“Father had just lost his wife to cancer. He couldn’t get over the grief and became suicidal. Unfortunately, he also shot his 20-year-old son who was just sitting at his computer.”

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Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

"No matter the crime, once the cops have you controlled, they can't just start kicking the shit out of you when you're in handcuffs. So, not a sympathetic case, but you get used to this: your goal is just to make sure they get everything the law entitles them to. 

Then at our first interview, two disturbing factors came up: When going through his life history, he mentions that, one day in his youth, he was on drugs and kicked out of his class at college. Pissed off, he goes into the parking lot, finds a girl standing by her car, and rapes her. Yep, our client is a rapist. He spent 10 years in jail for that. Now, obviously, rapists can be unfairly treated 15 years later, and everyone deserves equal protection under the law. But yeah, it's a lot harder to get emotionally involved in support of your client when he mentions that.

2. I asked if he was drunk driving that night, and he said, "well, I had one drink at 8 p.m., but this was at 2 a.m., so honestly, it had to have been out of my system." Great! Then the summer intern said, "Were you on anything else at the time?" "Oh, I had done some coke and heroin that night." Jesus dude! You didn't feel like volunteering that earlier when we asked about the alcohol? 

But more to the point, if he was on all these drugs, how well does he remember all these beatings from years before? He didn't have any other witnesses who would speak on his behalf. Anyway, we got him a nice settlement, probably nicer than he deserved, and forgot about him. 

I looked him up a year or two later and he was on the state's Most Wanted list. I don't even want to know." — senatorskeletor

"I was up all night with the DA during the initial investigation. He took me to the home, I had to climb up a ladder and onto the roof to get into the girl's bedroom. They shared a room, but had separate beds. I was told by the police that, when they found them, both were in the same bed. Meaning they were awake when the house was on fire and crawled into bed together, terrified. 

The neighbor was a police officer. He saw that the house was on fire, ran over to try and help, and was told by the mother that the kids were still inside. He couldn't get in to save them and was just devastated. The rest of the day is a blur. An exhausting and traumatizing blur. I went to the autopsies. I got dizzy and had to leave the room.

Honestly, the case was so devastating that I tried to wipe it out and didn't follow it much once I went back to college. A quick search tells me that the mom plead out to avoid the death penalty, which I knew the DA was going to fight for. She'll be in prison for the rest of her life." — whovilock

"She also liked to shoot guns and try and run these people off the road. The best part is that not only did she admit it all in court, she was proud of it. She proudly said that she would do it again too. Needless to say we won, the court also ordered her to get a mental evaluation." — blue_raspberry_jello

"The other one was just sad. Father had just lost his wife to cancer. He couldn't get over the grief and became suicidal. Unfortunately, he also shot his 20-year-old son who was just sitting at his computer. Then shot himself. Final story: had a mentally ill client. She and her sister were sexually abused since they were kids. When they were teenagers they had a suicide pact. Her sister succeeded, but she survived. Just imagine the toll that would take on your mind. Not only from the abuse, but the survivor's guilt as well." — JackEsq

"A government scientist is angry that a co-worker wears too much perfume. Discovers perfume lady has a phobia of fish. Chases a screaming-cursing-perfumed lady around office with dried fish. Assault charges filed by both parties. Federal judge very upset at time wasted in fish-perfume dispute." — fedlawyer

"After dad has filed a report with her command requesting they make her communicate with him, he gets a call from an OSI agent who he knows who says, “Look I didn’t tell you this but you need to call OSI on her base.” Mom had gone to the field and her 8-year-old son had been bugging the step-dad while he was gaming. Step-dad got pissed off at beat the kid with the first thing to hand—a piece of bannister from the stair he was working in. 

Mom came back from the field two days later and found the son unconscious, still on the floor. Because step-dad's last home of record was in Maryland, he was tried in federal court in Baltimore. I sat through the ER doc who treated the son, who talked about seeing the internal crush injuries, and the coroner who talked about how hard you would have to hit an 8-year-old on the front to cause bruising on his back. I also sat through the dad talking about finding out his son was gone. 

After that day, I always went to misdemeanor court for my hours." — kithien

"The housing authority staff kept going on about how this was all for the person's own good, and how she was just trouble because she let men take advantage of her, and she needed to learn to "respect herself" (and then of course this guy would stop beating her up), and so on. So they decided to throw her and her kids out on the street. The guy didn't even live with her. Real eye-opener. Deeply disturbing." — CupcakeTrap

"It's one of the more fucked up stories I've heard. The little boy trying to defend himself is the most heartbreaking part to me." — SheHailsFromTheHills

"The ringleader was found guilty of all but two charges (they couldn't prove that he raped the man), and he was sentenced to death. I sat outside the courtroom for a two weeks, every day, listening to every word they had to say. I called home after every session, just wanting to hear someone tell me they loved me. And telling everyone how much I love them." — ZobeGrnLiteRnr

"It created a pressure so huge on the other litigant that she made a deal we accepted." — alekdefuneham