Defendant's Desire to Resolve DUI Case Quickly
Like most matters in DUI defense and criminal defense, the answer is that it depends. In Los Angeles County Courts, they try to move the cases along.
For example, Van Nuys has the ninety-day rule where your case has to be done within ninety days one way or another. But many of the other courts do not practice that same rule in Los Angeles County when it comes to DUIs. So, it's going to depend on several different factors.
If they have the evidence on the client and the client wants to resolve the case quickly, we can usually resolve it in the first or second court appearance.
However, we want to evaluate everything and look to make sure the police did everything correctly. They didn't violate any of the client's rights and saw if there were any defenses to either the breath test or the blood test or the stop in the case and how they handled the client.
So, typically, we will make the court appearance for the client for the first appearance and pick up the paperwork related to the case — the arrest report and any other documents, blood or breath results.
Then we'll speak to the prosecutor about the case, see what they have to say about it, see if there's any other evidence pending in the case, and then do an investigative plan on what we're going to do moving forward with the matter.
Obtaining Discovery in a DUI Case
Then, on the same day as the court appearance, we'll email over what's called “discovery” on the DUI case to the client. The client will take a look at it, and then we'll set up a meeting to go over our strategy. So, we have a lot of control over how quickly we can resolve a drunk driving case.
Sometimes though, we need to do some things that take some time. For example, let's say there's a question about the stop, and we want to get the video from the police vehicle, and we want to get the video from the Los Angeles Police Department on their body cams to see if there's some evidence on there that might help us.
Now, that's going to take some time. We will have to send a letter to the prosecutor's discovery unit. Then we'll have to press them, and we'll get the evidence. We'll review it and review it with you.
Other times, we might want to do a blood split. If they took your blood, we might have our expert take whatever blood is left and test it to see if their results are accurate. Sometimes it comes back as a different result, especially if it's close to the .08.
Often, we get a little lower, which can help us resolve the case or win the chance at a jury trial. If it's going to be a jury trial, it will take some time to prepare it, investigate it, get you organized, and then we'll do the jury trial.
Again, we can usually resolve these cases reasonably quickly if that's what our client wants because sometimes it's a lot of stress for people with a DUI case pending against them and who want to get rid of it. They want to get on the road to recovery.
They want to get on the road to damage control and get back on the road, literally, with the DMV. So, we can take several angles to fight the case, both with the court and the DMV. We take only the angles that apply to your case. We're not going to go down a dark path, waste time, stress you out, and do meaningless things.
Review Your Case with a Drunk Driving Lawyer
When you make a phone call to a prospective drunk driving lawyer, and you start talking to him about the case, make sure that they're talking about your case.
In other words, they have to listen to what happened in your case — what evidence there is, what you did, what information you're able to provide, and a lot of times, they're going to need the police report to see how the police have written things up.
They're going to have to look at all the evidence related to the case, and then they can sit down, discuss with you and see what makes the most sense for your DUI case in Los Angeles.
So, I would suggest that if you've got a DUI in Los Angeles, let your attorney dictate how quickly the case goes. Of course, they will listen to what you say, but let them figure out the best defense for you.
When you and I come in, and we have all the pieces of the puzzle — I have the arrest report, all the evidence, I have your version, I have any witness statements, I've done my investigation, then we sit down and talk, and we're going to decide what we're going to do — are we going to resolve this case or are we going to fight it and take it to trial?
If the answer is that we're going to resolve the case, you and I will agree on our bottom line, and then I'm going to go into court using my twenty-five years of experience and try to get that for you. That may take some time.
Typically, with my retainer fee, you're not going to get anything extra. I charge a flat fee, and I'm looking to bring you the best result possible. It doesn't matter how many times I have to go back.
I'm going to do it because I'm working in your interest, and I want to get you the best possible result we can for your DUI case in Los Angeles under the circumstances.