Why fight my case?
As a lawyer specializing in defending those accused
of DUI, I hear this question all the time. Someone will come
see me in my office for a free consultation. After telling me
about the facts of their arrest, the basis for the traffic
stop, their performance on
field sobriety tests (FST's), and
the results of the
chemical test of their blood or breath
(if
they took one), they may say to me, in all earnestness,
"Why
bother fighting this?" A fair question; there are several good
reasons.
If you don't fight your case, if you go into court
and plead guilty to drunk driving and throw yourself on the
mercy of the judge and prosecutor, there is a 100% chance that
you will be convicted of drunk driving. I'll say it again: if
you plead guilty to DUI, you will be found guilty of DUI. I
guarantee it.
In California, persons charged with driving under the influence
(DUI) are entitled to a presumption of innocence. Persons
charged with DUI in California are also entitled to a jury trial (not so in some other states). If the prosecutor cannot
convince all 12 of the jurors of a defendant's guilt, there is
no conviction. There are three possible results following a
jury trial: all 12 agree on the defendant's guilt; all 12 agree
on the defendant's innocence, or some vote one way and some
vote another. The latter outcome is known as a "hung jury", and
if you happen to be the defendant in a DUI case, you are happy
to have one, since it will likely mean that the case will be
dismissed.
To sum up, the defendant in a DUI case need only convince one
of the 12 jurors to vote not guilty in order to
win his or her
drunk driving case. One out of 12. The alternative, often
times, is to throw yourself on the mercy of a system that has
no mercy. Isn't that reason enough to fight your case?
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 In California, there is a ten year
"washout" period regarding
DUI convictions, meaning that if someone is arrested for a DUI
offense within ten years of a prior DUI offense, the second
DUI will be charged as a second-offense DUI. If that second
arrest occurs more than ten years later, the second arrest is
simply another first time DUI. (The ten years goes from
arrest date to arrest date.) The penalties for a second offense
DUI are substantially more severe than for the first. This is
why folks are sometimes lulled into pleading out their
first-time DUI arrests (and regretting it later). They feel
like the consequences of the first-time DUI are bad, but not so
bad, and they can suffer through and at least take comfort that
they will never be in that situation again.
Ten years is a long time. I had a client who had a prior DUI
arrest that was reduced to a "wet-reckless", a reduced charge,
but still prior-able for DUI purposes. Nine years, eleven months and
two weeks later, she was arrested coming home from her office's
Holiday party. Because the county where she was arrested treats
DUI arrests terribly harshly, the plea bargain offer for this
professional person, with no other prior criminal record, was
for forty five days in jail.
(We rejected the offer, went to trial, and
the case was dismissed following a hung jury, notwithstanding
the breath test results of .14. We also won her DMV Hearing.)
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If you are fortunate enough to be facing a first-offense
driving under the influence charge, there is another reason to
fight your DUI case. Every person that comes to my office,
charged with a first-offense DUI, swears that they will never
be in this situation again, that the notion of being charged
with a second-offense DUI is so remote as to be impossible.
Every person who comes to my office charged with a second-offense DUI wishes they would have fought the first one.
Invariably, the first one presented issues that are absent in
the second one. The first DUI is the one you want to fight, if,
for no other reason than ensuring that you are not susceptible
to a charge of a second-offense DUI.
Also, if you plead guilty (or "no contest," which is treated by
the court the same as a guilty plea, although it cannot be used
against you in a civil lawsuit), you will be placed on
probation for three to five years. During that time, you will
be required to do many things, such as pay fines, attend DUI
classes, and so on. One of the terms and conditions of
probation in any DUI case is that the probationer is not to
drive with any measurable amount of alcohol in their body.
This can be a real problem if the second DUI arrest takes place
while someone is still on probation from the first. In order to
convict someone of a criminal act (such as driving under the
influence), 12 jurors must unanimously agree that they are
convinced beyond a reasonable doubt in the defendant's guilt.
It is the highest standard in the law, and it is the jury that
gets to decide it. As mentioned above, if only one out of 12
sides with the accused, a hung jury is the result, which is
great news for the defendant.
However, in the case of a probation violation, where someone is
accused of violating the term and condition that they not drive
with any alcohol in their body, they don't get a jury trial. It
is up to the judge. And the judge doesn't have to be convinced
beyond a reasonable doubt. The judge only has to be convinced
by a preponderance of the evidence. This is not the same high
standard of a criminal case; this is a much lower standard,
which has been described as just tipping the scales in favor of
one side or the other. Being on probation is, potentially, a
recipe for disaster. It is not a responsibility to take lightly.
Thankfully, we live in a country that has Constitutional
safeguards. The right to a jury trial in a DUI case would be
meaningless if the person charged with DUI was punished for
exercising that right. If you or someone you care about has
been charged with a DUI, or some other drunk driving type of
offense, please consult with a professional that specializes in
defending drunk driving cases. You have nothing to lose, and
everything to gain.
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