Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
This article will detail a change, or, more particularly, a clarification (and kind of extension) of my Guarantee to win any Driver’s License Restoration Appeal that I accept. In a previous article, I announced that I Guarantee I will win any License Appeal I accept, “or the next one is free.” For someone who prides himself on the precision of the language he uses, and given that this blog has more highly detailed, informational articles about Driver’s License Restoration that can be found on every other website out there combined, I have to admit that I missed the mark and did not properly explain my Guarantee very well. I assumed (and remember, one should NEVER assume) that everyone would understand that to mean that I simply guaranteed, in exchange for my Fee, that I would get the Client back on the road. At least, that’s what I meant…
To clarify, then:
I GUARANTEE THAT I WILL WIN ANY DRIVER’S LICENSE APPEAL I ACCEPT THE FIRST TIME. IF NOT, I WILL HANDLE ANY SUBSEQUENT SECRETARY OF STATE LICENSE APPEAL WITHOUT ADDITIONAL FEES UNTIL THE CLIENT DOES WIN.
In other words, you pay me once, and if that Appeal is Denied (as of this writing, by the way, I have won 184 out of the last 186 Appeals I have filed since I began keeping track back in June of 2009, giving me a first time ” win rate” of 98.92%, meaning that I don’t have very much experience NOT winning the first time), I will go back to the Michigan Secretary of State’s Driver Assessment and Appeal Division (DAAD) until we win.
This really involves no risk for me, but does provide assurance to the Client that I’m not about to just accept a Fee and not be able to deliver what they’re hiring me for.
Of course, there are limitations. If, for example, the Client has some kind of “meltdown” at the Hearing, and starts testifying about a drug use pattern that they previously failed to disclose, or if they admit to having taken a few hits off of a joint a few months ago, then the Guarantee does not apply.
To put this in perspective, I promise that if a person comes to me and has, indeed, been Sober for what I determine to be long enough, and is committed to remaining Sober, and I take their case, then they can count on me to get their License back. If there is something defective within the evidence submitted as part of their Appeal, then I think its only fair that I would go back next time to rectify something that, by all accounts, I must have missed.
But I don’t miss things. This is my job, and my passion.
Nevertheless, if I’m even 1/2 as good as I claim to be, then it only makes sense for me to offer this Guarantee. In fact, I’d begin to wonder about anyone who claims anywhere near the success I have who DID NOT offer such a guarantee.
I love analogies. In fact, I’ve been told that I have “analogy-itis,” which is like….
Anyway, a number of years ago, a small leak sprang up in a basement wall in my house. My wife and I looked around to find the best company to repair it, and selected one that not only boasted huge success with one treatment, but also offered a lifetime Guarantee. When the guys came out to do the job, I asked how often they got called in to do warranty work. The head worker laughed, and said that once in a while, they might miss a small spot that anyone could miss, but that other than that rare thing, once the job was done, it was done for good. He actually said that the house would crumble to the ground before the spot he was fixing would ever leak again.
I want to give the same confidence to anyone who wonders why he or she should hire me.
And to be clear, I expect to win every Appeal I file the first time around. It’s not that I want to be some cheapskate to avoid going back, but rather that, in all truth, if an Appeal does not succeed, it is more often than not some kind of “pilot (meaning Lawyer) error.”
I have said in some of my numerous articles on this subject that these Appeals are won in the preparation. I mean that. This is why I spend about 3 hours with every new Client at our first meeting just to prepare them to undergo the very first step in a License Appeal, the Substance Abuse Evaluation.
There simply are no shortcuts to spending the time necessary to make a case a winner.
It is certainly not enough for some Lawyer to meet the Client for an hour or so, instruct the Client to go and get and Evaluation, edit the Letters of Support a little bit, and then show up at the Hearing, expecting to win.
In fact, in my opinion, any Lawyer who does not meet with the Client for several hours BEFORE the Client has the Substance Abuse Evaluation completed is really not much of a Driver’s License Restoration Lawyer in the first place. And I would bet that any Lawyer who feels rubbed the wrong way by this statement has not handled as many License Appeals in their entire career as I have won in the last 28 months or so.
In fact, I don’t know of any Lawyer who has handled even a fraction of the License Appeals that I have won.
Which really brings home how handling License Appeals is really a special concentration. I just don’t think a Lawyer can handle Rape cases and Murder cases and Home Invasion cases and Dog bites and Personal Injury cases and be any kind of License Restoration specialist.
In the average week, I devote about 25 to 30 of my 40 or so working hours to just License cases. Most of the other time I spend involves related kinds of cases, like DUI’s and Suspended or Revoked License charges. License Appeals, then, represent between 2/3 and 3/4 of all my work.
Beyond not merely being some Lawyer who simply claims to “do” License Appeals, I can honestly say that I absolutely, truly love being a License Restoration Lawyer. I have never liked doing anything for a living even 1/2 as much as I like doing License Appeals. License Restoration Clients are people on the “upswing” in their lives. Think about it; in almost every kind of legal controversy, a Lawyer is asked to get involved in an already negative situation. In a License Appeal, while the current situation may be “negative,” in that the person doesn’t have a Driver’s License, being able to completely fix that situation always means a happy Client. I have never done a divorce, but I never hear anyone, on either side of the case, feeling like they “won.” Instead, both parties usually feel somewhere between partially to totally “screwed.”
Not in a License Appeal. When you win, you win.
And I always win.
So I hereby clarify my License Appeal Guarantee: I will win any License Appeal I accept the first time. If not, then I will continue to go to the DAAD until the case is won, and the Client gets their License back.
And of course, it’s both my intention and plan to win every case I take the first time around, and to not have to do any such “warranty work,” but at least all of my Clients can rest easy in knowing that they won’t be out the legal Fees if, for some reason, they don’t win the first time.