Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
Everyone knows that a 3rd offense DUI case is a felony, and is serious. The last thing anyone needs is some lawyer going on and on about it, only to ramp up his or her anxiety even more. The good news is that, if you’re facing a 3rd offense, things probably aren’t nearly as bad as you fear. In fact, there’s a pretty good chance that you can get through this relatively painlessly. This article is going to focus on the big picture, and how you can get relief from the stress of a 3rd offense DUI charge. That starts by handing the whole thing over to a good lawyer.
Specifically, this means putting the case, your worries, and all strategy concerns into your attorney’s care. This article is not going to be some thinly disguised promotional piece for our firm. Of course, we’re Michigan criminal and DUI lawyers, and in we’re in business to earn our incomes. However, what we’ll cover here applies to everyone, including people who live outside of our geographic practice area. Our criminal and DUI practice is concentrated in and limited to the Metro-Detroit area, meaning Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and the surrounding counties.
It’s a great relief to hand over a 3rd offense DUI case – and all the stress that goes with it – to a good and honest lawyer. However, a person is still going to have to put in a little work to find that person. As much as my team and I are open for business, we also realize we’re not the right lawyers for everyone. By the same token, not everyone with a 3rd offense DUI case in our local are is the right kind of client for us, either. We’ll come back to this later, because it’s an important part of how someone should approach his or her quest for the best representation.
From the very beginning, every part of every driver’s license restoration appeal case we handled has been a team effort. This is not merely a division of labor among my team and I, but rather a quality control check and re-check way of doing things. To be sure, we do divide some of the tasks in such a way that someone will primarily handle one instead of another. However even then, each of us still winds up checking the other’s work. No matter how you cut it, having more sets of eyes reviewing a case is always better having than fewer.
Pretty much everything about a Michigan DUI case is complicated. That’s not meant to intimidate the reader, but rather set the foundation for our discussion. There is a lot to even the most “garden variety” DUI case. So much, in fact, that there is a whole subset of attorneys, like my team and I, that can honestly call themselves “DUI lawyers.” This goes beyond knowing the nuances of the law, and includes things like understanding how a specific strategy, including techniques like timing, can play a role in producing a more favorable outcome.
To keep things simple, we’ll refer to both offenses as “indecent exposure,” unless we need to differentiate one from the other. Our firm handles a lot of these cases. In fact, I doubt there is any firm that handles more indecent exposure charges than we do. My team and I are exceptionally good at them. I can say that without reservation that, of the hundreds and hundreds of clients we’ve represented for just indecent or aggravated indecent exposure charges, NOT ONE has ever gone to jail. We can boast a 100% success rate in that regard.
Let’s start with an important but often overlooked facet of Michigan law. Anyone arrested for (and convicted of) a 2nd offense DUI within 7 years of the date of his or her 1st DUI conviction is legally categorized as a “habitual alcohol offender.” There are several key consequences to this, 2 of which will significantly impact anyone convicted for his or her second DUI. The first is that, upon conviction for his or her 2nd offense, the person’s driver’s license will automatically be revoked.
There are 2 ways to do that: Either you go back and prove to the Judge that the violation is wrong, or, despite a screw-up on your part, you manage to get yet another break. That really sums up the whole situation. Ultimately, the alleged violation is either correct, or it’s not. Consider the most common kind of probation violation – drinking alcohol. There are times when a positive test result is wrong. That doesn’t happen often, but it does, sometimes. If the result is wrong, then that must be proven to the Judge. Merely saying so is not evidence, nor is it enough to win.
The investigative phase comprises the stop (and/or initial police contact), as well as the interactions that lead to the arrest, including the field sobriety tests. It also encompasses the arrest itself, any and all chemical test(s) that follow, the booking and, ultimately, the person’s release from jail. The court phase covers everything from a person’s first notice to appear all the way through the sentencing and probation. The “after” phase is about life after the case is over, meaning the consequence of a DUI conviction, or the relief of having avoided it altogether.
Let’s look at an obvious example. It’s contained in the all-important question, “When was the last time you consumed any alcohol?” It’s probably fair to say that most people know they’re going to be asked that question, or at least some version of it, as part of their license appeal case. Most will (correctly) assume that their answer needs to indicate that, depending on their drinking and DUI history, it’s been long enough since they last imbibed. While that’s correct, it’s only part of the story. The other part is that, as we just noted, whatever the answer, it must also be true.
Sometimes, we have to transfer a 2nd or even 3rd offense DUI case from one court that doesn’t have a sobriety court program to another court that does. We’ve even transferred cases across county lines. The work required for this can be complicated. Thus, experience with how different courts do things is critically important. Being a DUI “team,” though, involves a lot more than just dealing with sobriety court issues, which are only a small component of the whole DUI universe. Indeed, that term, “DUI universe,” is both accurate and instructive here. DUI cases really can be a whole world unto themselves.
The big problem is that many people overlook how fundamentally important sobriety is to driver’s license restoration cases. Instead, they’ll focus on how much they need a license. Many will point out how long it’s been since they’ve had one, or how long they’ve stayed out of trouble. Those are, of course, important personal considerations. However, in the context of a Michigan license appeal, unless a person is genuinely sober, they don’t matter at all. As one hearing officer states, everybody “needs” a license. Getting it back, though, is a whole different ballgame.