Criminal Law Review

So you were coming home from the wedding a little late at night and you had decided to toast the bride and groom one too many times….. You were stopped, the officer started the process and DUI education, here you come at full speed. Each DUI in the Bay Area, California triggers two separate and totally different types of cases.

The first case is the most well known because it involves the great big chamber and the big robe and gavel. Yes, I mean the Court Process or Criminal Court Proceedings. This involves any evidence collected at the time of arrest among other things. The second charges brought against someone once arrested for drinking and driving involve the Department of Motor Vehicles and an administrative per se or APS case.

In California vehicle code 13558, 14100 and 14103, time limits were set on how many days until contact must be made with the DMV after arrest. Due to these time limits, when an attorney takes a new DUI case in the Bay Area, they must contact the DMV within the first 10 days of arrest and request an APS hearing. A very important step and one that sadly enough sometimes forgotten or overlooked during the drama on a DMV arrest.

This step is critical for the Attorney or person charged to be completed in a timely manner and affects whether or not the arrested individual will be able to keeo his/her license in the ling run. When calling a criminal defense attorney about drunken driving charges, most of the time, one of the first questions asked after, when were you arrested, is have you filed paperwork with the DMV to request a DMV hearing?

DUI’ s in the Bay Area in California are growing, almost on a monthly basis since the new laws lowered the legal limit to 0.08%. The drunken driving arrests affects poor people more than the rich. Even though the public defenders office and system will help the poor in court and during the criminal part of the proceedings, the arrestees are completely on their own when it comes to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Most of the low income clients that you will find in a defense attorney’s office are looking for a lawyer simply for the DMV hearing and nothing else. They are worried about their license and of course the status of transportation when it comes to getting to their jobs, families and shopping.

Anyone who forgoes the DMV hearing automatically loses the right to drive in California and any rights and defenses that existed are waived by the person arrested. If in the Bay Area at the time of arrest, and you have a CA drivers license, it is suspended for at least 4 months (or one year upon first offense refusal of chemical test). Having a commercial drivers license has steeper penalties for the arrestee.

Most people simply don’t understand their rights once arrested and released and end up waiving all of their rights at the APS DMV Hearing. Not obtaining the proper defense attorney quickly after arrest can lead to several problems in the end, not the least of which losing your drivers license. Your lawyer should file that paperwork for you and make sure to make the 10 day limit and get the DMV their request in a timely manner.

Looming foremost on most arrestees minds once they have been charged with a DUI is normally, what will happen to my drivers license? Hopefully once arrested, they have the state of mind needed to obtain the proper lawyer and get the paperwork filed with the DMV in time to keep the worry to a minimum.

2004 saw nearly 100,000 drunk-driving arrests in the state of Texas-basically, one for every 230 Texas residents. Although operating a vehicle while under the influence is certainly a grave offense, everyone deserves legal defense under the law, and no one should pay time or money for a crime they didn’t commit.

Although the legal limit in Texas is 0.08 BAC (blood alcohol content), drivers can still be pulled over for DWI even if their BAC falls within the legal limit if their driving appears to be impaired by drugs or alcohol. In the event that you find yourself pulled over for driving while intoxicated, the roadside breath test is voluntary, and it is never in your best interest to submit to a roadside breathalyzer test; if you submitted to the breath test, however, fret not-there are several legitimate defenses that can be used to impugn the results of a roadside breath test.

The same goes for breath, blood, or alcohol tests after booking. Never submit to an alcohol test of any kind until you’ve spoken with an attorney qualified to mount a DWI defense in the state of Texas.

The most important thing to remember is this: never, ever admit to guilt or discuss the case until you’ve spoken with a qualified DWI attorney. The primary aim of a DWI defense attorney is to get the charges dropped; if that proves impossible, the secondary goal is to find a way for you to retain your driver’s license-your lifeline to gainful employment. Both of these goals can be jeopardized by admitting guilt, submitting to alcohol test, or spending time discussing the charges with arresting or booking officers.

A drunken driving arrest or DUI case can be challenging, especially if you plan to win in California. When handling and taking a new client’s drunk driving case, it is important to have a thorough understanding of both the criminal court case and the Department of Motor Vehicles APS (administrative per se) cases.

The current system in the Bay Area and all over California has a long line of convictions and the list is growing as the counties pocketbook finds more and more budget cuts. Defense counsel, either public or private can go to work for you and stop the political crime of DUI cases charged daily.

In 1990, California lowered her limit from 0.10% to 0.08%, knowing that it would “catch” many more people in the web than previously under the higher alcohol content limit. Let’s look for a minute, in simple argument, to what 0.08% really looks like to the layperson. This small amount of alcohol means that it cannot be seen with the naked eye. A mathematician would say that it is 8/100’s of One Percent of a person blood is some form of ethyl alcohol.

There are naturally more and more DUI Drunken driving cases each year, no wonder and naturally the number of people looking for a defense lawyer locally is growing each day. People need a good defense and they are looking for help in fighting their case. I even recently met a man who was in a Drunken Driving Education Program, ordered by the court for his DUI, which involved prescription drugs, which he had to take for his health, and involved NO alcohol at all.

This man had to take 18 weeks of a course to keep his already restricted drivers license and keep driving his children to school. For someone who never drank alcohol due to his medical condition and had obvious problems, counsel would have been his best option. He had decided against it and had paid the price dearly.

It is the duty of your defense attorney to counsel or maintain those actions, proceedings, or defenses only as appear to him as legal or just, except the defense of a person charged with a public offense. It is very righteous and self liberating for anyone to defend their case and make the Government prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Currently, it is estimated that approximately 1/3 of the over 170,000 California DUI Cases every year have very legitimate and authentic scientific and legal issues and defenses. Having a defense lawyer to fight for you and find these defenses is critical to your future and future decisions in court. Each DUI triggers two separate cases that every good DUI Lawyer is well voiced in. The first is the Criminal Court Case and the second being the DMV case involving your driver’s license.