Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
In this article, I want to zero in on that feeling – that special moment – when a person caught up in a DUI (or really any other legal mess) just “knows” his or her relationship to alcohol has become troubled, or at least is no longer able to deny to themselves that their drinking is causing problems. In that context, one of the best observations I’ve ever heard is that “anything that causes a problem IS a problem.” This kind of dovetails with a well-known AA slogan: “I didn’t get in trouble every time I drank, but every time I got in trouble, I had been drinking.” If you’re facing an OWI, or some other kind of criminal charge or problem (like a probation violation for alcohol), and you’re wondering if your drinking might be part of the reason, the answer is almost certainly “yes.”
You haven’t spent much time wondering if something else is the problem, have you? Did it ever cross your mind that you’re sitting in the back of a cop car because you eat too much pizza, or work out too often, or watch more TV than you should? The point I’m driving at is that once you get any kind of nagging feeling that something’s up with your drinking, it almost always is. The simple truth is that alcohol screws more lives up than you could ever imagine. I see it every single day. If you could do my job for any length of time, you would have a front row seat to watch people going out and getting in trouble again and again, all because of drinking.
It’s often said that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.” When it comes to racking up DUI’s or other criminal charges after drinking, people frequently live in a state of denial, while everyone around them sees their use of alcohol as the real problem. Whatever else, there has probably NEVER been an occasion, in the history of the world, where someone has had that sinking feeling that their drinking has become a problem and been wrong about it. So how do we deal with this?
We’ll begin by restating what is far more overlooked than obvious: you have an absolute right to remain silent. We’ll get into this more later, but the day before this article was written, I met with a client who hired me after he spoke to a police detective and was subsequently arrested and charged with a crime. Because he is a nice guy who has never been in trouble before, my client naively asked the detective if it was a good idea to be talking to him, and if he should get a lawyer first. The detective, for his part, answered the question rather diplomatically, and replied, “I can’t tell you what to do.” Of course, my client now understands that he should not have said a word.
First things first: the ENTIRE driver’s license restoration and clearance process is based upon the idea that you are sober, meaning you have quit drinking, and also have the ability and commitment to remain alcohol-free for life. Getting your license back is intended to be difficult as the rules governing Michigan Secretary of State (SOS) license appeals are written in order to deny a license to anyone who cannot prove they are a low to minimal risk to ever drink again. Practically speaking, you must have been alcohol-free for the better part of 18 months before filing, and need to make clear that you harbor no idea that you can ever take another sip of alcohol, for any reason, at any time for the rest of your life.
Let’s begin with the obvious: a lawyer should carefully examine everything to see if there is some way to beat the case; my team and I certainly will. In my office, for example, it’s standard practice to obtain the police car dash-cam video in every DUI case that comes in. While you certainly won’t find anything wrong with the evidence unless you look for it, the simple truth is that the police usually don’t screw things up catastrophically, anyway. Thus, when the evidence is strong enough to withstand a legal challenge, we negotiate a plea bargain that reduces a 3rd offense felony down to a 2nd offense misdemeanor, or at least work out a more lenient sentence agreement that shines like a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel.
The lifting of restrictions and the interlock requirement by the SOS is technically called a “change and removal of restrictions.” The “step up“ from a restricted to a full license is NOT automatic. In the real world, a license appeal for someone with a sobriety court issued restricted license is kind of like a hybrid combination of a first time license appeal for someone who didn’t do sobriety court and who had to get his or her restricted license through the regular restoration process, and a “full” license appeal for those people when they later become eligible.
As I sit here writing this, I have 2 hearings the next day, and I’ve already prepped 1 of the clients, who is coming from Pennsylvania. Getting ready for a hearing really does require that I memorize the file, and not just do some quickie “review” of it. Before I ever read anything, however, I confirm which hearing officer will be deciding the case. Every hearing officer is unique, and they each have their own areas of particular interest, and that not only directs my focus, but what I emphasize to my client. To be sure, all the hearing officers share the same core group of concerns and ask some of the same questions, but there are also areas that, while important to some, are of little or no interest to others, and vice-versa. Knowing this is key to making sure I concentrate on the more important aspects of any particular file, and, in turn, preparing the client for the questions that will be asked regarding that. For example, if someone attends AA (although most of my clients do NOT), one hearing officer may want him or her to repeat a few steps of the program, while another will skip any specific questions like that and ask, instead, how often the person goes, and if he or she intends to keep going.
For anyone with a case in Oakland, Macomb or Wayne County, a “local” lawyer is not limited merely to one whose office is in the same city or county where the charge has been brought. Although that definition is overly narrow, it’s worse to have no concept of “local” when it comes to hiring a lawyer. I am, often enough, contacted by people from distant counties who want to hire me, and while that’s flattering, I have to explain that I keep it “local” by limiting my criminal and DUI practice to the various district and circuit courts of Oakland, Macomb and Wayne Counties (this is in stark contrast to my driver’s license restoration practice, which is statewide). Because of the geographic limitations on where I travel for court, I have no experience with how things are done elsewhere. As good as some attorney may be, one of the worst thing a person can do is to pay for him or her to make a “special trip” to some court where he or she does not practice regularly.
his is important, because too many lawyers are hesitant to address this head on, and instead talk like probation violations are almost always based on false accusations. Sure, there are times when a person is wrongly accused of violating (for things like a “dilute” urine screen that wasn’t intentional, but the result is treated as if it’s positive), but most of the time, the reason for a probation violation isn’t in dispute, like when a person misses a test, or gets caught drinking or smoking weed. In these situations, the thing you need most is a lawyer who can save your a$$ and talk the Judge out of locking you up. It’s exactly right here that, for a lawyer, being charismatic and persuasive beats the hell out of all the legal knowledge in the world. While only a small number of probation violations are factually unfounded, even fewer (as in almost none) will be won because of some scholarly, technical legal argument.
Judges are all people, and just like everyone else, every Judge in every court is different. No matter how well-spoken a lawyer may be, knowing the idiosyncrasies and inclinations of your particular Judge is a starting point to knowing what to say, and, equally important, what not to say, at sentencing. Every professional athlete, for example, studies his or her opposition. In football, each team watches film of the other team; same with any fighting sport, like boxing or MMA. If I’m representing a 2nd time DUI offender in a jurisdiction without a sobriety court and who I’d like to transfer into a different jurisdiction’s sobriety court program, I had better know if his or her Judge will allow that. There are some Judges who will not transfer a case, no matter what, so not only is asking for that a total waste of time as a sentencing strategy, but then you have to ask, what has a lawyer done to help the client in a case that’s not going anywhere? That’s like bringing chopsticks to a soup dinner.
After completing the alcohol assessment, you will then go through an interview with a probation officer (PO). The end result of all this is a written sentencing recommendation drafted by the probation officer that must be sent to the Judge to be used when you stand before him or her for sentencing. This recommendation lists specific things that the probation department believes you should be ordered to do (and not be permitted to do) as a result of your charge, including counseling and/or treatment.