Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
As a Michigan driver’s license restoration and DUI lawyer, I believe that I am without equal in the volume and quality of information I put up on this blog. In addition, I have a pretty good website, and a new one is in the works and should launch in the next couple of months. As the previous article about my first 3-hour meeting with a new driver’s license restoration client makes clear, there are simply no shortcuts to doing things right, and while my website is good, it is this blog where my various sections on criminal law, driver’s license restoration, DUI, indecent exposure, and probation really examine these subjects in exacting detail. In this article, I want to explain to the reader how much this blog reflects my ideas, methods, passion, and voice.
As usual, there is an inspiration for all of this. Lately, my email has been filling up with offers from all kinds of outside writers to contribute an article to my blog, along with all kinds of cross-link schemes and ways to advertise, host advertising, and otherwise, supposedly, make money. To be 100% clear, for now and forever, I am not interested. I have written every single word on this blog. Every idea here is mine. Everything that is right about this blog comes from me, and any and everything else is mine, as well. I write the kind of articles I want to read. When my web company first suggested a blog, I was completely turned off, because most of the legal blogs I had seen involved the “writer” taking some old news story and rephrasing it and commenting upon it. I saw nothing instructive or useful in that. I took up the idea to do this blog with the intention to write in my own style, explain how I do things and, to the extent possible, how the law works in the real world, particularly in criminal, driver’s license restoration and DUI cases.
In fact, and precisely because I write everything that goes up here, the reader can rather accurately pick up on my “voice” within my numerous writings. Without ever having to even think about it, there is undoubtedly a consistency throughout my articles, because I wrote them all. Why in the world would I ever have someone else write a “guest” article, unless it was a Judge or a hearing officer writing about his or her experience deciding the kinds of cases I handle? And of course, that couldn’t happen for rather obvious reasons. My goal has always been to answer the most common questions people ask, and to explain how and why things work the way they do. As far as I have seen, no one has come close to doing that anywhere near as well as I have. Yet for as “proud” as that may sound, there is a larger, self-serving interest at play here, as well…
By writing the kind of informational articles that I do, I answer, in advance, a lot of questions that I’d otherwise be asked (and have to answer) later. In other words, one article can answer a question that I might be asked hundreds of times over. And if only 10 or 20 people read that particular article, I still come out ahead in the long run. Beyond that, I can remove some of the mystery about how court cases work, and the various options for handling them. Another benefit, of course, is that in reading an article, a potential client can get my “take” on a particular situation and compare it to how some other lawyer explains things.
Explaining things is important. Handling DUI and license restoration cases has serious, real-life consequences for the people involved. Why would anyone pay me $3600 to handle a DUI when some bargain law operation will “handle” it for half as much? Why would someone pay $100 for shoes when he or she can get some Velcro specials at Walmart for about $20? Well, you can read about all the things that go into a DUI case for yourself on my blog, and learn why I do things the way I do. Other lawyers may have a different approach, and that’s fine; everyone should be a smart consumer and check around. What you’ll often find missing, however, is information. The cut-rate law operations don’t have or keep up blogs, or otherwise get into much detail because, well, they’re cut rate.
Some of the really expensive law firms may employ professional blog writers. You can spot these articles in a heartbeat, because they are incredibly generic. First off, most of these writers are not lawyers. In the case of those that are, and not to be mean-spirited about it, but you’d have to wonder about the career path of any lawyer who writes third party blog articles for a living. I think that it is imperative for me to write from personal experience. Do you, the Michigan DUI reader, give a flying you-know-what about some DUI case or law in California? I don’t. In fact, I really don’t care (and therefore don’t write about) what happens in any court beyond the general Detroit-area, where I practice. I write about what happens in the courts of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne Counties, and, as far as driver’s license restoration cases are concerned, how someone who has a Michigan hold or revocation can get back on the road, regardless in the world where he or she may live.
Nor do I care about anyone’s opinion on some case or law. Unless there is a way to change things, griping about them is just a waste of time. For example, I totally disagree with Michigan’s driver responsibility fee law, but it is what it is, and it’s far better for me to write about what you’ll have to pay, or how to pay less for some qualifying offense than it is for me to voice my meaningless opinion regarding its existence. When I get an email from someone wanting to contribute an article, they will often offer examples of their writing. What am I going to see in that? This person cannot write about handling driver’s license restoration cases or local, Michigan DUI cases, so what would a reader learn from anything some “guest” or professional writer would post?
I write about the real world. I address what my kinds of clients will experience in their cases, and what I can do for them. I explain the law, and then how it works in the backrooms where prosecutors and defense lawyers negotiate. I try to show how things look from the Judge’s perspective, based upon my 25 years as a practicing lawyer. In writing, as I do, I am often required to do research about a point of law, or its application. Make no mistake; my writing has made me a better and more informed lawyer. In fact the act of writing about what I do has made me think about what I do, and has resulted in my refining things in my day-to-day work. In the final analysis, my blog is an invitation to the reader to join me on a hands-on examination of my experience handling some important legal topic about which he or she has searched. I cannot imagine my blog being anything more, or less, and I will never hand the keyboard over to anyone else for even a word otherwise.