All posts by Duncan Scott Keir

Common Sense Saves the Day

Personal Injury

Personal injury cases are mostly fact-driven. They rarely rely on nuanced legal interpretation, but rather on a common sense analysis of the facts.  And the facts usually play out over a very brief period of time.  It only takes a second or two for an accident to begin and end, and it is in this moment that someone may or may not be at fault for an injury.  It is often the presentation of simple facts that can make the difference at trial. I recently tried a case that I believed we were likely to lose.  My two clients were the passengers in a large SUV that was stopped at a left turn signal.  When their vehicle turned left, it was struck in the intersection Read More

What is a Grand Jury?

Criminal Defense, General Law

Justice Department special counsel and former FBI Director, Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in his investigation of Russian influence in the 2016 election. The significance of this is that issuing grand jury subpoenas doesn’t signal that indictments are imminent — or will ever happen — or that Mueller has concluded there has been wrongdoing. The move is often simply a tool to allow a prosecutor to gather evidence or testimony. Impaneling a grand jury shows that Mueller means business by doing a serious criminal investigation. Ty Cobb, special counsel to the President, said he wasn’t aware that Mueller had started using a new grand jury. So, what is a grand jury? In Maryland, a grand jury is a group of Read More

Separation and Ricketts v. Ricketts

General Law

When a marriage is coming to an end, often one of the most difficult and painful parts of the process is the initial physical separation.  Even in an amicable situation, where both spouses agree that it is time to split, the logistics and economics of achieving the physical separation can be daunting at least.  Many times, there is not enough money to carry the burden of an apartment for the exiting spouse, while still paying the mortgage and the other pre-existing marital expenses.  Other times, spouses cannot agree on who should be the one to leave, how the bills should be divvied up, and what should be done with the assets.  The inability to agree can often lead to deadlock. Read More

Why I will never rent a car in Virginia

General Law

I recently received an emergency call about a young woman who had been stopped by the police for a basic traffic violation.  When the police ran her information through their computer, they found she had a fugitive from justice warrant issued against her out of Virginia.  She was arrested on the spot and taken to the county detention center.  Her wife called me in a panic, and I started to look into the matter right away.  I met with my client at the jail and she handed me the paperwork she had received from the arresting officers.  It said “failure to return rental car.”  I was aghast, surely this could not be what it appeared.  My client vaguely remembered renting Read More