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As it gets hotter, and owners and their furry friends decide to take refuge in the air conditioned comfort of places like pet stores, malls, public transit and other venues where animals are allowed or tolerated, it seems a good time to bring up A.R.S. §11-1025, which concerns legal responsibility in Arizona when any dog bites a human in a public place or on private property. The statute reads: “The owner of a

ARE TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS HANDING DISCIPLINE OVER TO THE POLICE? The Atlantic article linked below recently caught our attention, as did recent videos posted online of physical confrontations between “school resource officers” and students. These disturbing videos show fully grown adult male officers striking adolescent students with closed fists, “body slamming” kids to the ground, and wrestling them out of ch

We decided to take a look this week at Arizona’s felony sentencing scheme and describe how it works. So, to start, let’s take a look at some common terms. Sentencing Range. The range of imprisonment that can be charged for a class of offenses from the least to the most. For example, a basic class 6 felony, can receive a range of 4 months prison to two years in prison. There can be multiple sentencing ranges for the s

My father always referred to doing prison time as “paying one’s debt to society.” The assumption was the debt was finite and capable of being paid off eventually. People who paid this debt, he said, should be given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to rehabilitate themselves. But this article about events from Minnesota bothered me. A certain class of convicts is being singled out by the State for involuntary comm

In Arizona, felony crimes are those determined to be punishable by a term of one year or more in the Arizona Department of Corrections. Misdemeanors, of which there are three classifications, are punishable by a maximum of up to six months in a local or county jail. With respect to felonies in Arizona, there are six classifications of felony that an individual can be charged with. Petty drug crimes such as Possession