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The Panhandle Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (PCDLA) is an association criminal defense lawyers of lawyers of the twenty-six Texas Panhandle counties, and a chapter of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (TCDLA), and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL).
This web site is intended as both a service to the public and PCDLA members. Public users may use this site to obtain a referral to a particular criminal defense lawyer practicing in the Texas Panhandle by visiting our current members page. PCDLA members may use this site as a reference and obtain motions, briefs and other information from our members only page.
Find out more about PCDLA by obtaining a copy of our bylaws (coming soon).
Resist the First Encroachments
"[I]llegitimate and unconstitutional practices get their first footing in that way, namely, by silent approaches and slight deviations from legal modes of procedure. This can only be obviated by adhering to the rule that constitutional provisions for the security of person and property should be liberally construed. A close and literal construction deprives them of half their efficacy, and leads to gradual depreciation of the right, as if it consisted more in sound than in substance. It is the duty of courts to be watchful for the constitutional rights of the citizen, and against any stealthy encroachments thereon. Their motto should be obsta principiis."
Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616, 635 (U.S. 1886).
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