The way to beat a DUI in Los Angeles is to either have a defense to the DUI that a jury will believe and find you not guilty or prove to a judge that the police violated a legal right protected by the constitution and therefore anything they found after the violation can not be used against you. ...
A common question that I find myself answering all the time, related to DUI defense in Los Angeles, has to do with what my client's responsibilities are regarding attending their DUI court appearances. The answer as to whether a person has to attend their court appearances, as with many things in...
Over the course of the past twenty five years of defending DUI cases in the Los Angeles area I have seen many developments in this area of law for the good and for the bad (of course it all depends on your perspective). Prescription drugs / medications are beginning to play more and more of a rol...
This is a huge question on a lot of people's mind. Once you get arrested, they take you into the local jail where your case occurred and they hold you there for a period of time. One of the biggest things that my clients tell me when they come in to meet with me about their DUI case is, I never w...
This is something that happens a lot in Los Angeles county and throughout the country quite frankly. A lot of prosecutors are filing DUI cases where deaths result as murder cases. In fact, every single DUI person that goes through LA county that has to plead guilty to a DUI and fill out the waiv...
This is a big question because obviously, nobody wants to be charged with a felony DUI. You lose a lot of rights, you're looking at jail or prison time. So, a lot of people are asking me when they're arrested for a DUI whether they're going to be charged as a felony or a misdemeanor. There's a nu...
Believe it or not, under the right circumstances, the police are permitted to do a forced blood draw when it comes to a DUI case. Usually where I see them being permitted to do it is when you've been involved in some sort of an accident. Somehow, that green lights them to be able to force blood. ...
This Vehicle Code Section has to do with people who are on DUI probation in Los Angeles County California Vehicle Code 23154. A lot of times the police can look in their computer in their vehicle and see that someone is on probation for a DUI, they pull them over and have them blow into a prelimi...
When it comes to defending a DUI in the San Fernando Courthouse, the typical prosecutors who are handling these cases is the City Attorney's office. They handle the bulk of the cases there. They have an office on the fourth floor in the San Fernando Courthouse and they staff all of...
This is a big question on people's minds because obviously, nobody wants to go to jail. It's very confining and very stressful. There are dangerous criminals in jail and it's an unsafe place. So, this is one of the biggest fears people have when they are arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles — whethe...
When it comes to DUI's I hear a lot of people talking about wet reckless. They're not necessarily that much better than a DUI, although if I had my choice between a DUI and a wet reckless, obviously I would pick a wet reckless. But there's other charges that are better than a wet reckless. For ex...
The court and the DMV work together when it comes to DUI's in Los Angeles, California. In fact, the court's computer is hooked up to the DMV's computer. So, anytime anybody gets convicted for a DUI in Los Angeles, that information is transmitted to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. So,...
When you're arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles, obviously it's scary and terrifying because your freedom is taken away from you for a period of time. You're taken to jail. Your license is typically taken away and obviously, you're fearful that you could be facing jail time, probation and a mark on...
This is a misconception that a lot of people have when it comes to DUI's in Los Angeles. That is, they think if they weren't drunk — like stumbling around drunk — then they're not a DUI. But that's not really the test. The test is whether you can safely operate a motor vehicle, and obviously, it ...
The real short answer to winning a DMV hearing is to have an angle and that angle has to be sufficient to upend the DMV's case against you so they just set it aside because they don't feel that they can prove that you were driving under the influence of alcohol. There's a whole bunch of different...
I'm always surprised that people don't realize that a DUI is a criminal offense and they could go to jail for it. Obviously, the answer is yes you need an attorney unless you just want to throw yourself on the mercy of the court and hope you don't go to jail, lose your driver's license, put on pr...
The short answer to this question is, probably not. Because, you're not an attorney. Your license is at stake, and obviously, if you live in Los Angeles you need your driver's license. So, unless you're trained on how to deal with the DMV, then you probably want to let an attorney handle that and...
When somebody is arrested for a DUI, obviously it's a very scary process. A lot of people really don't know what to do. The two main concerns that you should have is number one, your driver's license. Obviously, you need that to get around especially in a metropolis like Los Angeles. So, you're g...
A wet reckless is basically a Vehicle Code Section 23103 violation where somebody is driving recklessly on the road and they have alcohol in their system. Now, they may not necessarily be over the legal limit of .08, but there's really two ways for the prosecutors to get a conviction related to a...
An expert is not always appropriate in a DUI case. In order to use an expert, some issue is going to have to come up where you need the expert. A perfect example of this would be the prosecutors get the blood test of the defendant and the blood alcohol level is really close to a .08. Contaminants...
If you're ordered to complete an alcohol program related to a DUI in Los Angeles, you're typically going to be ordered to complete a certain amount of months related to your DUI case. There is a 3-month, 6-month, 9-month, 18-month and a 30-month alcohol program. There's even a 12-hour alcohol pro...
These DUI cases where death occurs because an individual drinks and drives and gets in an accident and kills either their passenger or some other driver or the passenger of another driver. The prosecutors now in Los Angeles — and I've been doing these cases for twenty-five years — it used to be t...
DUI cases are very scary because you get arrest and lose control of your custody freedom for a period of time. You're taken into custody and now you're facing a criminal charge, loss of your license and your reputation is on the line. Your work may be on the line depending on how they view a conv...
When you're placed on a DUI probation, you're usually ordered to do certain things and you're also ordered from refraining from doing certain things. Some of the things that you're usually going to be ordered to do is to do an alcohol program. You're going to be ordered to pay a fine. You're goin...
When it comes to these DUI cases, people get a little confused about what's going on because they don't really have any basis of knowledge. They're watching TV and seeing different things and they think they know how things should go. I have a lot people calling and saying, I'm a good person. I h...
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