If you read this blog or speak to any DUI attorney, you will quickly learn there are a couple of things you should be doing if you are ever stopped and investigated for DUI. First, you shouldn't admit to drinking, but you shouldn't deny it. Second, you should refuse to take the field sobriety tests. Third, you should refuse to take the portable breath test (the test you take out on the road, not at the police station).
If you do this, you are going to do two things. First, you are going to make the cop extremely frustrated and build a great case for yourself. I like this. Second, you are probably going to get arrested and need a DUI defense attorney to help you out. This part I don't like so much.
Why are you going to get arrested? The fact of the matter is, if you smell like alcohol, even a little bit, you are probably going to get rung up for DUI. Only the most honest cops will let you go if they smell alcohol on you. It's impossible for them to get that smell out of their mind, and they start seeing a bunch of other stuff based on that smell.
And for cops, their main goal is to get drunk people off the road. And if they have to arrest a few people that aren't DUI, then that's okay. That's why you want to follow the above recommendations. If you are charged with DUI, you need to set your case up so your criminal lawyer can come in and take care of business for you.
Bottom line, if you get pulled over after drinking, there is a high likelihood that you are going to get arrested. All you can do is cover your ass the best you can and call your DUI attorney as soon as possible.
5.04.2010
DUI Attorney | Never Talk to the Cops
Listen. I know I talk about this all the time. I know I tell you "I'm a DUI attorney, trust me when I say this." And I know that very few people, if any really listen to what I say.
But I can't help from talking about this again. Do not talk to the cops. Ever. They are not your friend. They are not trying to help you. They are trying to put you in jail. And they should be treated like someone that can and will hurt you as soon as they feel like they have reason to do so.
For example, cops are trained to, when they have a "hunch" and know that they can't legally go and investigate, to make contact with the person in a "casual encounter." What is a casual encounter? It's when the cops come up and just start chatting you up. Ask any DUI attorney and they'll tell you this is where the cops start building their case against you.
So, how can you fight this? How can you keep the cops from sending you to jail? How can you keep the cops from forcing you to hire a DUI lawyer to help you out of this jam? Easy. Don't give them any reason to arrest you. And, contrary to popular belief, not answering a cop's question does not provide they reason the cops need to arrest you.
Next time the cops come up to you and start asking you questions, just tell them, politely, that you don't want to talk. If they persist, tell, them, again, nicely, that you want nothing to do with them and if they have questions they can talk to your criminal lawyer. That's the safe way to stay out of trouble.
But I can't help from talking about this again. Do not talk to the cops. Ever. They are not your friend. They are not trying to help you. They are trying to put you in jail. And they should be treated like someone that can and will hurt you as soon as they feel like they have reason to do so.
For example, cops are trained to, when they have a "hunch" and know that they can't legally go and investigate, to make contact with the person in a "casual encounter." What is a casual encounter? It's when the cops come up and just start chatting you up. Ask any DUI attorney and they'll tell you this is where the cops start building their case against you.
So, how can you fight this? How can you keep the cops from sending you to jail? How can you keep the cops from forcing you to hire a DUI lawyer to help you out of this jam? Easy. Don't give them any reason to arrest you. And, contrary to popular belief, not answering a cop's question does not provide they reason the cops need to arrest you.
Next time the cops come up to you and start asking you questions, just tell them, politely, that you don't want to talk. If they persist, tell, them, again, nicely, that you want nothing to do with them and if they have questions they can talk to your criminal lawyer. That's the safe way to stay out of trouble.
3.22.2010
Seattle DUI Attorney | Bench Trial or Jury Trial?
So you've been charged with a misdemeanor. Possibly a DUI, perhaps an beating, perhaps a larceny. And the state isn't offering you anything you feel contented taking as a plea bargain. Your Seattle DUI attorney informs you the solitary alternative, if you don't desire the proposal, is a trial.
You're okay with that, but are slightly tentative about the minutiae. In particular, you are not certain if you should ask for a jury trial or ask for a bench trial. Your Seattle criminal attorney is promoting a jury trial, but you just don't know if you can have faith in a group of individuals you don't know to make the right conclusion.
Picking between a jury trial or a bench trial (where the judge makes the judgment of your guilt or innocence) can at times be difficult for any DUI lawyer. Let's look at a pair of scenarios that might need you to go one way or another.
To begin with, the jury trial. You like jury trials since jurors typcially are not as jaded as judges (they've heard a large number of excuses over the years and start to stop attempting to ascertain the disparity). They endeavor fiercely to do the fair thing and will frequently furnish you at least a fighting chance. However they can be unpredictable as well.
You commonly desire a jury trial when the case is fairly unstable, when you have various inconsistencies in the evidence that just don't add up, and when you require the fact finder to give you the benefit of the doubt (most DUI cases fall into this category). Juries are capable of doing this. With judges it's slightly more complicated.
Next, the bench trial. You habitually like to have these when you possess a exceedingly technical defense, the particulars of the case are truly atrocious (the jury will almost be certain to be hostile to you from the start), or you are going to establish your argument on a legal issue that you imagine the judge will appreciate better than a jury. This also is a crap shoot, as judges, while not unpredictable, tend to tilt in the direction of the prosecution.
In the end, the pronouncement to go jury trial or bench trial ought to maybe be completed by your Seattle DUI attorney. They have the familiarity to appreciate which one to make use of, and they recognize the intricacy of the decision. No matter which you pick, though, it's doubtless going to be an uphill war. Good luck!
You're okay with that, but are slightly tentative about the minutiae. In particular, you are not certain if you should ask for a jury trial or ask for a bench trial. Your Seattle criminal attorney is promoting a jury trial, but you just don't know if you can have faith in a group of individuals you don't know to make the right conclusion.
Picking between a jury trial or a bench trial (where the judge makes the judgment of your guilt or innocence) can at times be difficult for any DUI lawyer. Let's look at a pair of scenarios that might need you to go one way or another.
To begin with, the jury trial. You like jury trials since jurors typcially are not as jaded as judges (they've heard a large number of excuses over the years and start to stop attempting to ascertain the disparity). They endeavor fiercely to do the fair thing and will frequently furnish you at least a fighting chance. However they can be unpredictable as well.
You commonly desire a jury trial when the case is fairly unstable, when you have various inconsistencies in the evidence that just don't add up, and when you require the fact finder to give you the benefit of the doubt (most DUI cases fall into this category). Juries are capable of doing this. With judges it's slightly more complicated.
Next, the bench trial. You habitually like to have these when you possess a exceedingly technical defense, the particulars of the case are truly atrocious (the jury will almost be certain to be hostile to you from the start), or you are going to establish your argument on a legal issue that you imagine the judge will appreciate better than a jury. This also is a crap shoot, as judges, while not unpredictable, tend to tilt in the direction of the prosecution.
In the end, the pronouncement to go jury trial or bench trial ought to maybe be completed by your Seattle DUI attorney. They have the familiarity to appreciate which one to make use of, and they recognize the intricacy of the decision. No matter which you pick, though, it's doubtless going to be an uphill war. Good luck!
1.04.2010
Deciding Whether Or Not to Endure a Breathalyzer Test Just Got a Lot Harder
Deciding whether or not to take a breath analysis if you were detained for DUI used to be a considerable choice. If you were requested to endure a blood alcohol assessment and refused, you were subjecting yourself to increased penalties for refusing, but had the benefit moving ahead of not having to contest blood alcohol examination results (as any good Seattle DUI attorney would advise).
Well, nowadays it appears more and more probable that the situation may surface where you might say no a blood alcohol assessment, handle the more stringent consequences for the refusal, and still be subject to giving blood alcohol results (and trust me when I say this is not a law firm marketing effort).
Most, if not all states, have fashioned DUI laws that involve implied consent laws. In brief, these laws state that if you drive on the road in the state where an implied consent law exists, you are impliedly consenting to a breath analysis if the police have probable cause to believe you are DUI. Built into these implied consent laws, though, is the capability to say no the blood alcohol analysis if you so opt. The downside to denial, though, is the imposition of harsher consequences if convicted of DUI (and a longer license revocation - for illustration, in Seattle, WA a refusal subjects you to a year license suspension as opposed to 90 days).
However, things have changed a little recently. The cops have started going to judges and asking for search warrants when individuals reject blood alcohol examinations. And more than a few courts have upheld this tradition (the way the judges perceive it, the denial has to do with the implied consent laws, not necessarily your right to be free from searches - that is covered by the fourth amendment, which can be overcome by indicating probable cause to a judge and getting a search warrant.
One thing is certain. If you have the capability to have a word with an DUI attorney in Seattle ahead of deciding whether or not to endure a blood alcohol test, you must do so. The issues revolving around breath analysis refusal are getting more and more complicated each day, and the only way you can be sure you are doing what is most excellent for you is by speaking with experienced Seattle DUI attorneys and learning all of your options.
Related Posts:
Well, nowadays it appears more and more probable that the situation may surface where you might say no a blood alcohol assessment, handle the more stringent consequences for the refusal, and still be subject to giving blood alcohol results (and trust me when I say this is not a law firm marketing effort).
Most, if not all states, have fashioned DUI laws that involve implied consent laws. In brief, these laws state that if you drive on the road in the state where an implied consent law exists, you are impliedly consenting to a breath analysis if the police have probable cause to believe you are DUI. Built into these implied consent laws, though, is the capability to say no the blood alcohol analysis if you so opt. The downside to denial, though, is the imposition of harsher consequences if convicted of DUI (and a longer license revocation - for illustration, in Seattle, WA a refusal subjects you to a year license suspension as opposed to 90 days).
However, things have changed a little recently. The cops have started going to judges and asking for search warrants when individuals reject blood alcohol examinations. And more than a few courts have upheld this tradition (the way the judges perceive it, the denial has to do with the implied consent laws, not necessarily your right to be free from searches - that is covered by the fourth amendment, which can be overcome by indicating probable cause to a judge and getting a search warrant.
One thing is certain. If you have the capability to have a word with an DUI attorney in Seattle ahead of deciding whether or not to endure a blood alcohol test, you must do so. The issues revolving around breath analysis refusal are getting more and more complicated each day, and the only way you can be sure you are doing what is most excellent for you is by speaking with experienced Seattle DUI attorneys and learning all of your options.
Related Posts:
Seattle DUI Attorney | Getting Guns Back
Seattle DUI Attorney | Cops in Court
12.28.2009
Seattle DUI Attorney Describes the Idea of Corpus Delicti
Nobody wants to be on familiar terms with or speak to a criminal attorney until they are in concern. There is a certain plague or hex that individuals seem to think follow folks seeking out criminal defense advice before they need it. Nevertheless, as soon as you are charged with a crime, you speedily grasp how vital a superior Seattle DUI attorney is.
And some of the requirement for a criminal attorney is the requirement to decode all of the legal gibberish that is tossed back and forth between the judge and the attorneys. Here are just a couple of expressions you might hear throughout your criminal process, some you may be acquainted with, some you possibly will not: hearsay, nunc pro tunc; arraignment; omnibus; voir dire; res ipsa loquitor; and on and on.
Well, I'm here at the moment to help you comprehend what one of persons legal terms means - corpus delicti. This is a word you may perhaps not hear spouted in court a lot, but it is an imperative term for your defense attorney to be acquainted with, specifically if you have confessed to a wrong and he or she wants to try to get that confession suppressed. So that you better understand the word, I've broken it down for you below.
As I said above, corpus delicti arises most regularly in the circumstance of confessions, and specifically in the context of confessions where not a lot of other data exists against the defendant. glimpse, judges and courts, although more than willing to let in a confession if one is provided, don't necessarily like confessions, specifically if they are the solitary thing the prosecutor has on a defendant. The reason is, we be acquainted with false confessions are given from time to time. And we be acquainted with that juries place in enormously high regard confessions of defendants. So, judges and courts are hesitant to allow confessions in unless there is some other impartial facts of the criminal act.
And that extra impartial proof of a criminal act is what corpus delicti connotes. If there is no corpus delicti, or additional unconnected proof of a wrong, the court will not agree to in a confession for the reason that there is the chance (whether realistic or otherwise) that the confession was erroneously given. Still a little bit perplexed as to what it means? How about an example.
Let's say there is a man. He is standing out in a parking lot with some extra individuals around some vehicles. Let's say the people in the van and the individuals out of the auto get into a shouting match, for whatever rationale. In the end, the dudes in the sedan choose to abscond. As they are pulling away, the driver hears a clatter on his vehicle and turns around. He doesn't notice anyone touching his sedan or necessarily by his van, but there is lone one person in the locale. The man in the automobile doesn't check his vehicle out until later, when he glimpses a dent in the side of his van. He surmises it was the gentleman he saw around his vehicle earlier.
The cops go and pick up the gentleman they suspect of hurting the vehicle and take him down to the cops station. After some talking and interrogating, they get the male to admit to kicking the van. He is seized and charged with malicious mischief.
In this instance, do you believe the rule of corpus delicti exists here? With no the declaration of guilt, all the police have for evidence is the gentleman hearing something happen to his auto, turn around, and glimpse the male near the van. What is absent is any data that the guy hit the automobile, and that he did it with an plan to damage the sedan. It is doable (in theory, if no declaration of guilt had been given) that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when the male turned around. For a situation like that a corpus delicti argument might be a way to get the confession suppressed.
Corpus delicti, like most other Latin legal expressions, are not difficult to comprehend once they are clarified. But getting that explanation can be a very difficult process at times. That's why the DUI Attorney in Seattle Blog is here. So why chance misunderstanding a question or a direction for the reason that you don't have the legal schooling of the prosecutors? The minute you are placed under arrest or feel like you can't go away is the second you should demand to chat with a Seattle criminal defense attorney. A criminal defense lawyer can not singly help you through the labyrinth of legal hogwash, but help you to keep your lips shut and the cops off your back.
Related Posts:
And some of the requirement for a criminal attorney is the requirement to decode all of the legal gibberish that is tossed back and forth between the judge and the attorneys. Here are just a couple of expressions you might hear throughout your criminal process, some you may be acquainted with, some you possibly will not: hearsay, nunc pro tunc; arraignment; omnibus; voir dire; res ipsa loquitor; and on and on.
Well, I'm here at the moment to help you comprehend what one of persons legal terms means - corpus delicti. This is a word you may perhaps not hear spouted in court a lot, but it is an imperative term for your defense attorney to be acquainted with, specifically if you have confessed to a wrong and he or she wants to try to get that confession suppressed. So that you better understand the word, I've broken it down for you below.
As I said above, corpus delicti arises most regularly in the circumstance of confessions, and specifically in the context of confessions where not a lot of other data exists against the defendant. glimpse, judges and courts, although more than willing to let in a confession if one is provided, don't necessarily like confessions, specifically if they are the solitary thing the prosecutor has on a defendant. The reason is, we be acquainted with false confessions are given from time to time. And we be acquainted with that juries place in enormously high regard confessions of defendants. So, judges and courts are hesitant to allow confessions in unless there is some other impartial facts of the criminal act.
And that extra impartial proof of a criminal act is what corpus delicti connotes. If there is no corpus delicti, or additional unconnected proof of a wrong, the court will not agree to in a confession for the reason that there is the chance (whether realistic or otherwise) that the confession was erroneously given. Still a little bit perplexed as to what it means? How about an example.
Let's say there is a man. He is standing out in a parking lot with some extra individuals around some vehicles. Let's say the people in the van and the individuals out of the auto get into a shouting match, for whatever rationale. In the end, the dudes in the sedan choose to abscond. As they are pulling away, the driver hears a clatter on his vehicle and turns around. He doesn't notice anyone touching his sedan or necessarily by his van, but there is lone one person in the locale. The man in the automobile doesn't check his vehicle out until later, when he glimpses a dent in the side of his van. He surmises it was the gentleman he saw around his vehicle earlier.
The cops go and pick up the gentleman they suspect of hurting the vehicle and take him down to the cops station. After some talking and interrogating, they get the male to admit to kicking the van. He is seized and charged with malicious mischief.
In this instance, do you believe the rule of corpus delicti exists here? With no the declaration of guilt, all the police have for evidence is the gentleman hearing something happen to his auto, turn around, and glimpse the male near the van. What is absent is any data that the guy hit the automobile, and that he did it with an plan to damage the sedan. It is doable (in theory, if no declaration of guilt had been given) that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when the male turned around. For a situation like that a corpus delicti argument might be a way to get the confession suppressed.
Corpus delicti, like most other Latin legal expressions, are not difficult to comprehend once they are clarified. But getting that explanation can be a very difficult process at times. That's why the DUI Attorney in Seattle Blog is here. So why chance misunderstanding a question or a direction for the reason that you don't have the legal schooling of the prosecutors? The minute you are placed under arrest or feel like you can't go away is the second you should demand to chat with a Seattle criminal defense attorney. A criminal defense lawyer can not singly help you through the labyrinth of legal hogwash, but help you to keep your lips shut and the cops off your back.
Related Posts:
Seattle DUI Attorney | The DUI Stop
Seattle DUI Attorney | Watch out for DUI Patrols
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