A DUI Lawyer Can Help Protect Your Future
Oct. 13, 2015
As a DUI lawyer, I can help to protect you and ensure that your rights are intact if you have been pulled over and arrested for driving under the influence. Many people mistakenly treat a DUI like a driving offense. It is not a speeding ticket or even a ticket for reckless driving. If you are convicted of a DUI, it will go on your permanent criminal record. You could be forced to pay a fine, spend time in jail, or have an ignition interlock device installed in your car at your own expense. While the penalties for a first-time offense are much less than a second or third, every offense is a criminal conviction. Therefore, you must fight it with that level of vigor and care. Otherwise, your future could be impacted, and it may be more difficult to rent an apartment, get hired for a job, or even maintain custody of your children.
I recommend that you call for help immediately upon being arrested for a DUI. As a DUI lawyer, I can go to work right away, speaking with the prosecutor to see if it is possible to have the charges lowered to reckless driving. If they agree, that is in your best interest because it is not a criminal conviction. You will have to pay a fine, but this is a much better solution for you in the long term. If the prosecution is unwilling to lower the charges, we can negotiate another type of settlement and start to chip away at the potential jail time by suggesting alternatives like taking a class or serving a sentence at home. I try to negotiate whenever possible because you never know what will happen in court. The only way to be certain of the outcome is to negotiate terms ahead of time.
If, however, you do need to go to court, I can represent you and will work diligently to ensure that you receive a fair hearing or trial. As a DUI lawyer, I know that the best way to have a strong defense is to put in a lot of preparation ahead of time. For this reason, I suggest that you hire a lawyer right away. I will need to know everything about the events leading up to your arrest, what happened during your arrest, and what happened afterward. If you have any witnesses, that will be helpful as well, and I will want to speak with them. I may also request information on the breathalyzer that was used to test your BAC levels. If it had not been calibrated recently, there is a chance that the reading was inaccurate, which could help your defense.
Remember that you can be accused of a DUI even if you were not intoxicated. If you took medication that was prescribed, but it negatively impacted your driving, you could be charged. In addition, if you were using marijuana for medical purposes and appeared to be driving under the influence, you could be charged. As a DUI lawyer, I recommend that you put forth a strong defense regardless of the circumstances in order to give yourself the best possible future.