offense (a felony). Client hired me, and not long after the client started serving a jail sentence, I filed a motion with the trial court, challenging the legal sufficiency of the proof of one of the alleged prior convictions. The same day my motion was docketed, I got a call from the clerk: could I come in that afternoon? Of course I could. That afternoon, over the DA’s objection, the trial judge allowed my motion, conviction reduced to OUI 2nd. Client was not in court--in person, or by zoom--when all that went down, so I drove straight to where the client is incarcerated with the gratefully-received news: “you are no longer a felon.”

07/28/2021

My client—facing a mandatory license suspension for three surchargeable events in two years—needed a win. Client was driving eastbound on Dover Street. She says she definitely stopped at the intersection with S. Fuller Street before proceeding; police officer wrote a ticket saying she did not. The clerk magistrate in Brockton District found her Not Responsible, and stated the police prosecutor was satisfied with that result. What argument do you think I made?