If you or someone іn уουr family іѕ charged wіth driving under the influence in San Diego County, you will need to hire a San Diego DUI attorney. Problem is, there are over 20 pages of DUI attorneys listed in the San Diego yellow pages. How do you pick the one that can help you best? What do you look for? What questions should you ask when you have your initial interview?

Here are 5 things to consider before hiring your San Diego DUI attorney

1) The sooner you hire your attorney the better. Start looking for your San Diego DUI attorney within a week or two after you are charged with a DUI. If you’re not physically capable you should have a friend or loved-one start looking. The sooner you start building your case the better.

2) Make sure to hire an attorney who is specializing in DUIs. But before signing the retainer agreement, do your homework. Visit the law firm’s website and read about it’s history and each attorney ’s bio. Ask the attorney for references and find out how much experience they have in handling cases similar to yours. What settlement agreements did they manage to get in previous cases?

3) Have a face-to-face meeting with your prospective attorney. Your San Diego DUI attorney is going to be your closest adviser during the next months. You must feel comfortable and trust your attorney. The only way you’ll get a feel for the attorney is by having a preliminary meeting to discuss your case. A good attorney will give you an initial 15 to 30 minutes consultation free of charge.

4) Make sure you clearly know the fee and the payment structure before you sign the retainer agreement.

5) Always be completely open and honest when discussing your case with your attorney. Tell her or him as much as you can about what happened. Try to remember every detail. Any documentation you have of your case will be a huge help when evaluating your case.

NEVER give a recorded statement to the police or your insurance until you’ve consulted an attorney. You can simply say, “I’m not prepared to give a statement at this time.” Such a recorded  statement can be used as evidence and if you’re not prepared you might overlook vital details. Anything you miss or misrepresent can be used against you in settlement negotiations and in the trial.

Victim's family forgives San Diego DUI fatality driver DUIAttorney.com The family of a victim in a DUI fatality this past Friday, August 20, has publicly spoken out in forgiveness. 65-year-old Marc William Durham was killed ..

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Victim’s family forgives San Diego DUI fatality driver – DUIAttorney.com

Everybody knows that you are facing severe penalties if you drive in San Diego while intoxicated. You may risk to be arrested for a DUI and lose the privilege of your driver’s license. Still, many drivers drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, either because they believe they won’t get caught, or they have a misconception of California DUI law.

1. “I am safe to drive as long as I stay under the legal limit”

This is by far the most common of all DUI misconceptions. Many people are surprised that you can be arrested for and convicted of a DUI if you are under the legal limit of 0.08% B.A.C. (blood alcohol concentration) in California. In fact, there is no defined legal threshold for when someone can drive after consuming alcohol. 0.08% B.A.C. only represents a threshold, above which you are legally presumed to be too impaired to drive safely. If you have more alcohol in your blood than this legal limit allows, the burden shifts to you, the driver, to show that the blood alcohol concentration test results were not accurate, either because the breathalyzer was not functioning properly or because some other environmental factors caused an inaccurate testing.

According to California law, a person is guilty of driving while under the influence, if the driver has a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or higher, or while the driver is under the influence of or affected by intoxicating alcohol. This basically means is that even when you are below 0.08%, the burden shifts to the city or state prosecutor to show that your ability to drive was affected by alcohol. Therefore you can still be charged with and convicted of a DUI, even when you are under the legal limit.

With increasing DUI prosecution there are actually more and more persons who are charged for a 0.06% or 0.07% DUI. This is especially frustrating as most of these drivers did exactly what they thought was right under California DUI law. Many stop drinking at a level where they believe they will be under 0.08%, or wait for some time before driving. To make matters worse, almost none of these under 0.08% DUI convicts are ever pulled over for any bad driving such as weaving, alternating speeds or driving errors. Instead, they are stopped for presumably not giving a turning signal or for a broken light bulb. Next thing they know they are arrested for DUI and face a serious misdemeanor charge. Fortunately there are things you can do to protect yourself. Of course, the only sure way to avoid a DUI is to not drink and drive, but in case you are stopped for DUI, you must provide your license, registration and insurance. Beyond that you should never agree to take any tests or give any statements until after you have spoken with a DUI attorney.

2. “I can’t be charged with a DUI for taking prescription drugs”

California DUI law states that a person is guilty of driving while under the influence if the person drives a vehicle while under the influence of or affected by intoxicating alcohol or any drug. It is even irrelevant whether the drugs are legal or not. The only fact that matters is whether or not the person’s ability to drive was affected by the drug. Unlike an alcohol DUI, there is no legal limit for driving under the influence of drugs. So chances are that, even when you are a law abiding citizen, you may find yourself facing drug DUI charges based on blood tests that indicate the presence of prescription drugs. Similar to an alcohol DUI, there are things you can do to protect yourself in case you are stopped by an officer. In such a case you must provide your license, registration and insurance, but you should never agree to take any tests or give any statements until after you have spoken with an attorney that understands drug DUIs.

3. “Cooperating and doing a roadside sobriety test will help me”

Most Californian drivers facing DUI charges have provided the prosecution with lots of ‘evidence’ before they are ever talking to an attorney. Certainly, we are taught to cooperate with the police since we were kids. On the other hand, your willingness to do what an officer asks of you may be used against you.

Officers who are trained in DUI detection are looking for such ‘evidence’. Any questions asked and tests given are designed to proof the case they are building against you. This does not mean you should not be cooperative with an officer who stops you, but most people don’t know that your decision of whether or not to answer questions or participate in a sobriety test is voluntary. Again: you are not required to do a roadside test or answer any question. However, under California Law, you are required to be tested, whether you agree to do a ‘breathalizer’ test on the road or prefer to be taken to a testing facility. If you are unsure what to do, it is always best to ask to speak with a DUI attorney first. In any case, be very careful when you respond to the officer’s questions as every answer you give might serve as potentially self-incriminating evidence. Many times, a driver trying to convince an officer that he or she is not intoxicated leads to an even stronger DUI case against that person.

Always remember, a San Diego DUI charge is a very serious offense and if not dealt with properly, can haunt you for years, so never drink alcohol or use drugs before you drive! The San Diego DUI Penalties are severe!

A DUI San Diego is a serious charge that can have long lasting consequences. Many people go to court unprepared and a poorly constructed defense can result in your car being impounded, payment of hefty fines, license revoked for up to a year, and hours of community service. If it’s your second or third offense you might be facing jail time and more serious consequences. A legal representative can help you, either by fighting for your innocence or softening penalties. Choosing the right San Diego DUI attorney may seem overwhelming, but there are a few things you should look for when making your decision.

Experience

You want a DUI lawyer who has plenty of specialized experienced. There are many general lawyers who are fully capable of representing you in court. However, they can be spread thin and might not have had a recent DUI case. When interviewing potential lawyers, ask them when the last time was they handled a one similar to yours. If it has been a few years, they may not be able to prepare your defense, especially if you are close to the hearing.

Don’t Necessarily Pick The Attorney With The Biggest Ads

There may be some quality DUI lawyers who use commercials and big ads to attract attention, but generally, these are all show and no substance. They want to pull in as many cases as possible and quantity prevails over quality. They may be qualified to represent you in court, but guarantees and promises shouldn’t be trusted. Even the most brilliant, high-priced ones know that there are too many variables to predict the outcome of a case, no matter how air-tight it may appear.

Cost

The fees can vary greatly, but generally run from expensive to more expensive. Most charged by the hour, and that means even for a ten minute phone call. You may even have to pay for a consultation before even choosing a lawyer, so be sure to narrow down your search as much as possible before commencing with interviews. Always ask about pricing first so there are no surprises later. Be sure to keep track of every moment you call or speak with your lawyer so you can ensure you aren’t being overcharged.

Time

Sometimes you think you are hiring a DUI attorney, when in fact you are getting a whole team or a completely different one than who you spoke with. Larger law firms employ many lawyers and their schedules may change at the last minute, leaving you with a new defense team. If you’re not comfortable with this, ask ahead of time for who specifically will be in charge of your case and if there will be other lawyers involved.

Once you’ve established who will be representing you, you’ll want to see how many other cases they are simultaneously working on and how much of their time they will be able to devote to your case. You don’t want someone who is inflexible or doesn’t seem to have the time to properly research and prepare for your case.

Bottom line is, try to select a San Diego DUI attorney that provides you with an aggressive defense, and the firm goal of getting you back on the road and back to your life.

When it comes to San Diego DUI defense, the sooner you call a San Diego DUI defense lawyer, the greater your protection. There are many professional DUI attorneys and legal firms in the San Diego area. Each month, hundreds of cases involving DUI’s, criminal defense, traffic infractions, bond reductions, personal injury and much more are happening. If you have been arrested for a DUI, make sure to contact an experienced DUI lawyer, who is familiar with the area. To talk with knowledgeable lawyer, set up your consultation today.

According to statistics, California has the highest driving under the influence arrests of all states, so it is important to know your rights. If you receive a DUI in San Diego, you have ten days from the date of arrest to request a hearing. In California, a DUI is a crime. If you are arrested for driving under influence in San Diego, Chula Vista, Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Vista, Oceanside, San Marcos, Escondido or surrounding areas, seeking immediate help from an experienced San Diego DUI defense lawyer is the most important action to take. Having a defense attorney at your side will ensure you protect and know your rights such as you must plead not guilty to the offense to contest the DUI case.

If you are arrested for driving offense, you may have many questions or concerns. Legal firms specializing in DUI defense are certainly also available in your area. There are some well known and highly skilled DUI defense lawyers in San Diego offering their needed services to their clients.

Under California law, if you had your license suspended due to San Diego DUI or certain other violations, you need to provide an SR-22 to get your license back. An SR-22 is a form that is required by the DMV and provided by an insurance company. It simply proves you have car insurance. In most cases SR-22′s are required for three years, and have certain stipulations that the issuing company must comply with. That’s why the DMV insists on an SR-22 in order for you to get your license back. It tells the DMV that a company wrote you a policy.

Car insurance after a DUI is also found to be quite expensive as these drivers are classified as high risk when it comes to auto insurance. Several factors contribute in fixing up the rates for car insurance after a DUI. If a driver was found to be guilty for driving under the influence, he is supposed to enroll for the high rates of auto insurance. DUI car insurance is something that will definitely be a high risk option for the drivers, thus it becomes necessary for them to search for a company that might help them crack best cheaper deals.

Various companies have emerged to offer lower rates for the car insurances after a DUI in San Diego. With the help of the internet, you can check the availability of various companies that offer such services as DUI car insurance at lower costs to the drivers engaged in any kind of high risk driving cases. There are various deals that exist for the motorists; however, you must be careful in selecting them based on their multiple perspectives.

So you have been busted by the San Diego police for a DUI. Too bad for you, but the good news is that a San Diego DUI defense lawyer with years of experience may be able to help you. Driving under the influence (DUI) is a serious offense, but it can be handled by a good attorney specializing in San Diego DUI defense who will protect all of your rights and knows exactly how to work effectively within the system.

Attorneys that don’t specialize in DUIs, don’t have experience with DUI cases, or aren’t local to the San Diego are not ideal if you were arrested for drinking under the influence. When you get accused for a DUI, you either need to step up and realize that you have to hire a good DUI defense attorney or do nothing and the judge is going to have a field day with you. Like it or not, that is the way the system works. There are many cases where a great defense attorney who planted the seeds of doubt in the juries heads and painted the arresting officers in a negative light made a real difference in their client’s live.

Experienced DUI lawyers are trained to exactly that and they do it in criminal courts every day. Over the years some of these defense attorneys will build up a reputation as being brilliant. This is the type of seasoned lawyer that you want on your side when you stand in front of a judge and jury.

Skilled drunk driving lawyers know how to work the system. They have specialized knowledge of the law regarding illegal interrogation, denial of counsel, search and seizure, due process under the law, mistakes in field sobriety testing, and specialize in scientifically refuting breath and blood samples.

Specialized DUI defense lawyers are great at what they do, and hiring a good one almost assures you a lesser sentence and a potential complete dismissal of your DUI case. Sure, these lawyers cost a bit of money, but wouldn’t you rather keep your driver’s license and not have an ugly misdemeanor or felony DUI on your record? Wouldn’t you rather stay out of jail completely and pay a much smaller fine? It’s your choice, but the only real choice seems clear enough.

The prosecution has to wade through lots of documentation in a DUI case, documentation that if found to be incorrect or wrongly assembled, will cause the case to be dismissed on such a technicality. Your attorney is trained to sniff out these types of technicalities in the police reports, the in the computer automated dispatch reports, on the calibration logs, or perhaps in audio and video taken during the arrest. During the legal discovery period your defense attorney will scrutinize and pick apart all of these reports in order to find something which paints the D.A.’s case in a bad light. Great drunk driving attorneys are like blood hounds in finding these types of discrepancies. In fact, the law is set up to protect the innocent, so there are many, many of these types of errors just waiting to be found. However, the only way to find them is with a top notch drunk driving attorney, somebody with an excellent reputation and years of experience.

Finding and hiring one of these professionals greatly tips the odds in your favor, so go interview a few and get started, don’t delay.

Don’t ever try to drive under thee influence in San Diego if you want to a have a hassle free live. But if inevitable has already happened and you are in trouble, contact a San Diego DUI defense lawyer as soon as possible.

A San Diego DUI is a very serious issue. Even if it is a first offense and a misdemeanor, the penalties and fines for drunk driving in San Diego are very steep. In fact, the maximum sentence in a first offense misdemeanor case is one full year in prison. This is not an offense to be taken lightly. The fines also run into the thousands of dollars, not to mention that you will automatically have your driver’s license suspended. While this sounds really bad, but there are also good news. If you learn how the law works and how to go about finding and hiring a good San Diego DUI defense lawyer, things won’t look nearly as bad as they may right now.

An DUI defense attorney is a specialized lawyer with experience in dealing with DUIs. He can stop the automatic suspension of your driver’s license, but only if you act within ten days of your arrest. These types of very specialized DUI defense attorneys are also very adept at getting sentence reductions and finding flaws in the prosecution’s case against you. The very best San Diego DUI defense lawyers have impressive records for getting cases completely dismissed or reducing the sentences to something extremely light.

These attorneys are worth their weight in gold. They know the law, the system, and the players inside and out; they know the inside “plays” that you have no clue about. They are experts in using the system to your advantage.

Even if it appears to you that the prosecution has an air tight case against you there may in fact be procedural errors, mistakes, and technicalities that could very well get your case dismissed. In fact with the way the law is set up and the way the legal system functions, more likely than not, your defense attorney will find something regarding your case to get your sentence reduced or your case dismissed.

But, you can’t go hiring somebody that doesn’t have credibility and a stellar reputation. The criminal court system and throughout the country has its core players (judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys) and they all know each other, they know which ones are good and which ones don’t know what they’re doing. You need to find a defense attorney with respect within the system, someone who’s won cases over and over again. That is your ace in the hole. Certain defense attorneys will be respected and well known and will be simply known for understanding DUI law inside and out. Ask around and find one of these attorneys.

The most important point to remember when searching for a San Diego DUI defense lawyer is to focus on a firm and an attorney who are only focused on DUIs and know the letter of the law down to its smallest details.

Driving under the influence is illegal, no matter what your age. Each year, thousands of automobile accidents are caused by drunk driving, and the resulting injuries and deaths ruin the lives of countless families. That said, it is never a good idea to drive no matter how little you have had to drink. And while those over 21 can legally drive if they are below the legal limit of intoxication, underage drivers are subject to a zero tolerance rule.

In the case of drinking and driving, zero tolerance basically means that if the underage driver tests positively for any amount of alcohol in their bloodstream at all, they are subject to being arrested for driving under the influence. This is because drinking while underage is illegal to begin with, and driving on top of it is an automatic DUI.

No one wants to get a DUI – especially those who are underage. Getting a DUI can cost you thousands of dollars in fines, can cause you to lose your job and can tarnish your ability to get into or stay in college. In short, it can cause considerable damage to your life and the lives of those around you. Avoiding a DUI is as simple as not driving while intoxicated. If you do happen to end up getting a DUI, you’re going to need a DUI attorney to minimize the damage.

A criminal lawyer can help to guide you through the process of dealing with a DUI and can minimize the fines you will have to pay. Hiring a criminal attorney is never an easy process for a family, but it is absolutely necessary if one is dealing with a DUI. Underage drivers who get caught driving under the influence are rarely pitied in a court of law, which is why it is necessary to have good legal representation.

If you are the parent of an underage driver who has been issued a DUI, remember that it is important to be supportive. People make mistakes, especially young people. While it not necessary to pity your child, be sure to let him or her know that it is not the end of the world and that you will be there for them no matter what. Dealing with a DUI can be a stressful, trying time, and you don’t want to make it any harder on them than it has to be.

If you are an underage driver, remember that it is possible to avoid getting a DUI and having to deal with this situation at all. If you plan on drinking, plan on also having a ride home, whether it be a taxi or a sober friend. In drinking and driving, no one wins, especially not you.

About the Author:
Nick Messe is president of Lead Frog LLC. Robert G. Hyman, Stafford VA criminal attorney has been proudly serving Stafford, Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg Virginia and the surrounding counties for over 28 years. Whether you are a juvenile or adult, we will assist and defend you every step of the way.

Whether it is your first or second DUI, when you need to find a good San Diego DUI attorney, there are many different things you have to consider. Selecting a DUI attorneys who is best for your individual case is a serious task that can have serious impact on your future, and so you really need to know what you are doing before you even begin the process of finding a DUI attorney. A so-called ‘general practitioner’ may be less expensive but might not know enough about your particular legal matter. After all, you want the best possible outcome for your DUI conviction case with the best possible results.

San Diego DUI attorneys are a much needed part of the justice system. Driving under the influence is such a common occurrence in San Diego that this area of law that there are many specialized attorneys who only deal with those convicted of a DUI.  DUI (Driving under the influence) or DWI (Driving While intoxicated) is a very serious offense that endangers not only the life of the driver but many innocent lives of others as well.  It is true that many law officials are attempting to crack down on this crime, yet it is still quite rampant in our society.  San Diego DUI attorneys see many, many cases of this crime per day, month and year.  There is a high demand for lawyers within this area of law.

When looking for a San Diego DUI attorney, every effort should be taken to find a reputable and honorable law professional. We recommend to select a San Diego attorney who is working in an established law firm, as these firms only hire the best lawyers in order to keep up their good name and practice. Even if you are guilty of a DUI, you are still entitled to a fair representation of your case in court.  Your DUI attorney should be very knowledgeable of all aspects of DUI law.

Choosing the first lawyer listed in the phone book is not always a wise choice. It is much better to look online, and seek out advice of a trusted friend or colleague who was the same position and can refer a qualified DUI lawyer in San Diego.

Many DUI lawyers give you a free initial consultation. Talk to each of the lawyers you selected so you can see whether or not you like them, and you can ask them any other questions that you may have. Your San Diego DUI lawyer will be your closest adviser during the next weeks or months of the law suit. You must feel comfortable and have trust. One important question to ask is how much they charge for their services and whether or not they are expecting a retainer, so you can make sure that you have the required amount of money available to you. In your initial interview, talk to the lawyer openly to find out all the pros and cons of your case and your actual chances of winning. Keep in mind: most of the times your attorney will get paid even if you don’t win that case!

If you are worried that you are not going to be able to remember all questions you want to ask, then it is a good idea to make a list, so that you can bring the list into the appointments with you and can rest assured knowing that you will not end up forgetting what you wanted to ask.

Once you have all information to decide which San Diego DUI attorney you want to hire, make sure to get a clear and fair written agreement that spells out how she will handle your legal matter and how you will be charged!