Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

This article will explain why, as a Michigan DUI Lawyer, I almost always requisition a copy of the Police car video in a DUI case. The role of these "dash cam" videos has really evolved as the resolution of the cameras, and the quality of the videos they produce, has gotten better. While the real "role" of any Police care video has always been to document what happened, previous generations of cameras didn't do that nearly as well as the newer models. Advancing technology has led to the upgrading from low-res images to hi-res, almost high-definition footage that can, quite literally, speak for itself.

My Role as a DUI Lawyer is simple: I try to beat, or "knock out" a DUI charge whenever possible. That's like saying, however, that the GM simply makes cars. While that's essentially true, it also overlooks about a million little things that go into that. When there is an exploitable defect in, or question about the evidence, I will leverage that to the fullest extent possible. If the evidence is solid, then I will negotiate with the Prosecutor to reduce the charge or otherwise reach an agreement that will lessen the real-life consequences and make things better for you.

As much as a car is made up of parts, a DUI case is made up of evidence. Just like some parts of the car (engine and transmission, for example) are more important than others (like floor mats and radio knobs), some parts of the evidence (Traffic Stop, Field Sobriety Tests and Breath or Blood Test) are more important than others. Recent improvements in video quality have pushed the potential role of Police in-car video much higher up the ladder. As a result, I have now taken to obtaining a copy of such videos in just about every new DUI case that comes through my Office.

In the past, most in-car video cameras produced what can best be described as low resolution, grainy images. And if that wasn't bad enough, because most DUI's occur at night, the resulting video was low resolution, night-vision imagery. If you've ever seen an ultrasound picture taken from a pregnant woman, then you've seen low-res, low light imagery. I've always been amazed when an ultrasound technician can look at that tiny, grainy image, and identify the sex of the fetus. They can point to what they see as "evidence" of this or that gender all day long, but to me, it just looks mostly like a peanut inside a shell. My point, however, is that understanding what that image really shows requires some explanation or interpretation.

Similarly, I have sat in Court over the years and watched other Lawyers ask an Arresting Officer to explain what their old fashioned, low-resolution in-car video is really showing. Thankfully, I've seen this only as a spectator, and not a participant, because even from that perspective, I realized that, if a Lawyer must have the Officer explain the video, it almost certainly has no value for the Defense. Instead, it should be the Lawyer explaining the video to the Officer.

Continue reading "Michigan DUI and Police Video of the Traffic Stop" »

This blog article, like many others in the Driver's License Restoration section of this blog, was inspired by a real life occurrence in my Practice as a Michigan Driver's License Restoration Lawyer. Responding to my web site, a man recently called about getting his Michigan Driver's License reinstated. I wasn't in at the time, and he spoke for a while with my Assistant, Ann. After screening him, Ann discovered that, for reasons beyond the scope this article, he was not yet "ready," at least by my standards, to begin pursuing his Appeal. Although he was legally eligible to start a License Appeal, the way these cases are decided in the real world meant that there was no chance he could have won his License back without a little more time passing.

Anytime someone calls my Office about a Michigan Driver's License Restoration or Appeal case, we'll will take the time to answer their questions, explain what we can and cannot do, and then, if they are not yet legally (or otherwise) able or ready to proceed, tell them what they need to do, or should do, in order to become ready, or at least how long they should wait. At the end of this recent conversation, the gentleman expressed his gratitude for Ann having spent a while with him on the phone, and having taken the time to explain everything so clearly. He noted that my Office spent far more time with him than anyone else he called. Then he said something that made me stop and think about what makes my Office so different: He said every other Lawyer he talked to pretty much only told him how much money he needed to bring in to get started.

Apparently, no one spent any real time with him, and asked questions to discover his exact situation. No one explained how the Michigan License Restoration process really works. No one bothered to tell him that if he was to file now, he'd surely lose, because there were some things he needed do first, while he waited a few months, in order to put his ducks in a row an line up a winning case. Equally as important, he told Ann, no one bothered to ask him if he was Sober, and when he had stopped drinking.

In fact, he said that everybody else just told him to bring his money and come on in. Sure, my Office didn't get his money, at least right then, but the flip side is that he didn't get bamboozled into a certain loss, both of his case and of his money, only to have to sit on the sidelines and wait for another year to try again. If I accepted his money, knowing what I do (and my Staff does) about License Appeals, it would have been morally wrong. Anyone who knows better, but takes him money anyway, would simply be "fleecing" him. Obviously, anyone who doesn't know License Appeals as well as we do, and who would take his money NOT knowing there was no way he could win his License Appeal at this time, isn't guilty of a moral transgression, but is, instead, dreadfully (if not harmfully) ignorant of what it takes to win a Michigan Driver's License Restoration case.

My take on License Appeals is simple: Winning your case the first time around is the only thing that matters. I Guarantee that I'll win your case the first time we go in. In order to do that, however, I cannot take just any old case that comes along. "Bring your money and come it" may be a good way for a Lawyer to make a lot of money, but it isn't any way to build or maintain a winning record. I consistently win around 98% of my cases the first time around. I do that by, first and foremost, making sure anyone who I represent is Sober, and has quit drinking.

Continue reading "Michigan License Reinstatement, Restoration and Clearance - Guaranteed " »

All the preparation involved in a Michigan Driver's License Restoration or Clearance case leads up to one thing: The Hearing. In previous Driver's License Restoration articles, I have examined the preparation leading up to the Hearing, and have over-viewed what takes place at the Hearing itself. In this article, I want to come back to the actual Hearing, and focus on what I do, and how I conduct a License Appeal Hearing.

I think it's important to understand that I conduct the Hearing in the sense that I open it, decide what evidence to present, and how to present it. I ask the very first questions, and I establish the theme and set the tone for what's to follow. This is critically important to winning back your License, and accounts, at least in part, for why I can Guarantee I will win your case the first time around. I have heard that, in some cases where a person has tried to win their License back with another Lawyer, and lost, the Lawyer didn't ask any questions. I cannot imagine such a situation.

Certainly, if a person goes in on their own, unrepresented, the only questions asked will come from the Hearing Officer. In such a case, the person will have no opportunity to "make their case" or have any real hand in presenting their Recovery story. While this is hardly a recipe for success, at least when a person loses a "do-it-yourself" Appeal, they can console themselves that they got what they paid for. It makes no sense, however, to pay some Lawyer to sit next to you and not do anything except act as a spectator to what unfolds.

License Appeal Hearings are set every hour, on the hour, at 9, 10 and 11 am, and then at 1, 2, 3 and 4 pm. Each Hearing can only last an hour, although most (at least those that I conduct) are over in about half that time. All my cases are heard in the Livonia Branch Office of the Michigan Secretary of State's Driver Assessment an Appeal Division Office (DAAD). I only conduct live, in-person Hearings; I will never allow a case of mine to be decided by a "video Hearing."

The Hearing itself commences when the Hearing Officer to which the case has been assigned opens the lobby door from the Hearing room area to the waiting room, and calls the name of the person. He or she holds the door, and my Client and I will go through the door and into the hallway leading to the Hearing Rooms, and then into the Hearing Room of the particular Hearing Officer who will be deciding the case.

Once inside, the Hearing Officer and I will open the proceedings on the Record by having a short discussion about the evidence that has been submitted before the Hearing, and specifying what, if any, additional evidence is to be submitted at the Hearing. The Hearing officer will identify the various documents submitted, and then will mark each as an exhibit. These will include the Substance Abuse Evaluation and the supporting documents that must be submitted along with it, as well as the Letters of Support.

Continue reading "Michigan Driver's License Restoration Appeal Hearing and what Happens" »

I cannot believe that anyone would think that "hiring a Lawyer" for a Michigan Driver's License Restoration means just paying some Attorney to show up for the Hearing, and/or maybe meeting with him or her for a little while beforehand, but apparently, some people do. A recent experience while in the waiting room at the Michigan Secretary of State's Driver Assessment and Appeal Division Hearing Office left me in disbelief about what some people, (including Attorneys), consider the Lawyer's role in a Michigan Driver's License Restoration case.

As I was waiting for a couple of my Hearings to be called at the Driver Assessment and Appeal Division Hearing Offices, I saw 2 situations that made me, as a Michigan Driver's License Restoration Lawyer, cringe in shock. Both involved Lawyers and Clients who, to my mind, were about to blunder into the Hearing Room a million miles from being anywhere what I'd consider "ready" to pursue a License Appeal.

In the first "shocker," I watched as a young lady was called in for her Hearing, and went in with her Lawyer. Her mother stayed behind, and began conversing with my Client and I, as we waited. As a general rule, I really don't get into specific legal discussions with anyone but my own Client for a lot of different reasons. The lady with whom we were speaking mentioned that her daughter had flown in from another state the night before because she was sick of losing every attempt to get a "Clearance" of the Michigan hold on her Driving Record by filing an Administrative Review, which is a mail-in Appeal. I politely responded that coming back to Michigan is a good idea, because 3 out of 4 Administrative Reviews lose.

She next indicated that the family had decided to do it "right" this time, and had hired a Lawyer. While I'd never seen this particular Lawyer before, I reserved judgment. Then, she dropped the shocker: She said her daughter had just gotten in last night, and went from the airport to meet with her Lawyer for the first time. I just smiled, but could not stop thinking about how far short such an arrangement fell from properly doing a License Appeal. This meant that the Lawyer had no input into or control over the evidence submitted when the Appeal had been filed, and was just walking into the Hearing room to deal with whatever had been filed with the state by his Client, having exercised no quality control over it. This Lawyer was, quite literally, just going along for the ride.

I cannot imagine being part of any case in which I have not had complete control over every single detail of the case, and the evidence within it. Putting together a winning case means charting out a plan before the first step is ever taken in a License Appeal case. This is something I take very seriously. In fact, I won't touch or take over a case that I haven't built right from the start.

The reader already likely knows that to begin a License Appeal, a person has to file a document called a "Substance Abuse Evaluation." Before you ever even think about having an Evaluation completed, you'll meet with me for 3 hours to go over, line by line, everything it asks about. I'll fill out my own special form, called a "Substance Abuse Evaluation Checklist" that I'll have you give to the Evaluator so that she has every relevant detail needed to properly complete this form. On top of that, I'll make sure you have your Evaluation done right, by an experienced and skilled Counselor who knows exactly what information the Michigan Secretary of State wants. The Clinic I use to have my Evaluations completed is located just a few blocks from my Office. My purpose in using this Clinic, however, has nothing to do with its convenience or affordability (they charge about $200 for an Evaluation, which is far less than plenty of other places), and everything to do with the top-shelf quality of the Evaluations they produce.

Continue reading "Avoiding the Wrong kind of Lawyer for a Michigan Driver's License Restoration Appeal" »

Preparing your Michigan Driver's License Restoration or Clearance case is different than preparing you for your actual Restoration or Clearance Hearing. I have written extensively about how, as a Michigan Driver's License Restoration Lawyer, I put together a License Appeal case. Once that case has been assembled and filed, the next step is a live Hearing. In this article, I will examine why preparation for this next stage is so important. Given that I Guarantee I'll win your License back the first time around, I wouldn't place such emphasis on this if I didn't really believe that a thorough Hearing prep is critical to winning.

There's an old saying that applies to Lawyers who take testimony of any kind: Never ask a question if you don't already know the answer. In a License Appeal case, we can add something to that, and it's about the person trying to win back their License: You should never be asked a question you haven't been asked before. This is really another way of saying that there should be no surprises. While that's true, there is a lot more to prepare for in a License Hearing than just the questions you'll be asked.

As I explain when you first come in, I'll have your Hearing scheduled live, in the Livonia Branch Office of the Michigan Secretary of State's Driver Assessment and Appeal Division, known as the DAAD. I never do a "video Hearing." And I never call witnesses. As I've pointed out in other articles, live Hearings are far superior to some webcam hookup, flickering video thing, and calling witnesses to testify is almost always an amateur mistake.

To even begin to properly prepare for a Hearing, we have to know which particular Hearing Officer will be deciding your case. Each Hearing Officer has his or her own unique way of conducting a License Hearing. While it's true that they'll all ask some of the same general questions, they'll each have a lot more specific questions unique to what they feel is important in a License Appeal. In addition, many of the Hearing Officers will ask an entirely different set of questions of someone who does not go to AA than they will of someone who does attend AA meetings. For what it's worth, more than half of my Clients do not go to AA, meaning AA involvement is absolutely not necessary to win your License back, although knowing how to talk about why you do, or do not go, is.

I suppose every Lawyer has his or her own way of prepping their Clients. I cannot imagine any Lawyer not making this an important and separate part of the License Appeal process. Surprisingly, I have heard that not every Attorney schedules a "prep session" with the Client before the Hearing. I'll skip being polite here, and will just be blunt instead: If that's not part and parcel of your Lawyer's standard procedure, you need to get your money back before you blunder into that Hearing room.

Over more than 22 years, I have refined how I do things, and for the last decade or so, I have found that the best way to carefully and thoroughly prepare a Client for their Hearing is to do it the night before, or close to it. "Night," in this case, means just that; it means after hours, when I'm at home, and the Office is closed, and there are no distractions. When we get on the phone, you and I are, to my mind, 2 of the only 3 people in the world who matter. The 3rd, of course, is the Hearing Officer before whom we will be appearing the next day.

Continue reading "Preparing for your Michigan Driver's License Restoration Hearing" »

I have written rather extensively about how a Michigan DUI case actually works, and about the steps involved. The various sections on the Drunk Driving section of my website provides a thorough overview of that process, and the numerous DUI articles on this blog combine to assemble a pretty comprehensive examination of all the details involved in defending someone against a DUI charge. This article will be very different. Although I want to continue to focus, in a general sense, on how DUI cases are handled, in this installment, I want to zero in on what is really one of the most important, yet least talked about aspects of being a Michigan DUI Lawyer; having a keen instinct about knowing what to do.

As a DUI Lawyer, I have certain, specialized knowledge. This becomes really clear if I have to explain something about DUI's to a Lawyer who works in a different field, like civil lawsuits. Beyond specialized knowledge, I have rather specialized experience. In my case, I limit my Drunk Driving Practice to Macomb, Oakland and Wayne Counties. I regularly appear in the same Courts. This means I really know how things work there.

Last week, for example, as a result of knowing exactly how to do and schedule and maneuver things in each particular Court, after having "moved" a case around in just the right way for the last few months, I was able to get a DUI charge dismissed and spare my Client a Drunk Driving conviction. This was a direct result of just "knowing" how things work in that specific Court.

The recipe thus far, then, has 2 ingredients: Specialized knowledge coupled with repeat experience doing the same thing in the same places. If you think about it for a moment, however, it would seem that "repeat experience" should give rise to something more than just a lack of being surprised at what happens. It should mean that a person has developed an instinct, or a kind of "sense" about things. We rather take this for granted in a medical context, like when a Surgeon, talking about what may or may not happen in an upcoming procedure, says something like "I really won't know until I'm in there." We understand that to mean that, based upon a mountain of experience, he or she will just "know" what to do. We expect airline Pilots to "know" how to land a plane in windy conditions based upon their "instinct" and "feel."

"Instinct," in that sense, isn't anything learned in a book, nor obtained from studying. Beyond just repeat experience, "instinct" usually involves something a person is naturally good at. Consider this: I like bowling. I learned to bowl as a youngster, and even bowled in a youth league. I bowled a lot, and certainly learned the mechanics and rules of bowling early on. For some reason, however, I just never became very good at it. My high game (I think it was a 178) was lower than the "average" of many people I know. Thus, you could say that I "know" bowling, but I have no real instinct for it. In fact, I remember other bowlers talking about the lanes having been recently oiled, and how that would affect their "hooks," and how they'd have to bowl a few practice frames to get a "feel" for how to adjust their throws. For me, all that meant nothing.

Fortunately, I am a much better DUI Lawyer than I ever was a bowler. I sometimes wonder about that; am I a good DUI Lawyer because I like it, or do I like being a DUI Lawyer because I'm good at it? I think it's a little of both, and each feeds the other. This, of course, works distinctly to my Client's advantage, because it means that I just "know" when to hold out for things to get better, or when to move forward, because they won't.

Continue reading "Michigan DUI cases - The Instinct to make Things Better" »

In a Michigan Driver's License Restoration or Clearance case, a person's "Recovery Story" takes front and center stage. In fact, the whole License Appeal process before the Michigan Secretary of State's Driver Assessment and Appeal Division is really a close-up and critical examination of that story. If you intend to file an Appeal with the Michigan Secretary of State to win your License back, or to win a Clearance of the Hold placed against your Driving Record, you are going to need to be able to tell your Recovery Story. That's what I'm here for.

Perhaps you tell your story again and again at the tables of AA, or maybe you used to go, but not anymore. If so, then you've probably had some experience talking about your transformation from drinker to non-drinker. If you've never been to AA, then you probably haven't ever had to talk much about that part of your life. Whether you talk about it regularly, or never really give it much thought, the change you underwent when you decided to quit drinking is a story, and a pretty dramatic one, at that.

It is not uncommon for someone to have quit drinking, and then changed the way they live, eliminate alcohol from their lives and simply move on. For these people, living without alcohol has truly become second nature. And while that's great, and part of what the state is looking for in the context of a License Clearance or Restoration case, it's really only part of the story. In the previous article about not over-complicating a Michigan License Appeal, I focused on Sobriety, and how that is a central part of a person's "Recovery story." This article will be about that story.

My task, as a Michigan License Restoration Lawyer is to help you put the words the story of your transition from drinker to Sober person. If you've clicked around this blog, or my website, you've seen that I have no trouble with words. Beyond finding the right words for your story, however, my job also requires helping you go back in time to recall and properly describe who you used to be, and what your life was like right up to the point of your last drink. While that sounds easy enough, we have to get all that done in a space about 1/5 the size of this article. In a winning License Appeal, every single word either helps, or hurts you; there is no middle ground. Anyone who has tried a License Appeal before knows this all too well.

To do this, I have to get to know you and your life's story in a comparatively short period of time. I'll have to cut to the heart of certain matters, in mere minutes, that therapists may take years probing. Of course, it helps that you've at least worked through these things. All the same, it's like I'm taking a core sample, drilling through layers (and often years) of gratitude and Recovery all the way through denial and consequence and shame. This isn't just your typical "Lawyer stuff," either. It requires me to be part Biographer, part Counselor, part Lawyer and part Writer.

In many of my other Driver's License Restoration articles, I note that I have made a decades-long study of alcohol and addiction issues. I have constantly read and updated my understanding of the process of alcoholism, and Recovery. Ive even gone back to graduate school and earn a Graduate Certificate in Addiction Studies. While this program is limited to those who already have a graduate degree in a related field (it was humbling to realize that, here, my Law Degree didn't mean so much) and who primarily treat patients with alcohol and addiction disorders, I felt that the perspective and skills those professionals have will help me as I help re-trace each Client's path to Recovery. I'm sure the reader finds this a bit "different" from what most other Lawyers write as they explain how they do License Restorations, but at least I hope that my passion for this chosen Practice specialty stands out. It is this passion and drive to do everything the best it can be done that allows me to Guarantee that I'll win your case.

Continue reading "Recovery and Sobriety as the Focus of a Michigan Driver's License Restoration or Clearance case" »

Within the many Driver's License Restoration articles on this blog, and in the various License Restoration sections of my website, I break the Michigan Driver's License Appeal process down and make a detailed, thorough examination of how each step works. I do this because I'm a "detail person." If I'm going to have some work done, whether on my home, my car, or even medically, on my body, I am interested in learning the details about it. That's me. Not surprisingly, many of my Clients are also "detail people," and they will comment that it was the amount of detail that I go into which drew them to my blog, or site, in the first place.

Some people, however, are the opposite; they don't care about all the details, they just want the work done right the first time, and are far more interested in the results, and not what produces those results. I get a lot of calls from these people, too. In most cases, I assume they just look at how much information I have written about the License Appeal process, and figure that I'm the expert. That's kind of flattering, but it also brings a few problems, as well. Perhaps the biggest is that these "just get it done" people don't read enough to discover that Sobriety is a first and necessary requirement to win a Michigan License Clearance or Restoration case, and that it is one of the first inquiries I'll be making of anyone who contacts me.

Somewhere in between the microscopic detail that interests me, as a Michigan Driver's License Restoration Lawyer, and the "just get it done" attitude that others have, lies the real heart of a License Appeal. I have described the License Appeal process as being, in part, about navigating "a million little rules." Doing that is my job, however, and the whole point, really, of anyone hiring me in the first place is to make sure I take care of all that. In this article, we'll deliberately try to avoid over-complicating things, and focus on what's really the core issue of a License Appeal: Sobriety.

As I've also noted in various other articles, a person does not need to be in AA in order to win their License back. It is a common misconception that a person needs to be in AA in order to win a License Appeal. More than half of my Clients are not active in AA at the time we file their cases. With a first time win rate of nearly 98%, and a Guarantee that I will win any case I file, I speak with more than a little authority on this topic. AA is helpful, but far from necessary.

Some of my Clients, however, are in AA. As I see it, the advantage these Clients have is that they'll be a bit more familiar with the way we talk about Recovery, and the language we'll be using in drafting their Recovery story. Thus, when I talk about the moment a person became sick and tired of being sick and tired, someone in AA will instinctively understand that. If I'm talking with someone not in AA, they might just recognize this better when it's described as the moment a "switch flipped," or as their "a-ha" moment.

The larger point here is that in order to win a Michigan License Restoration Appeal, AA is not necessary. But Sobriety is.

Sometimes, a person trying to do their own License Appeal will contact me and, having figured out that Sobriety is a key component of the process, will ask, "How do I prove Sobriety?" That's a good question, but there is no simple answer. On top of that, the question itself, while important, does not cover the entire core of a License Appeal, either. In other words, while asking, and then answering the question "how does a person prove Sobriety?" is important in a License Appeal, there's a lot more to it than that. In order to win a License Appeal, a person really has to put forth their whole Recovery story. And if that's not enough, they have to be able to get it done in far less space than this article. That's where I come in.

Continue reading "Winning back your Michigan Driver's License - Don't Over-Complicate it" »

If you used to have a Michigan Driver's License that was Revoked because you had several DUI's, and you've moved to another state, you either need, or will need a Clearance of the Michigan Revocation that's currently on your Driving Record. About one-half of the Clients I help in my role as a Michigan Driver's License Restoration Lawyer now live outside of Michigan. Some of them have never been able to obtain a License in their new state. Others were able to get a License, but now learn that they are or will be unable to renew it once it expires.

I can get that Clearance for you so that you can drive again, or keep driving. If you're not drinking, I Guarantee that I'll win your case the first time. If you're eligible to start the proceedings to get a Michigan Clearance, the real cost of not doing it right the first time is losing your case and having to wait another year to try again. This can really hurt if you currently have a valid License from another state that's about to expire, and cannot be renewed because the Michigan "Hold" has caught up with it.

It is understandable that anyone needing a Clearance wants to know if they can do this without having to come back to Michigan, and even without having to hire a Lawyer. Theoretically, it can be done. Realistically, it's a bad idea. In the year 2010, the last year for which Official statistics are available, the Michigan Secretary of State DENIED 74% of all Appeals filed from out of state where a person did not come back to Michigan. 875 of these Appeals, called "Administrative Reviews," were filed, and 650 of them lost. On the bright side, about one out of four actually did win...

Within my Practice, a large number of my current out-of-state Clients are individuals who tried an Administrative Review the year before, and lost. Bolstered by my Guarantee to win their case the first time, they make the trip to meet with me and get the process underway. In turn, having made sure that they really are Sober, I know that they are just 2 trips back to Michigan away from being able to drive again, or keep a valid License in their wallet.

Those who have tried their luck on a "do-it-yourself" Administrative Review and lost very often call my Office right after they've learned they've been Denied, and want to talk about an appeal. I have to explain to them that an appeal from a loss is invariably a waste of time and money. An appeal from a lost Administrative Review is not a chance to try all over again; rather, it is a chance to argue, based solely on the evidence previously submitted, that the Hearing Officer was legally wrong. I don't take these cases, so I tell the caller they'll have to wait until next year, when they can file a new one.

An Administrative Appeal is not Denied because someone does everything right. There is precisely about a zero chance that hiring a Lawyer to appeal such a Denial is going to change anything except the balance in a person's bank account. This is what is meant by the phrase "throwing good money after bad." In that regard, all the money a person tried to save the first time will probably fall far short of the expense and hassle of not being able to drive for another year. I can't tell you how many times someone has said they wish they'd have found my site before they plowed into the License Clearance or Restoration process on their own.

Continue reading "Clearance of a Michigan DUI Hold on your Driving Record " »