Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
In part 1 of this article about Michigan driver’s license restoration and clearance cases, I somewhat sarcastically called the growing number of legal websites with names that use some play on the words “driver’s license restoration” as “McLicense” operations. I began explaining that, instead of having some kind of cutesy name, my team and I are busy actually handling more than 200 of these cases each year, and guarantee to win every first time restoration and clearance appeal we take.
I then pointed out how my specific, post-graduate clinical training in addiction studies gives me and my team a significant advantage that helps us win our license appeal cases. I noted that ours is the only recovery-oriented practice I know, and that we believe the most important thing we do is to actually help people. I ended part 1 by making clear that, beyond just having a guarantee, I strongly suggest and wholeheartedly recommend that anyone considering hiring a lawyer for a license appeal check around and compare us to as many other attorneys as he or she possibly can.
To anyone who does follow my advice and calls around, I can say this with absolute certainty: You won’t find another office that is as helpful as ours. Ann, our senior legal assistant, who often answers the phone, knows more about addiction and recovery than 99.9% of all the attorneys I have ever met in my life. Anyone checking out lawyers will learn more about license appeals from a call to our office than anywhere else. This is exactly why I strongly suggest and wholeheartedly recommend that any potential client look around and comparison shop.
Seriously, I really hope the reader doesn’t just take my word for it, but actually does call around and find out for themselves.
I also want to be clear about the money factor, as well – We charge more than most.
Because we’re worth it.
I have absolutely no interest in competing with any other lawyer or law firm on a fee basis. I know that no other lawyer or law firm can even come close to us in terms of experience and knowledge, all backed by a first time win guarantee.
In that regard, I put my money where my mouth is.
Chevy, Hyundai, Kia and Toyota compete with each other on price: Ferrari and Lamborghini don’t; they compete on the issue of quality.
My team and I know what it takes to win a license appeal case. Because of our recovery-oriented approach, we fundamentally understand things that the McLicense lawyers don’t even know about, like the wide range of ways people get sober.
As long as a person is genuinely sober, we have what we need to make his or her case a winner.
There are, quite literally, countless counseling and treatment protocols out there beyond just AA. To be clear, I’m not knocking AA, but we’re living in 2020 now, not 1989, and if we’ve learned anything in the last 30-plus years, it’s that people can and do recover in many different ways.
AA is a great program, but it’s not for everyone, and, in our experience, it’s not the right fit for most people. Indeed, the majority of people for whom we win license appeals are not in AA.
I cringe when I hear someone tell me that they spoke with a lawyer who said that they should start going to AA “to make it look good,” or that they need to be in AA to win a license restoration case.
That’s 100% totally wrong.
You do not need to be in AA to win a Michigan driver’s license restoration case.
Beyond showing a frightening lack of understanding about the license appeal process, such a wrong-headed belief shows a dangerous ignorance about recovery, as well.
A person should be in AA if he or she needs to be in AA, or wants to go for his or her own benefit. Sending a person to AA can actually backfire and, in some cases, close off his or her mind to any kind of recovery, at least for a while.
Instead, if a person is ready to explore getting sober, he or she should look at AA, along with the entire universe of other treatment methods and ways people get sober.
If a person is already sober, then he or she should continue to do what’s working. As the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” There’s no way to say this nicely; any lawyer who suggests AA for the sake of appearance is an idiot.
Moreover, an ethical and good driver’s license restoration lawyer knows that he or she should never present a phony basis for a client’s recovery to the Michigan Secretary of State. There are about a million things wrong with that idea…
For example, I have won cases for people whose entire “recovery” was based merely on the fact that they just decided quit drinking one day, and did so without every going to any counseling or AA.
This is called “spontaneous recovery” (and it’s akin to “spontaneous remission”), and, according to many empirically validated studies, it accounts for more long-term recovery than even AA, which has an efficacy rate of between 3 and 8% overall.
To be sure, those cases were exceptional, but because of my clinical background, I knew that these people were solid in their sobriety, and that I could prove it to the hearing officers well enough to win their license appeal cases.
Because of my understanding of recovery and my ability to prove it when a person is genuinely sober, I knew that that those people could show the kind of real sobriety that would blow away any of of BS some lawyer would ty to pass off to the Michigan Secretary of State by telling a person who is not in AA to start going just so he or she could “look good” for a license restoration case.
The fact that I even have to make this comparison just screams “McLicense….”
Since there is really no way around the fact that this entire article is a total self-promotion piece, I’ll drop any pretense otherwise. In that regard, let me continue to beat my chest a bit more:
This blog is BY FAR the single biggest resource for driver’s license restoration information to be found anywhere, and, truth be told, there is more information here than you can find everywhere else online, combined. There is nothing like it anywhere.
In fact, this is the 551st driver’s license restoration article I have written and published.
Think about that for a moment, and let it sink in.
Good luck finding another lawyer who has even talked to 550 people about license restoration cases, much less handled 550 license appeal cases.
For me, that’s just the number of driver’s license restoration articles I have written.
By contrast, the number of case we have handled is in the thousands.
My team and I regularly field calls from other lawyers asking for help with license restoration-related issues, and it’s damn near certain that any and every other lawyer you could ever talk to has come to this blog any number of times to research something about license appeals.
That’s fine, and I’m always glad to help.
However, as I said above and before, I’m still the BIG DOG in the driver’s license restoration field – and I don’t intend to ever be second-best.
I guess the best way to emphasize that point and end this piece is to ask the reader this simple question:
How many other attorneys whose sites you have been on, or with whom you have communicated, have had the confidence to strongly suggest and wholeheartedly recommend that you look around and compare them to any and every other lawyer out there?
There’s no McLicense stuff here, just USDA Prime success – guaranteed. As a client, you can’t do better than that.
If you are looking for a lawyer to help win back your Michigan driver’s license or obtain the clearance of a Michigan hold on your driving record, be a good consumer and read around. Read how other lawyers explain the license appeal process, and how they explain themselves.
When you’ve done enough of that, start checking around. 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 and explain things
We can be reached Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. (EST), at 248-986-9700 or 586-465-1980.