Articles Posted in DUI

In our roles as Michigan DUI lawyers, clients always ask us about what will go on (and what can come off) their records. In this article, I want to look at the consequences to a person’s record as the result of ANY alcohol-related traffic conviction. Recently, the Michigan legislature passed a bill to allow for the expungement (technically, the set-aside) of a conviction for at 1st offense OWI (DUI) from a person’s criminal record, but it was not signed into law by the governor, so our discussion here will focus on how things stand now.

One specific question my team and I get asked rather often is whether or not a DUI is a traffic offense, or a criminal charge. The simple answer is that it’s both. Technically speaking, a DUI is a criminal traffic offense because it carries a potential jail sentence, and therefore goes on both a person’s criminal and driving records. By contrast minor traffic offenses, such as speeding, are “civil infractions,” which means they’re not punishable by jail and only carry the potential of a fine and points that can be assessed upon a person’s driving record.

If a person is convicted of a criminal traffic offense, like a DUI, an entry will be made on both his or her criminal record, and his or her driving record. This makes sense when we break it down a bit more: a criminal conviction that does not involve driving or carry any potential driver’s license sanctions will only go on a person’s criminal record. A conviction for a minor traffic offense (like making a prohibited right turn at a red light) that carries no potential jail sentence is classified as a civil infraction, and will only go on someone’s driving record.

In part 1 of this article, we began examining why the Judge to whom a DUI case is assigned plays such an important role in how it will be handled. We noted that there are certain differences between courts that are more about local practice, and are mainstays of the way things are done there, independent of the Judge or Judges who preside there. By contrast, the Judge plays a key role in how other things are done, and that there can even be significant differences between how various Judges working in the same courthouse do things.

I then went on to point out how these differences can show up from the very beginning of a case, and can affect not only the procedures used by one Judge as opposed to the next, but also the time frame within which a DUI case is wrapped up. Just about everyone knows that it’s “better” to have some Judges over others. However, the reality is that there is nothing a person can do about this because each case must be decided in the court that has jurisdiction over the municipality where it arose, and, in courts that have more than one Judge, cases are assigned among them on an actual, blind-draw basis.

By far, one of the biggest concern for my team and I, as Michigan DUI lawyers, is how any particular Judge perceives and “labels” a person’s relationship to alcohol. This directly affects whether or not a person will get off “easy” and just have to go through something like an alcohol-education class (or a few of them), or will instead wind up being required to do all kinds of burdensome counseling and/or treatment. The big and very real risk for anyone going through a DUI is being at the receiving end of a “knee-jerk” reaction by the court to treat everyone as if they do, in fact, have some kind of drinking problem.

As Michigan DUI lawyers, we are in court (or online, “in” court now, during the Coronavirus pandemic), every day, handling the entire gamut of OWI charges. I often point out that in DUI cases, location matters a lot, and that’s why my team and I limit our DUI practice to the local courts of Metro-Detroit (meaning Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Lapeer, Livingston, and St. Clair Counties). We know what will fly, what won’t, and that what might work well with one Judge may completely backfire with another.

Precisely because we don’t take cases all over the state, our extensive experience handling DUI cases before the same Judges, in the same circle of courts, day-in and day-out, enables us to know how to bring about the best results in each of them. This means that the fees we charge buys our experience making things better in these courts. That’s a lot different than some lawyer charging what amounts to tuition, in order to to learn how things are done is some court where he or she doesn’t appear on a regular basis.

The point I want to make in this 2-part article is that it’s the Judge that makes every court what it is, and really every courtroom unique, and therefore different from all others. In a very real way, what is going to happen in any DUI case depends largely on the Judge who will be presiding over it, and how he or she runs things. Most people instinctively “know” this, but they generally don’t know exactly how much the Judge – and his or her personality – really matters in terms of what ultimately happens to a person going through a DUI case.

As Michigan DUI lawyers, we are often asked what a person should do right after a DUI arrest. The simple answer is to find a good DUI attorney by being a smart consumer and reading around. In this article, I want to flip that question around and focus on the single most important thing a person should NOT do when facing a DUI charge – be guided by fear and act too quickly. Although it’s normal to be somewhat freaked out by a DUI arrest, a person should always slow down a little, take a deep breath, and then be guided by reason as they figure things out.

Of course, everyone’s biggest and first fear is being sent to jail. Let me be clear: Jail is almost never on the menu in 1st offense cases here in the Metro-Detroit area (meaning Wayne, Oakland Macomb and the surrounding counties). Unfortunately, it seems that there is money to be made by lawyers who position themselves as being able to save someone from this dreaded fate, even though it’s very unlikely to happen. Playing on a person’s fears in that way, especially when they’re vulnerable after something like a DUI arrest is just plain wrong.

Any lawyer or law firm that behaves in such a way, or that otherwise makes it seem like a person needs to act right away, rather than take some time to look around and compare attorneys, is either morally bankrupt or dangerously ignorant. In either case, such that’s exactly the kind of operation that should be avoided. For all the hype the reader is likely to encounter, remember that winning defenses and successful legal strategies in DUI cases are always the result of careful and deliberate planning, not panicked or rash actions.

One of the more frustrating parts of any professional’s job is explaining something to a person, only to have him or her largely ignore it, and respond with something that’s completely wrong, but that he or she likes better. As Michigan DUI lawyers, we encounter this somewhat regularly. For example, people often wind up hearing (and then believing) all kinds of incorrect things about DUI law (like the legalities of breath testing, or Michigan’s Implied Consent law,) either from someone who is not a lawyer, or from some lawyer who doesn’t concentrate in the DUI field.

This inevitably devolves into a variation on a theme I examine regularly: People are much more attracted to what they want to hear rather, than what they need to hear. While understandable, that’s a huge vulnerability that makes an otherwise rational person susceptible to getting fleeced into paying some lawyer for a result that sounds too good to resist, but just isn’t going to happen. This kind of misinformation is what drives so many weight loss programs, house-flipping schemes, and fitness crazes du jour.

Have you ever met anyone who went from flab to fab using a gizmo they saw on TV? Yet for all the laughs to be had about such gimmicks, there are still loads of people who want to be in shape so much that the idea of getting a beach body by twisting away on some $20 board for a few minutes a day while watching TV sounds awesome, and who gladly pay up. Moreover, the sellers of these products work hard at making such results seem plausible. Remember, though, and as the old saying goes, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” especially when it comes to DUI cases.

As Michigan DUI lawyers, my team and I consider ourselves to be rather good at what we do. I have no doubt that in every DUI case we handle, we manage to bring about the very best result possible. We have more than enough experience and skill to do just that, but there is also a 3rd element to being a good DUI attorney that often gets overlooked: a strong conscience. When we accept a retainer from someone, we feel a moral obligation to do everything possible to make sure we produce the best outcome for him or her.

For everything I can and will say on this subject, it really comes back to the simple principle of treating others as you would wish to be treated. There are certain times in life when you have no choice but to put your trust and well-being into someone else’s hands, and when that happens, you can only hope that person will put his or her heart and soul into the job and look out for you like they’d look out for their own family. We always feel that responsibility when someone puts their trust in us, and we absolutely pour our hearts and souls into the work we do.

If there’s a point to be made here, it’s that all 3 of these ingredients – experience, integrity, and skill – must be present for a lawyer to really be “good.” Who wants a really smart, sharp lawyer that can’t be trusted? On the flip side, what good is the most honest attorney on the planet, if he or she isn’t sharp? In certain fields, like law and medicine, brighter is better, but raw intelligence always needs to be guided by a strong moral compass, as well. This goes a lot deeper than merely not being a crook, and extends to making sure to look out for interests that people don’t even know they have.

As Michigan DUI lawyers, we interact with people facing DUI charges all day, everyday. While statements like “we get to know our clients” are good marketing lines, they really don’t mean anything specific. In the context of a DUI case, the idea of who you are is important on 2 levels: first, so your lawyer can address the specific concerns or issues that you have (ability to drive, professional license, etc.), and second, so that your lawyer can use your “social capital” (meaning trade on the value of what you’ve done in life) to produce a better outcome in your case.

Admittedly, a lot of how things work out in any DUI is a direct consequence of a lawyer’s experience and skill. To a certain extent, a really good lawyer can, especially in terms of presenting the case, make up for some of what the client is missing. It’s worth noting that even when lawyers or well-liked celebrities get in trouble, they always hire a well-spoken lawyer and let him or her do the talking. I know that if I needed an attorney, I’d want want one who was well-groomed and who could talk the leaves off the trees. In this article, however, we’re going to focus on the other side of that equation; the client.