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?
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.
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.
Here, in part 4 we’ll see how this all comes together at the last stage of the court process – the sentencing. This is when you finally stand in front of the Judge to find out what’s going to happen to you. As I noted before, most of what will be handed down by the Judge comes directly from the probation department’s report.
By law, any person who pleads guilty to or is convicted of an alcohol-related traffic offense (
Here, in part 2, we’ll begin looking at the beginning of the court process in DUI cases. The first legal step in the court setting is called an arraignment. In many DUI cases, this whole step (and, therefore, the need to show up in court for it) can be waived by your lawyer. Some courts, however, like Detroit, Rochester Hills and St. Clair Shores, usually don’t allow that.
As a Michigan DUI lawyer, I concentrate my practice in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne Counties, so our examination will focus on how things play out here, in the Tri-County, Metro-Detroit area. Rather than 1 or 2 long installments, I have chosen to break this article into 4 much shorter pieces for easier and quicker reading.
In this article, I want to very briefly introduce each court, its Judges, and the municipalities within the jurisdiction of each. There are 10 Judges assigned to these 4 courts, and they have some predictable similarities, but also some some interesting differences. Yes, some are tougher than others, which means, on the flip side, that some are more lenient than others. These more “delicate” issues are best discussed within the confidence of the attorney-client relationship and in the privacy of the conference room. And if you read that last sentence as a skillfully worded deflection, you’re right.
It is a given that nobody sets out to develop a drinking problem. Sure, there are some people who, by their partying behavior and wild attitude, seemed destined to run headfirst into one, but had you ever confronted them during the time they were acting all crazy and drinking too much, they would have dismissed your concerns. The point is that when a problem begins to develop within a person, he or she is almost always the most blind to it, and usually the last to see it – if they ever do. The sad truth is that most people either don’t ever see themselves as having an alcohol problem or, if they do, are unable to get over it. Thus, it is a starting point for any discussion of recovery that most alcoholics (that term is used loosely here, and really means anyone whose drinking has begun to cause problems) DO NOT recover. In fact, from what we have come to know about the development, diagnosis and treatment of alcohol use disorders, the simple fact remains that recovery is far more the exception than it is the rule.
This is significant because people often make the mistake of rushing to some lawyer they think can save them, and thus buying into what they want to hear at the moment, when they’re scared. A person will hop online and get just enough information to start freaking out, and then fall prey to the kind of fear-based marketing that I deplore. To be clear, if you have a professional license, you are certainly going to have to report your DUI, but that’s often all there is to it. In the healthcare world, for example, a DUI will almost certainly result in some kind of discipline, but any kind of license suspension is highly unlikely in a 1st offense case if things are handled properly. That said, a suspension is all but certain if it is discovered (and it will be discovered, so you can’t hide it) that a person failed to report a drinking and driving conviction. Within my DUI practice, I represent a lot of people with medical and nursing licenses. To this day, I have NEVER had any client of mine have his or her license revoked, and, as a DUI lawyer, I’ve handled countless 1st offense cases and plenty of 2nd offense cases for medical professionals.