Here’s the first misconception about hiring a lawyer for your drunk driving case (DUI) .

                            Misconception Number 1 :

Any Lawyer can defend an accused drunk driver.

A DUI defense attorney has become a sub-specialty within the area of criminal defense lawyers. When a prospective client walks into the average law office and asks for help on a drunk driving case, they may never have handled a DUI case.  A lawyer may look at the warrant and think the case is hopeless and encourage the defendant to enter a quick plea of guilty.

DUI  defense has become a specialized field.  A great DUI lawyer is a geek who studies and learns the ins and outs of the defense.  It involves being up to date on the following;

  1. Search and Seizure Law.
  2. Detailed Knowledge on The Field Sobriety Tests.
  3. Knowledge of the internal workings of the breath alcohol Tests and it’s problems.
  4. Knowing the science of alcohol absorption and alcohols effects on the human body.
  5. Being well schooled on blood tests.

In today’s legal environment, you need a DUI geek . You can’t afford to hire someone who is going to plead you guilty without looking at all your options.  Studying the officers time cards, the maintenance records of the alcohol testing machines, filing pretrial motions to suppress the traffic stop: Do you want a lawyer that does this stuff or a lawyer that will just meet you at the courthouse, take your money and plead you guilty.  Today, I ran into a lawyer who took a case with a .28 breath alcohol test.  The attorney intended to plead them out and commented was that even I couldn’t get them off.  The moral of the story is "You never know til you try".