DUI Process, DUI Law Information

In Part 2 of Drunk Driving Laws in America we are going to talk about the punishments and sanctions a person faces when convicted of drunk driving.

Yes, a drunk driving conviction is like a double whammy. The punishment or criminal penalties like jail time and fines and then there is the civil sanction or suspension of an individual’s driver’s license.

Both the criminal and civil penalties will increase with each recurring drunk driving offense someone receives and any additional circumstances that lead to the drunk driving charge, such as property damage, bodily injury or death.

Minors who are arrested for drunk driving often face much tougher penalties. The criminal punishments a minor faces are in most cases the same punishments an adult will face, but the civil sanction for a minor most of the time will be tougher because of a lower allowable BAC level for minors and longer driver license suspensions.

The severity of the criminal punishment one faces will depend on whether or not that person had been previously convicted of drunk driving. If the person has a previous drunk driving conviction, the criminal punishments will be based on the number of years between convictions.

So basically a person facing a second drunk driving conviction just one or two years after their first conviction will face much stiffer criminal penalties than a person facing a second drunk driving conviction that occurred 10 or 15 years after their first drunk driving conviction.

When it comes to driver’s license sanctions, most states base their motor vehicle laws on the premise that driving is a privilege and not a fundamental right. So any driver’s license sanctions are remedial, not punitive.

Also note that the criminal charges are separate from the driver license sanctions; they do not go hand in hand. The driver license sanctions are imposed by the department of motor vehicles or DMV. While the criminal charges are imposed by the courts.

So even if an individual is acquitted of a drunk driving charge in court, the DMV is a separate entity and is allowed to suspend a driver’s license for a drunk driving offense even though the criminal charges were acquitted.

In Part 3 of this series we will go into greater detail with regards to the criminal charges someone faces when convicted of drunk driving.

State lawmakers tend to make a lot of assumptions and one of the biggest assumptions they make over and over again is that motorists in this country do not realize the dangers of drinking and driving.

So the state lawmakers enact new drunk driving laws in their attempt to protect us from ourselves, since we really don’t understand that drinking and driving is dangerous. Drinking and driving in America is not a crime, unless you are under the age of 21. Drunk driving laws only apply when an individual is at or above the legal blood alcohol content of .08% BAC.

When it comes to drunk driving laws in America, state lawmakers have figured out that it is basically political suicide for them if they resist voting in favor of tougher drunk driving laws.

Each and every year in every state across America, state legislature continues to increase the criminal penalties, fines and driver license sanctions placed on someone who has been convicted of drunk driving.

In part 2 we will discuss the punishments and sanctions a driver faces when convicted of drunk driving in America.

Wow, what is our country coming to when big brother starts trying to pass laws that restrict a DUI lawyer’s ability to advertise his or her services? Just because a lawyer specializes in DUI cases doesn’t mean that the government should try and restrict his or her ability to make a living.

News flash, if you are in business and don’t advertise your services to your potential clients, you won’t be in business for long.

Lawmakers are also trying to tack on legislation that would create an online list of repeat DUI offenders that anyone could search. So in essence what lawmakers are really saying with this additional legislation is that a person who gets arrested for DUI is going to be treated like a child molester where anyone can do a search online to see if a child molester lives in their neighborhood.

I for one would never hire a lawyer who kind of dabbles in every area of the law and doesn’t “specialize” in any particular area. If convicted of a DUI, I want a DUI lawyer, period!

  What are these lawmakers thinking? Do they believe that a DUI lawyer who advertises his or her services is promoting drunk driving? Wouldn’t that be the same as Wal-mart advertising their everyday low prices some how promotes poverty and poor people should shop Wal-mart?

The consequences of a DUI arrest and/or conviction can reach a lot further than just the immediate ‘inconvenience’ of not being able to drive and the excess costs required through legal fees, DUI lawyer fees, court costs, fines, penalties, SR22 insurance, DMV fees, cab rides, towing fees, etc, etc…

The DUI conviction will remain with you for the rest of your life leaving a mark on your permanent criminal record.  This can cause undue frustration for years and years… and ultimately what most refer to as the ultimate consequence of getting a DUI.

So What Can Be Done?

There’s a few options you can look into.  The first being expungement of your DUI record (depends on state of conviction and eligibility) which must be petitioned through the courts. 

The second option is simply to learn the DUI process which teaches you how to effectively minimize the effects of a DUI conviction.  How to minimize the damage by cleaning up your criminal record as much as possible given your situation, learning how to save money on costly DUI insurance policies (SR22 insurance) — basically how to get through everything with as little money and frustration possible.

DUI Process has recently completed compiling our network of aggressive DUI lawyers from across the entire country.  We only list and affiliate with the best DUI lawyers who fight and win DUI cases.  The most common problem in DUI defense (from the offender’s viewpoint-which is all we care about) is that the majority of DUI lawyers will simply take your money and then plead guilty for you.  Not the lawyers associated with us.

Our affiliation requires that these DUI lawyers do everything possible for your DUI charges.  If there is any way possible to beat your charges, these DUI lawyers will do it.  They’re aggressive, and they care.

To find the most aggressive DUI lawyer closest to you simply visit our page:  http://www.duiprocess.com/dui-lawyers.php  then select your state and either fill out the form or call the Toll Free number.

DUI Process is pleased to announce the completion of our SR22 Insurance directories that offer exclusive discounts on SR-22 insurance through our partnership with the leading SR22 provider in the nation.

Now visitors to our site can benefit by obtaining reduced rates from what has currently been available for the mandatory insurance requirements placed on DUI offenders.  Average savings is as much as $400-$500 dollars through our arrangement versus obtaining insurance quotes elsewhere.

So by simply visiting our SR22 insurance pages and selecting your state you’ll be able to quickly locate the lowest cost, full coverage SR22 insurance policy available in your state.

A new Arizona DUI law took effect on July 19, 2007 and is now one of harshest DUI laws in the country for DUI first offenders. 

The new Arizona DUI law targets first time ’super extreme’ offenders as they are now named if they submit a chemical test with a BAC of .20% or greater which works out to be more than twice the legal limit.  The new Arizona DUI law will require these super extreme DUI offenders to have a mandatory ignition interlock device installed in their vehicle.  In addition there is a mandatory 45 day jail sentence which the judge cannot suspend. 

 ** Ouch… **

One thing is for sure… with stiff penalties like that for a first offense you can be sure that many more cases will be contested and taken to trial than previously. 

With the recent DUI attention being given to celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, et al… news media shows are buzzing with news spots claiming that DUI punishments and consequences are just too lenient.  They claim that the DUI judicial system is just not strict enough…

Is the DUI justice system is too lenient? 

A system so infringing on offenders rights that the U.S. Constitution was basically averted as explained in the now famous speech given by one of the most prominent DUI lawyers in the country Lawrence Taylor called the DUI exception to the Constitution. 

How much further can such an aggressive system go?  And is it necessary to continue to disregard the U.S. Constitution?  Are we being lied to?  Can we stop deaths by continuing to crack down on DUI ? Let’s take a deeper look at the issue…

Why DUI Laws Are A Hot Topic

Unfortunately there is alot of misinformation out there surrounding DUI laws.  The average person who hasn’t looked into this issue just assumes that this is a good thing because drunk driving is a dangerous thing… which it is.  No one condones drunk driving in any fashion, but are the numbers accurate?

The numbers do show a problematic increase in DUI deaths but the sad truth is that the numbers say that because they are made to say that.  Organizations like MADD have become a major political lobbying force due to the incredible amounts of money that they have. 

They lobby to create broad ’definitions’ that are then used to classify accidents/fatalities as ‘alcohol related’ when it comes to a historical basis.  They then use these inflated statistics to further their own agenda.  Alcohol related now encompasses such a broad classification that a sober driver could wreck his/her car in an accident with another sober driver and if a passenger in either car had any amount of traceable alcohol in their body then the accident would be considered ‘alcohol related.’  So if there was a death or serious injury that would be chalked up to ‘drunk drivers on the roads.’

In fact the actual statistics show that speeding, and cell phone usage are much greater problems when it comes to vehicular deaths.  But MADD doesn’t like that.  They don’t want alcohol out of the spotlight so to speak.

So is The DUI Justice System Too Easy?

That depends on who you ask.

This upcoming labor day weekend in Washington state there’s a DUI prevention campaign entitled, “Drive Hammered, Get Nailed.”  Where the state troopers and other law enforcement agencies step up DUI patrols under the guise of a catchy slogan.

What the slogan should be in Washington is “Drive Hammered, Get Nailed Unless You’re a Cop!”  That’s right… a look back at the last seven years shows that Washington state is notorious for giving cops “professional courtesy” when it comes to DUI offenses.

Let’s see what the statistics show…

63 cases involving police officers in Washington state show that 6 kept their drivers licenses due to paperwork not being filed within a 50 day time period…  which incidentally never happens to average citizens.  In addition only about 1 out of 4 cops who refused a breath test actually lost their drivers license compared to 16 citizens losing their drivers license out of every 17 who refuse a breath test.

In addition 5 out of those 63 cases were thrown out all together and not even prosecuted.  1 police officer, Gurdial Garcha was 6 times over the legal limit… count it… 6 times over the legal limit and only received a 2 day suspension from the dept. and lost 2 vacation days.

While Washington state may have come up with a catchy new slogan “Drive Hammered, Get Nailed” it’s not very accurate if we factor in WA police officers involved in DUI cases.

Ok, not sure if any of you have been following this ground breaking case pertaining to DUI defense.  Here’s the short version…

The DUI breath machine (called the Intoxilyzer 5000) that is used to determine your Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) at the police station is basically- a big computer.  Computers run on software and the Intoxilyzer 5000 is no different.  As many of you know the Intoxilyzer machine is very inaccurate in its readings and a common practice in DUI defense is to challenge the breath test reading that the machine spits out due to it’s widely known inaccuracies.

Well, in order to effectively do that DUI lawyers (on behalf of their clients) have been requesting the source code to the software that runs the Intoxilyzer machine so that they can see how the machine really works.  Well the government and the makers of the machine were denying these requests to see the source code saying that it was ‘proprietary copyrighted’ information and would not be shared.

So how do you challenge the breath test machine if you don’t know how the heck the thing works? 

Simple… you don’t. 

That was the governments stance until recently.  Just a few days ago the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in favor of a defendant and allowed access to the DUI breath test source code.  This is ground breaking because now the software will be able to be analyzed and a proper DUI defense mounted (if the source code really gets released).

Reference:  DUI Source Code