Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
I Guarantee that I will win any Michigan Driver’s License Restoration or Clearance case that I accept. I never dreamed that my Guarantee could become such an important focus of my whole License Restoration Practice, yet the number of Clients that mention it as a reason for hiring me, or at least giving me and my Office a closer look, has really surprised me. I’m very glad for that, of course, yet I think that, given the way I handle a Michigan Driver’s License Appeal case, NOT having a Guarantee would be crazy.
For the longest time, I have maintained an overall win rate somewhere around 97 or 98% in License Restoration cases. I am proud of the results that I achieve, and truly enjoy the work I do to produce them. I have been extremely candid and open about what I do, and how I do it both on the Driver’s License Restoration section of this blog, and on my website.
For about 20 years, I have studied and maintained a keen interest in the whole panorama of alcohol and substance abuse problems, from their onset and development to the methods and tests by which such problems are diagnosed, to their treatment, and ultimately, through the entire Recovery process. This is not just accumulated knowledge, either; I actually study this stuff. As of this writing, I am reading a textbook for Counselors called “Treating Alcoholism: Helping Your Clients Find the Road to Recovery” by Robert R. Perkinson. In that sense, I suppose I am different from many other Lawyers, for whom such reading would be boring beyond compare. For me, it goes right to the heart of what I do every single day; deal with Recovery from a drinking problem.
Of course, I know that my understanding of the development of an alcohol problem, and the Recovery from it, plays a significant role in my success as a Michigan Driver’s License Restoration Lawyer. Perhaps the most important legal issue in a Michigan License Appeal case is that a person’s alcohol problem “is likely to remain under control.” Because this must be proven to the state by “Clear and Convincing Evidence,” a detailed understanding of the internal, psychological processes by which a person transforms from drinker to non-drinker seems, at least to me, to be a minimum requirement to accept a License Appeal case. In other words, as the Lawyer, I have to know and understand the language of Recovery. Since most of my Clients are not active in AA, I need to be able to help them describe how and why they became alcohol-free, and to explain how they plan to remain that way. I could not do this if I didn’t have a fundamental understanding of the onset and development of an alcohol problem, its progressive nature, the role of AA, and Recovery without AA.
I have a thorough understanding of alcohol problems. I do not take cases where a person is not really and truly Sober. With those things and lots of hard work, I win almost every Michigan License Restoration case I take. The recipe may sound simple, but these are the ingredients for success.
Given my background, the fact that I don’t just take any old case, but actually do require a person to be Sober, and that Michigan License Appeals are the bread and butter of what I do, why wouldn’t I offer my Guarantee? If most of what I say is true, then I should be able to back up my “expertise,” shouldn’t I? In that sense, my Guarantee is no big thing, but rather a logical extension of my experience, knowledge and skill. Frankly, it would be more surprising if I DIDN’T offer my Guarantee. Why wouldn’t anybody put their money where their mouth is, so to speak?
Fortunately, unlike most other legal proceedings, a License Appeal is mostly a matter of controlled variables. There is a very specific process that needs to be followed. While there is always some degree of interpretation on the part of the Hearing Officer, who is the Administrative Law Examiner for the Michigan Secretary of State’s Driver’s Assessment and Appeal Division (DAAD) regarding the evidence presented, my “recipe” is to make sure that evidence is well beyond just “good enough,” to win, thereby leaving little to chance.
It all begins with Sobriety. I have written extensively about Sobriety as a first requirement in a Michigan License Appeal, and have examined Abstinence and Recovery and Sobriety from almost every possible angle. I have been abundantly clear that I will never take a case for anyone who is still drinking, or who thinks they can “handle” a drink every now and then. Almost every day, Ann, my Senior Assistant, will tell me someone called about a License Appeal, but that she had to turn them away, because, as she’ll say, “he’s still drinking,” or “she thinks she can still drink once in a while.” By the numbers, I wind up turning away a lot of money.
However, neither my integrity nor my reputation is for sale. I win cases and believe in the work I do because I help Sober people win back their License, or at least win a Clearance so that they can get a License outside of Michigan. Beyond merely pumping up my own ego with a high win rate and preserving a reputation for only accepting people who have quit drinking, I never have to second-guess myself for putting someone who still drinks back on the road, where they could injure or kill themselves or another person. Honestly, if someone has lost their License for multiple DUI convictions and is still drinking, I wouldn’t want to have any part in helping them get back behind the wheel.
As I think about it, I cannot imagine NOT offering my win Guarantee. I don’t see it as anything extraordinary or special, but rather as a basic, integral part of my Driver’s License Restoration Practice. That said, I could not imagine anyone shelling out their money to a Lawyer who does not inquire about their Sobriety, and make a requirement of it in the first place. The absence of Sobriety as a threshold requirement for accepting anyone’s case tells me that such a Lawyer either doesn’t fully understand the License Appeal process, or, worse yet, will just take anyone’s money and give it a go. I can guarantee that I do not and will not do that by – every bit of a pun intended here – offering my Guarantee.