Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
In previous blog articles about my License Restoration Practice, I have noted, albeit somewhat cavalierly, that very often, the best and easiest clients are those who have tried before and lost. Sometimes these individuals were represented by a Lawyer for whom License Restoration cases are not a substantial, bread-and-butter part of their Law Practice. Other times the person goes in on their own, unrepresented.
Whatever the situation, I get the call to come in for the 2nd round.
Fortunately, given the fact that I have had a 100% success rate so far in 2010, and have maintained a win rate of well over 90% for as long as I can remember, none of these “2nd timers” are former Clients of mine. What I do observe is that they come to my office with a fundamental understanding that there are a lot of small details to the License Restoration process, and that failing to take care of any one can be, and often is (as their prior experience indicates), fatal to a case.
I have noticed that beyond being eager to listen, and learn, about the process and all of the many nuances involved, pretty much all of my Clients want to take notes. This is even more so the case for those who are coming to have me represent them for their second Appeal. In fact, it has long been standard procedure for me to hand my Client a pad of paper and a pen so that they can jot down things as we proceed.
Now, given that the first meeting in my office, which is primarily dedicated to preparing for the required Substance Abuse Evaluation, lasts from 2 and a ½ to 3 hours, there is certainly a lot of ground to cover. Once in a while, if I notice the Client listening, but not writing, I’ll slide the notepad over to them and say something you like “you may want to write some of this down.”
In the past, I have had Clients tape record our meeting. I must admit, it feels kind of strange to think about someone listening to you later on, but beyond that, for those who have the patience to listen to nearly 3 hours of information all over again, I think it’s a great idea.
I do note, from my own experience, that even re-reading directions a second and third time seems to add a deeper understanding of whatever it is your trying to figure out. Recently, I was interested in a particular dart game called “Cricket.” As I first read the rules, I more or less said “forget it. This is too complicated.” Still interested, I re-read the directions later, and the picture started to come into focus. Thereafter, I re-read the directions again, and really got a feel for the rules of the game.
I think the same thing holds true for the many “rules” of License Restorations. It is perhaps easy for me to forget, as someone who does these things on an almost daily basis, that my thorough understanding of this rather complicated process has been polished by nearly 2 decades of continuous experience with it, including the hundreds upon hundreds of cases that I’ve handled. None of my Clients has, or ever will have, anything more than a few, at most, experiences dealing with the world of License Restorations. And that’s a good thing.
If there’s some point to this article, it is, perhaps, to reinforce the notion that having a Driver’s License Restored after multiple DUI and or Drug cases involves a magnanimous amount of details. Anyone looking to do this right must understand that this is not simply a process in which you can throw money at some Lawyer and have him or her take care of it. Second-timers already know this. There is no shortcut to putting a whole lot of time and effort into a successful License Appeal. Think of it this way; you pay a mechanic to fix your car, but you pay a tour guide to take you to a destination. If the final destination in the License Restoration process is the ability to drive legally again, then all those notes that you should be taking are the map by which we’ll get there.