DUI Lawyers
DUI Attorneys – Selecting Your Representative
If you’ve been charged with a DUI (also referred to as a DWI or OWI, in some jurisdictions – Impaired Driving in Canada), it may be tempting to forgo the cost of an attorney if you are planning on pleading guilty. Lawyers are not cheap, and a DUI charge is going to be an expensive proposition as it is, especially if you plead guilty.
Most lawyers and drunk driving attorneys will charge a minimum of $250.00 per hour, and some have rates that are even much higher. In some instances, the hourly fee of the lawyer may be a consideration especially if you have a very tight budget. Often, a DUI attorney will want a retainer fee – sometimes this will be about $1,000.00 before they even begin to do any work for you. When you pay the retainer, it will be a credit to your account with the attorney’s office, as the lawyer spends his time on your case, a portion equivalent to the amount of time will be deducted. Many lawyers work in ten minute blocks, therefore if they take a phone call from you that lasts 6 minutes, ten minutes will be charged which is 1/6th of an hour.
When you select your attorney to represent you in your DUI case, you should be comfortable with the lawyer and trust that he or she will advocate for you strongly, even if you plead guilty. The attorney should take an interest in your case and outline to you what the various possibilities and outcomes are should you decide to change your mind and fight the charge. He or she should also let you know what the various penalties will be should you plead guilty.
How important is it to select an attorney that only takes on DUI cases? While these lawyers are specialists in this area of law, they will also likely be more expensive than a lawyer that takes on a variety of cases. Not all DUI charges will require a specialist, however if you have selected a lawyer that takes on a variety of cases, he or she may have access to specialists for areas of the case that they may not be able to handle on their own. You will however, be charged for the use of these specialists should it be necessary, and as noted, their hourly rates could be quite a bit more.
Don’t be alarmed at first if your DUI attorney does not want to hear your entire story. They should however, ask you to make notes of everything you recall on the night you were arrested, including the events of the hours that preceded your arrest and charge. If it is possible, they may ask you to keep all the containers that held the alcohol you drank from, if that is possible. You may also want to include the names and addresses, including the staff at any establishment you were drinking at, in your notes. This may especially important if you decide to plead “Not Guilty” and fight the charges.
If your attorney does not want to hear your story at first, this may be because they don’t want to prejudice their own views about the case before obtaining disclosure from the Prosecutor. Your lawyer will want to review the notes and documentation that the Prosecutor will be relying on to prosecute your case in Court as well as review the Statements of witnesses the prosecution will be relying on. It is in these notes and documents that your lawyer may find an area to question in order to formulate a defense to the charges.
I personally cannot advise you who to retain or what DUI attorney may have the best skills available to either defend you or represent you even if you plead “Guilty.” The lawyer you retain should help you to feel comfortable under the circumstances and you should expect from them that they will be on time at their scheduled meetings with you prior to court, and especially at Court. You in return should be early for your Court Date so that you may confer with your attorney if needed prior to your time in Court.
Personally, I found David McCarthy of Kelly Law, a Kitchener Law Firm in Ontario to be an excellent lawyer to work with on my case. If you reside in that area, and are stuck, you may want to give him a call.
Hopefully you will retain the attorney for your DUI case that will work best for you and get you the best possible resolution available in your particular circumstances.
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Drunk Driving Lawyers – Should You Retain One?
If you’ve been charged with an alcohol related offense, (DUI, DWI, Over 80, Impaired Driving, etc), it really is a good idea to get some legal advice even if you are thinking of pleading guilty. A plea of guilt in most jurisdictions throughout the world can carry significant penalties and consequences, and an attorney or lawyer that knows their way around the Court system can be of huge assistance to you. Of course, your set of circumstances may mean that you should take advantage of your right to mount a vigorous defense of the charges against you and plead “Not Guilty.” Let’s look in a general way at both options, but be aware, I am not a lawyer but am providing you with advice based on my own experience:
Pleading Guilty:
A lawyer that understands the range of penalties that could be levied against you, and who knows how to negotiate with what is called in Canada, the “Crown Attorney” or in some jurisdictions, the “District Attorney” could save you from being a court ordered sentence that is even more severe than you deserve should you be found guilty.
It is very helpful to have someone represent you and speak for you in Court when discussing the circumstances that lead to the charge against you. The lawyer will know what the maximum penalties are that can be levied against you. It is the job of the Crown or District Attorney to try to get as severe a sentence as they can in your case, and will try to persuade the presiding Judge that their recommendations for sentencing are valid.
On the other hand, having a lawyer represent you in court can be of benefit in arguing why the presiding Judge should consider other options and a lesser sentence than that being suggested by the State. Often, there will be vastly different suggestions between what the State is asking for and what your lawyer is suggesting, and a Judge may agree with your lawyer. They are skilled in arguing on your behalf and usually have a lot of experience in knowing how to persuade a Judge – more experience than you do.
A lawyer can also provide advice as to your deportment in Court, ie how you should dress, how you should speak and you should act before, during and after your Court proceedings.
Ultimately, obtaining legal advice even if you are pleading guilty could help you in the fact that perhaps a lawyer can see something in the case against you that may be of benefit in choosing to plead “Not Guilty.” Police officers do make mistakes, and you are entitled to a defense that ensures that everything was done correctly when you were charged with your alcohol related offense. Further, there may have been something wrong with the equipment that was used that measured your BAC level, or perhaps there is evidence that proper procedures were not carried out or documented correctly. You have a right to see the case against you, and a lawyer can help you obtain what is usually called “Full Disclosure” in order to consider defending against the charge(s).
Pleading Not Guilty:
There are many reasons why an individual charged with a DUI, DWI, Impaired Driving or other alcohol related driving offense may want to plead not guilty. First, the penalties for a finding of guilt can be life changing. Not only the expenses involved that include much higher insurance rates when your license is reinstated, there is the public humiliation, the fact that you will now have a record in many jurisdictions that will stay with you, and this record could even prevent you from getting a job.
It could prevent you from traveling internationally. It could have repercussions on your present employment.
It could even be that you were not Impaired, and you actually are in fact, “Not Guilty” of the charges against you. Police officers can and do make mistakes, and the charges against you may have been a result of a mistake.
If you are planning on pleading “Not Guilty,” you will want to select a lawyer who will vigorously go over all of the case against you and be prepared to look for anything in that case that could be questioned or shown to be incorrect. You will need a lawyer that is willing to speak for you as if the charges against you were their own personal charges. In this regard, you will want to do some research and find a lawyer that you feel comfortable with and that who you will have full faith in – that even if the Court does find you guilty, that you know the lawyer or attorney you retained did everything possible on your behalf.
Fighting a drunk driving charge with a lawyer will likely be an expensive undertaking. You need to be prepared for that.
There are many lawyers who specialize in alcohol related driving offenses and who spend most of their practice defending against such charges. They are specialists in this area. However, there are also other good lawyers who may not specialize but who also have the skills necessary to represent you and defend you in Court.
All in all, no matter what you do, it is highly recommended that if you have been charged with impaired driving in any jurisdiction, that your first job should be to seek out a lawyer that you can at the very least, get some advice from.
Charged With A DUI – Should You Retain A Lawyer?
If you have recently been charged with an alcohol related offense, you may be going through a lot of different emotions including shame, fear, and maybe even some panic. If you are like most people who are caught driving impaired or over the legal limit of alcohol in your blood stream, you likely did not intend to
drive impaired, or perhaps not even realized you were over the limit.
Perhaps after the fact, you’ve had the chance to think back over the events that preceded your drunk driving charge and you’ve now accepted that indeed,
you did have a few drinks too many. And perhaps you’re now considering pleading “Guilty” to the charge and just getting it over with.
This is an understandable choice. Many people who are charged with a DUI end up deciding that defending against the charge will be too costly and time
consuming.
In some jurisdictions such as the Province of Ontario in Canada, it appears that the system is set up to encourage you to plead guilty to the alcohol related driving offense. If you do plead guilty in that Province, and are sentenced within 90 days of the offense date, you may have the opportunity to apply for early reinstatement of your driver’s license. You could apply after 90 days of your court ordered suspension have expired as long as you have paid your fine and have enrolled in the Back On Track remedial program.
However, if you plead not guilty but subsequently are found guilty by the Court, this option is not available to you. You must wait the full year of suspension
before you can apply for your license.
Is it a way for the Province Of Ontario to encourage you to plead guilty and avoid a time consuming trial? It could be. And it just might be a strong reason
for you to make a decision to plead guilty rather than defend against the charges.
Should you still obtain legal council even if you are planning on pleading guilty? Yes, you should!
A lawyer can be of immense help to you in navigating the court system and has experience in understanding the nuances and formal procedures that are required in criminal court. As well, they may be able to assist you in obtaining a lesser sentence than what the State or Crown Attorney is recommending the Judge give you. A lawyer acting on your behalf could help persuade a judge that a lesser sentence is appropriate in your particular situation and for the circumstances that lead up to your arrest and charge.
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Canada Removes Impaired Driving Defense
In Canada, those charged with an alcohol driving offense could often call witnesses and a toxicologist to cast doubt on the reading provided by a breath alcohol device. It was recognized by the courts that Breathalyzers and Intoxilyzers were not infallible and machines can malfunction. Devices like Intoxilyzers are also programmed for “ideal” conditions and make a number of assumptions about air pressure, infrared technology, mouth alcohol, and the environment. Some tests have even shown that radio waves from a cell phone can cause at least one model of the Intoxilyzer to give a false reading of blood alcohol content such that it will report the level to be beyond it’s capabilities!
If an accused could cast doubt on the machine’s reading, they may end up with having their charge thrown out of court. This defense is referred to as the “Carter Defense.”
For some years and at the pressure of some lobby groups such as M.A.D.D., the Federal government of Canada considered changes to the law which would virtually eliminate the Carter Defense. Although many civil libertarians and those interested in justice attended and spoke at hearings before the law was changed, warning about the erosion of justice if the new ammendment (Bill C-2) was passed, elected officials ignored the warnings.
Now as of July 2nd, 2008 you will no longer be able to use the Carter Defense. Those charged prior to July 2, 2008 may still be able to use it.
Mike Kruse, a Canadian lawyer who specializes in impaired driving charges reports how the changes will affect those charged with impaired:
“Your BAC (i.e the reading on the breathalyzer or intoxilyer) at the time of the breath test will be accepted by the judge as your actual blood alcohol concentration unless you can show all of the following three things:
- your BAC would not in fact have been over 80 mgs. at the time of the offence (i.e. I only drank ‘two beers’ and a toxicologist testifies I would have been below the legal limit of 80 mgs. of alcohol in 100 mls. of blood at the time of driving)
- secondly, the approved instrument was malfunctioning or was not properly operated by the qualified breath technician (i.e. instrument error or operator error); and
- thirdly, the malfunction or improper operation caused your BAC to be mistakenly measured as over 80 mgs. of alcohol in 100 mls. of blood
In other words not only do you have to present a traditional Carter defence, but you also have to show that the approved instrument malfunctioned or was operated improperly and that this malfunction or improper operation resulted in an incorrect reading. Before Bill C-2, in advancing a Carter defence, you did not have to point to either instrument or operator error.”
Although one can understand to a degree why some defenses would be closed, it is a travesty of true justice to know that a machine could malfunction and not be able to provide witnesses that can attest to what your BAC level most likely was based on facts. Now the defense must prove malfunction or operator error instead of the Crown proving everything worked correctly.
Decriminalize Impaired Driving?
I have been doing some research and came across a very interesting article by Edward Prutschi, a Toronto, Ontario, Canada criminal lawyer. The article advocates for the decriminalization of impaired driving. Mr. Prutschi makes some interesting points in the article:
“Am I being soft on crime? This proposal would actually see an increase in the number of people being monitored for impaired driving as all those thousands of people who are now taking their chances at trial and winning would finally be motivated to enter an early guilty plea. Rather than finding themselves deported, unable to travel, or ineligible for work due to a criminal conviction, they would instead be found guilty of a serious traffic offence. Their insurance premiums would skyrocket as is already the case but their lives wouldn’t be ruined. For those clients who absolutely need to drive (usually for employment purposes), they would be given the opportunity to do so without compromising public safety one iota. In fact, each time they stepped into their car and blew into the IID, they would be reminded of just how serious their actions were.”
Edward Prutschi is a partner in the law firm, Adler Bytenski Prutschi Barristers in Toronto. According to their website, “Mr. Prutschi is also a certified Intoxilyzer Breath Alcohol Technician – a designation that can come in very handy when defending persons charged with impaired driving related offences. He is a frequent guest on the York University radio program Beyond a Reasonable Doubt and has been quoted in major Toronto and area newspapers for his views on high-profile cases he has worked on and the criminal law in general.”