What you do after your arrest is very, very important.
If the police confiscated your license or provided a temporary it is imperative that a hearing be requested within ten calendar days.
A hearing can be requested by calling (858) 627-3901 or retained counsel can request this hearing for you.
Note, however, that because public defenders can not represent you in front of the DMV, you must determine soon who will represent you at this hearing.
The law retricts public defenders to criminal defense only. Public defenders may not represent you in front of the DMV. Therefore, you must either represent yourself or pay someone to represent you at your DMV hearing.
Your decision on representation will also affect the court process significantly and the difference begins at arraignment. See: DUI Cases: Pubic Defenders versus Private Attorneys.
What you decide to do about representation affects everything and the long-term effect can be very dramatic. Imagine dropping a stone in the middle of a sheet-of-glass calm pond.
Your first court date is called an arraignment. It is the first step in the pre-trial court process.
Depending on the specific charges filed, the location of the court and whether or not counsel will be retained determines if you must appear in court at this first hearing.
At this hearing we will enter a not guilty plea on your behalf and future court dates are set. This preserves your right to a jury trial and allows time to gather evidence, perform legal research and confer. The first court date intiates the pre-trial process.
During this process we will discuss the specifics of their case with not only with the defendant but also the prosecutor and judge.
Prior to any discussions however a supervising prosecutor will review all the evidence they believe would be presented at trial to determine what the initial pre-trial offer will be. The supervising prosecutor does this without knowing who you are represented by and without speaking to the defense lawyer.
After meeting with the in-court prosecutor to negotiate your case and discussing this offer we also obtain an indicated sentence from the judge.
Plea bargaining could resolve your case because it is during this process that the you, through counsel, and the prosecutor will each fully realize the strength of the evidence that might be presented at trial. See: Plea Bargaining.
Evidence that exonerates you or raises reasonable doubt, even about the smallest detail, can convince the prosecutor that his/her case is compromised and that they should be offered a reduced charge or even that the entire case should be dismissed.
As you might imagine comprehensive, detailed case preparation is an absolute requirement in order to find and present evidence that raises reasonable doubt.
Immediately after being arrested for DUI in San Diego all of the evidence to be used, both for and against, is NOT available.
Every available Arrest Report, Calibration Log, Computer Automated Dispatch (C.A.D.) Report, audio recording; video recording, etc., needs to be reviewed before an aggressive, realistic defense can be formulated. See: Anticipating defenses before actually gathering and reviewing all the evidence.
Quality representation requires extensive time be spent gathering and reviewing all the evidence before considering which options are best – including trial.
The percentage of DUI cases that actually end up in trial is very low.
George F. Cole’s 2004 study, conducted over a one year period in the San Diego Superior Court, revealed that less than 3% of all drug related cases (alcohol is a drug) actually make it to trial.
Most individuals will make their decision to proceed to trial (or not) based on what evidence is most likely to be presented at trial, the strength of the pre-trial offer, their license status, the cost of experts and the trial fee charged by the defense attorney. Unfortunately most of these factors are known prior to representation. See: Understanding your Trial option.
The defendant – not the judge, prosecutor or defense attorney – will make the decision about going to trial months after being arrested. You won’t make this decision for months.
Speak to the senior attorney at any firm over the phone and you should be able to easily discern the law firm’s experience, qualifications, philosophy and pricing all before setting an in-office appointment.
When you review websites or speak to lawyers consider whether or not an attorney can actually prove claims like “most jury trial victories,” or “more cases won.” Claims like these cannot be substantiated without violating the privacy rights of clients.
Finally, a “criminal and DUI defense” attorney could not only be lesser qualified and experienced with regard to DUI defense, but might also tend to focus on cases where they can make much, much more money.
Our extensive experience and education includes but is not limited to the following areas related to the DUI defense field: search and seizure, field sobriety testing, breath testing, due process, illegal interrogation, denial of counsel, and evidentiary issues requiring a basic understanding of anatomy, biology, chemistry, physiology, and toxicology. We don’t merely understand DUI law and evidence, we know it.
We can help you gather the evidence the prosecution can’t or won’t. We can evaluate the strength of the known evidence (both for and against) and help you make the best decisions possible by applying the most current law to your case, presenting your side of the case to the DMV and negotiating your position in court.
