Blog

Spring Break: 11 things you should know, legally

• By Phillip Goff
• 7 Mar 2022
• 0

That sweet time finally has come after a dreary winter: Spring Break.  Countless thousands of partying college students will flood beaches from South Padre Island to Port Aransas to Galveston.  Try your best to stay safe while you have a good time. While you’re at it, try not to regret it the rest of your […]

Institutional Racism, Part 2

• By Phillip Goff
• 2 Dec 2021
• 0

Miss the first one? Go here >>> Institutional racism in the United States is real. Patriotic pride doesn’t negate it. A “colorblind” self-identity doesn’t negate it.  Having black friends doesn’t negate it. It is older than anyone alive, so none of us is to blame for starting it. Colorblindness defies reality, and we need to […]

Institutional Racism by Non-Racists? Part 1

• By Phillip Goff
• 1 Nov 2021
• 0

Institutional racism by non-racists no longer requires having open, expressed hatred toward anyone because of the color of their skin. Race* makes a great difference in how people are treated in the United States of America, nonetheless. It has for over 400 years, and it continues now.  I believe most Americans consider overt racial discrimination […]

Legalized Racial Discrimination and More

• By Phillip Goff
• 31 Aug 2021
• 0

Recently, I’ve been consuming books* about race in the United States. The first of these, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, took me down an enlightening path. Although I was familiar with the legal cases, events, and history discussed, the book crystallized how they were connected.  The […]

You did it. The Expert Says Science Proves It.

• By Phillip Goff
• 9 Jul 2021
• 0

You are charged with murder.  You are innocent of the crime, yet you face life imprisonment.  You don’t have the $50,000 cash it costs to get out of jail before your trial.   You have no choice, so you just stay in jail. It will be a year before your trial starts.  Meanwhile, you lose your […]

Breath Test

• By Phillip Goff
• 3 May 2021
• 0

One question is asked of me in a social setting more than any other when people learn I am a DWI defense lawyer: “Should I blow or not?”  I realize they are usually just curious, but I refuse to answer.  I hate the question. The question has serious flaws, so giving an actual answer would […]

Spring Break 2021 : Pandemicpalooza

• By Phillip Goff
• 9 Mar 2021
• 0

It’s Spring Break time again! The weather is turning for the better. It’s been a long pandemic. School may have been a grind, not the experience you expected or wanted. If you are reading this, you probably already got in some sort of trouble or have a loved one who has done so.  Over my […]

Land of The Free? Part 3

• By Phillip Goff
• 8 Mar 2021
• 0

Our cherished “Land of the Free” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  The term is not reality, even if it is a fantastic aspiration.   Parts 1 & 2 Provide Context As I pointed out in Part 1, we imprison more people than literally any other country, even countries we consider downright evil.  In […]

“Land of the Free?”, Part 2

• By Phillip Goff
• 16 Feb 2021
• 0

The United States of America is NOT the “Land of the Free”.  If that hurts your feelings, I’m with you.  In Part 1, I described in general terms the culmination of the “criminal justice” system in the United States of America.  We are less free, in that sense, than any country in the world because […]

“Land of The Free”? Part 1

• By Phillip Goff
• 4 Feb 2021
• 0

America is addicted. It is a non-stop compulsion. Lives are ruined by the millions. It marks people for life, if they can manage to escape. The drug? Incarceration.  The United States of America incarcerates more people than any country in the world.  Read that again. Yes, you read that right.  Even “Oppressive” Countries Incarcerate Fewer […]