Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
As Michigan driver’s license restoration lawyers, my team and I pride ourselves on being honest. We play by the rules, yet guarantee to win every first time license appeal case we take. We do that “fair and square.” A recent license restoration caller to our office paid us a very high compliment about our honesty, and it is the inspiration for this piece. She said that after having spent quite a bit of time on this blog and our site, she was impressed by how clear we are about requiring our clients to be genuinely sober. Even so, she wondered if we really meant all of it.
She found out, once she called our office. We asked her a series of questions to determine whether or not she really had quit drinking. At the end of the conversation, she offered her assessment of our firm, and even suggested we use it as a “jingle” of sorts: We’re not just truth speakers, we’re truth seekers. Specifically, she expressed a pleasant surprise that our questions over the phone mirrored what we had written about making sure that anyone we represent really has quit drinking, and doesn’t use any other substances, either.
A few days later, I mentioned this to my wife while we were having dinner. I then reminded her of an anecdote I bring up every once in a while in my articles. One time, some years ago, I had to refer a good friend of mine to a longtime colleague for a liquor license matter. When I called my lawyer pal, we chatted for a bit, caught up on each other’s lives. I then told him that he was my first choice because I knew him to be a genuinely good and honest man. He thanked me, and then laughed, observing that being honest had cost him a lot of money over the course of his career.
Unfortunately, what he said is rather true. Being honest means that we have to say “no” a lot of cases offered up to us. If our firm didn’t have a guarantee in driver’s license restoration and clearance appeal cases, and we took every client who was willing to pay us, we’d make a ton of money. To be sure, our guarantee is a by-product of being honest driver’s license restoration lawyers, but the reader might find it hard to believe just how many people are willing to hand over their money for even a mere shot at getting their license back.
Our firm doesn’t deal in “shots,” however. If we take a license restoration case, it comes with a guarantee: You’ll only pay us once, and you WILL win the restoration of your driver’s license, or the clearance of a Michigan hold on your driving record. Our guarantee not only protects the client from risking his or her money, it also prevents us from ever taking a case that we can’t make into a winner. The reason is simple: Once we take a case, we are obligated to stick with it until the client does win.
From a business point of view, the last thing our firm ever wants to do is take a case we can’t win, wind up losing, and then be obligated to do the whole thing all over again, for free, as “warranty work.” That’s double the work for half the pay.
No thanks….
We’re not just honest, we’re also successful, as well. My team and I have spent decades building and maintaining a reputation as honest driver’s license restoration lawyers who carefully screen every client to make sure he or she is genuinely sober. That is, without question, the basis of our success.
We are confident that nobody in the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office of Hearings and Administrative Oversight (OHAO – the body that decides driver’s license restoration cases) ever sees our name attached to a file and wonders if the case is solid or not.
As a matter of principle, we have NEVER taken, and we NEVER WILL file a case for someone who we don’t truly believe to be sober.
For us, this goes a lot deeper than merely not getting found out trying to pass off some BS about not drinking. My team and I pour our hearts and souls into every driver’s license restoration case we take. We do this because we understand how much effort a person puts into getting and staying sober. In a very real way, a person who quits drinking and adopts a sober lifestyle earns the right to drive again, and deserves to win his or her license appeal.
Indeed, for most sober people, getting their license back is the last piece to fit in the puzzle of their lives. My team and I build our cases on the honest-to-goodness foundation of a person’s transformation from drinker to non-drinker. It seems obvious when I say it, but the simple fact is that we can’t be honest driver’s license restoration lawyers without having honest clients.
Yet for all of this, it’s not as if our firm is the final word in truth-telling. The hearing officers who decide these cases know they’re going to be lied to every single day. The are EXPERTS at detecting BS. The whole point of their job is to ask questions to confirm that anyone going through the license appeal process really has quit drinking, and has both the ability and commitment to live an alcohol and substance-free life (this includes recreational marijuana, as well).
The hearing officers expect people who haven’t completely given up alcohol to claim that they have. Anyone can say they’ve quit drinking, and a few people may have picked up enough in previous counseling or AA meetings to almost sound like they have.
Almost – but not quite.
No matter what, there is one critical difference between real sobriety and anything less, and that’s the very real improvement in a person’s quality of life. Once a person who has had any kind of problematic relationship to alcohol actually does quit drinking for good, the changes in his or her life are dramatic.
I won’t detour into any of that here, but an important part of what my team and I do is draw out those details of a person’s recovery story and fit them within the framework of a winning license appeal case. Those “details” are things that simply can’t be faked. That’s why we can guarantee to win every case we take. And that, in turn, is why we ask the probing questions that we do.
We’ll take the compliment that we’re not just truth speakers, we’re also truth seekers, because, as honest driver’s license restoration lawyers – it’s the truth!
If you are looking for a lawyer to win back your driver’s license or clear a Michigan hold on your driving record, be a wise consumer and read around. Pay attention to how different lawyers break down the license appeal process, and how they explain their various approaches to it.
This blog is a great place to start. We have over 650 fully searchable articles in the driver’s license restoration section to-date, and add 2 new articles each week. There is more genuinely useful information here than can be found and and everywhere else combined. However, don’t take our word for it – look around and compare for yourself.
Once you’ve done enough reading, start calling around. You can learn a lot by speaking with a live person. Our firm can handle your license appeal case no matter where you live, so make sure you give us a ring, as well.
All of our consultations are free, confidential, and done over the phone, right when you call. My team and I are very friendly people who will be glad to answer your questions, explain things, and even compare notes with anything some other lawyer has told you.
We can be reached Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 pm. (EST) at either 248-986-9700, or 586-465-1980.