Salt Lake City DUI Lawyer | Plea bargains in DUI cases

Sadly, being a DUI attorney in Salt Lake City is not all arguing for judges and cross examining police officers like it is on TV.  The criminal justice system is over burdened with thousands of cases, and as such it is necessary for prosecutors to offer deals to accused defendants in order to prevent all cases from going to trial.  As it is often stated, if every criminal defendant exercised his or her right to a trial, the system would collapse.

Thus, the majority of misdemeanor cases – including DUIs – are settled during the first “pretrial conference”.  A pretrial conference is simply a scheduled time for the city prosecutor to meet with your Salt Lake City DUI attorney and discuss an offer – a reduction of charges – meant to entice the defendant into waiving his right to trial and pleading guilty.   As a DUI lawyer, I hate this because it’s boring.  I come in and wait to talk to the prosecutor, and then talk to my client and explain the offer. Then I have to then wait for the judge and tell him or her whether my client has agreed to the offer.  If he has, my job is over.  But this is not what I envisioned my career to be like when I dreamt of becoming a lawyer.

Regardless of my dislike for this process, however, it is often in my client’s best interest to take the plea offer.  A good DUI attorney in Salt Lake City should be able to tell you the strengths and weaknesses of your case, and the options you face when considering accepting a plea bargain.  He or she should never, of course, influence your decision based on his or her own personal preferences.

I cannot go into detail about when you should and should not accept a plea bargain, there are simply too many variables to consider in a simple blog post.  However, I will say that what you are generally looking for, unless you have a particularly strong case, is a plea to “impaired driving”.  When a client gets an offer for impaired driving, it is often worth strong consideration.

What is “impaired driving”?  Well, if drunk drivers were just “normal” criminals who had committed less serious offenses like assault, theft, or drug distribution (I’m being facetious) then they might get something called a “plea in abeyance”.  A plea in abeyance is essentially a second chance.  The judge says, “you are admitting that you committed this crime, but because you seem like such a good person we’re going to give you the benefit of the doubt and we’re going to pretend none of this ever happened as long as you can manage to stay out of trouble for a year.”

If your Utah DUI Lawyer cannot get a plea in abeyance for your DUI, do not blame him or her…it is impossible to get a plea in abeyance for a DUI in Utah, it has been banned by statute!  The local public sentiment has created a political motive to punish drunk drivers so harshly that it would seem that you might be better off getting caught selling a little heroin than getting caught driving at .09.

The reasonableness (or lack of it) of this fact is the subject of another post.  The point here is merely to explain that, since you cannot get a plea in abeyance, your next best offer is going to be “impaired driving”.  The fines and community service/jail time for impaired driving are the same as for a DUI, an impaired driving conviction will also count as a DUI for the purposes of enhancement if you get another DUI in the future.  However, an impaired driving conviction can still be much better than a DUI because it does not carry the same stigma in the world of insurance carries, employers, and security clearances.

In general, you shouldn’t take a deal that doesn’t give you an advantage in outcome when compared with going to trial and losing.  The prosecutor has got to give you some incentive to plead out, or there is no point to you giving up your right to trial.  So talk to your Salt Lake City DUI attorney about your options, and decide whether an impaired driving conviction will benefit you enough to forgo your right to trial.

Listen to the public defender, she is also a Salt Lake City Criminal Attorney!

Public defenders get a lot of crap.  If you don’t believe me, go watch My Cousin Vinny.  I witnessed an exchange in court today that made me sad, and I feel like someone should alert the general public to the fact that public defenders are great lawyers.  While there are pros and cons depending on your specific case, the public defender is usually every bit as good as a Salt Lake City criminal attorney.  (briefly, the pros for a public defender are: greater familiarity with the court, judge, and prosecutors; the cons are: lack of time to devote much personal attention to your case) In fact, sometimes the public defender is a criminal defense attorney in Salt Lake City – they just have a contract with the court to provide indigent defense.

While I was in court today, I could hear a defendant talking with the public defender in the corner of the courtroom.  The defendant was in custody and awaiting a some sort of court appearance for a misdemeanor charge, but he also had a felony charge coming up in a few weeks.  The public defender in this case happens to also be a private Salt Lake City criminal defense lawyer.    Anyway, the defendant had been in custody on the misdemeanor charge for some time – a couple of months or something, and wondered if he could get credit for time served, and get released today – which the public defender told him was a distinct possibility, although she could make no guarantee.

The defendant told the public defender about the felony charge and explained that he was planning on getting private counsel.  I couldn’t hear the whole exchange, but apparently, the defendant asked whether he could “fire” the public defender, and have this yet-to-be-hired private attorney represent him.  The public defender tried to discourage him, but he wouldn’t listen to her.  He ended up firing her and going back to jail that day while he had someone looking for a private attorney for him.  I talked to the public defender afterwards and she told me, “I’m pretty sure the would have released him today if he had just listened to me, now he’s sitting in jail.”

Public defenders are good lawyers, they usually have a lot more interaction with the specific judges and prosecutors on your case, and if they give you advice about something like this, take it!

Salt Lake City DUI Attorney | Another good reason to fight your Utah DUI…

A lot of clients that come in to my office for the first time fit into one or both of the following categories: 1) people who don’t realize what a mess of trouble a Utah DUI can be (and therefore, how important it is that they find a good DUI attorney in Salt Lake City to represent them); and/or 2) people who think that there is no chance of an attorney being able to challenge the DUI with any success.    Much of my initial conversation with clients has to do with dispelling these two misconceptions.

Now, I do what I do because I like it.  If I had wanted to be something other than a Salt Lake City DUI attorney, I could easily have done so.  When I started my practice, I could have focused on any area of law.  I chose to focus on Salt Lake City criminal defense law because that is where my passion lies.  And, of course, my first duty is to you as my client.  My primary goal is to make the best of your terribly unfortunate situation (being arrested).

However, I also have a secondary goal.  That secondary goal is to protect the citizens of Utah from improper police harassment, searches, prosecution, and infringement on civil rights.  So when I’m making a motion to suppress, or cross-examining a witness – I am doing so, obviously, with the goal of winning your case, but also with the goal of bringing to light any possible misconduct by agents of the state.  For me, this alone is reason enough to fight your Salt Lake City DUI or criminal charges.

But the average client doesn’t care a whole lot about all of that stuff.  What they want is to get out of their DUI arrest without wrecking their future – and I don’t blame them.  But I want to point something out to them that I’ve seen a number of times.  Something that might give them one more reason to fight that Utah DUI.  And it is very simple…the state – as you may well know – has the burden to proving your guilt.  Therefore, when you fight your charges, instead of just bending over and hoping not to get spanked too hard, the state is forced to put on their case.

And sometimes they mess it up.  

Nobody’s perfect, and lord knows that the prosecutors are overloaded with work and underfunded – just like every other government office.  So sometimes they drop the ball.  They may have you dead to rights – an air-tight case, but they still have to present that case, and sometimes a witness doesn’t show up…or something doesn’t get filed…or the chemical test wasn’t conducted properly, or the attorney didn’t get any sleep and he’s having an off day, any number of things can go wrong…and honestly it happens often enough that it should make you think about pressing your luck.

As a DUI attorney, I never plan for this to happen.  I always have a defense plotted out…a defense that involves things that I can control – not flailing hopes – but sometimes you catch a card on the river, so to speak.

What information about my arrest is important to my Salt Lake City DUI Attorney?

In short, everything about your arrest is important to your Salt Lake City DUI attorney!  But first things first, don’t forget that when you’re meeting a Utah DUI lawyer for the first time, what they tell you is even more important than what you tell them.  Remember that you are interviewing them for the job of representing you in your Utah DUI charges.  You must feel comfortable talking with them, you must feel confident in their ability to defend you, and you must believe that they are going to follow through on their promises to communicate with you, and fight their hardest to get the best outcome for your case.  In other words, you must trust your DUI lawyer.

Once you’re sure you’ve found the right Salt Lake DUI Lawyer, you want to make sure you give them all of the important information about your case.  You and your DUI attorney must leave no stone unturned in your fight against your Utah DUI.  When clients come in to my office for the first time, I go through a lengthy questionnaire with them.  The questionnaire is tedious, and time consuming – but it is also thorough, and I believe that it is the cornerstone to formulating and effective strategy for fighting your Utah DUI.   Whatever Salt Lake City DUI Attorney you end up hiring, he or she should definitely go through a similar process.  A good Utah DUI lawyer will have all sorts of questions for you that may be relevant to your defense.  You would probably never have guessed that things like medical conditions, your diet, and your shoes could have anything to do with your Utah DUI defense, but they do!

Aside from answering the attorney’s questionnaire questions as accurately as possible, you want to make sure you are able to tell your DUI lawyer, with as much accuracy as possible, about weather and lighting conditions, the order and timing in which the officer proceeded with his investigation, and about any witnesses to your arrest.

You also want to make sure that you can tell your lawyer everything that you told the officer when he or she questioned you.  And don’t lie to your DUI attorney, or sugar coat the truth!  If you told the officer you hadn’t been drinking, and you had – your lawyer needs to know.  Your Salt Lake City DUI lawyer can’t help you if he doesn’t know all of the bad facts of your case as well as the good ones!

Salt Lake City DUI Lawyer | The burning questions answered.

When potential clients go in to talk to a Salt Lake City DUI attorney, their biggest concerns are usually: can I go to jail?  And: how much is this going to cost me?  In this blog post I thought I’d give a run down of what a first time DUI in Utah will cost you, and what penalties you’re facing.

For purposes of this post, I’ll use a hypothetical client with a first time DUI, whose BAC is below .16, whose age is over 21, and who doesn’t have any other aggravating factors such as having a minor in the car with them at the time of the offense, or causing an injury in an accident.  In other words, a “basic” DUI.

This kind of DUI would constitute a Class B Misdemeanor.  To get the jail time question out of the way, the judge must sentence a person with even a basic, first time DUI with 48 hours of jail time or community service.   That is a statutory minimum.  Note, your Salt Lake City DUI lawyer may be able to negotiate a plea to “impaired driving” which is substantially similar to DUI penalties, but does not require the mandatory two days jail time.

Now to move on to the “how much will a DUI cost me?” question, the basic answer in Utah is right around $10,000.  But I have a few things to say about that. First, the $10,000 figure I’ve seen tossed around is based on a $4,000-$5,000 dollar cost of future high risk car insurance.  I think the accuracy of that figure is debatable.  Depending on circumstances, it could be quite a bit less (or a whole lot more).

Second, and more importantly, that $10,000 estimate I’ve seen includes a $2,500 dollar attorney’s fee.  Attorney’s fees vary wildly, but even assuming this is how much your Salt Lake City DUI attorney costs, if your DUI Lawyer is any good he’ll have a fighting chance at saving you money in other places.  It’s a little strange to account for a cost of something in this calculation which is essentially an investment.  For instance, if your Salt Lake City DUI lawyer gets your charges dropped, or gets you acquitted then your $10,000 bill becomes only $2,500 (plus maybe some impound costs, etc.)  If your DUI attorney negotiates a plea to a lesser charge, he will be saving you money by getting you a shorter driver’s license suspension, lesser fine, no jail time, or getting you out of having to get high risk insurance.  I.E., one of the most important advantages to hiring a Utah DUI Lawyer is to save you money on penalties and collateral costs, so to assume that you will spend $X on legal fees, and still end up with the same costs in fines, penalties, and collateral expenses, is…well…poor accounting.

I point all of this out to show you the value of a good Salt Lake DUI attorney, of course. But I also point this out to show you that you can’t believe everything you read, and to help you realize that when it comes to facing DUI charges, a lot of people have an interest in vilifying you, and scaring you into imagining the worst case scenario.  This is not always the case.  DUI charges can be reduced, or fought at trial, and the penalties might not be as severe as you think.  S0, my advice is to talk to a DUI lawyer if you find yourself in this situation, and don’t ever just lay down and plead guilty without understanding all of your options.

Your Salt Lake City DUI Attorney discusses the importance of your DUI attorney’s understanding of Utah’s DUI laws

I just came across a case that dealt with a Provo DUI.  I’m not writing about the case because there were any surprising or novel legal conclusions.  Rather, I’m writing about it because it embodied what I think is both a cautionary tale and an alarming snapshot of how the courts and legislature approach drunk driving laws.

The case arose from a DUI investigation of a motorcycle driver that was struck by an oncoming car while turning.  This unlucky fellow was hit by a car and ended up getting a DUI because the responding officer smelled alcohol on his breath while he was in the back of an ambulance about to go to the hospital.

The “cautionary tale” aspect of this case is that the attorney that tried the case apparently failed to understand what turned out to be a very important distinction in Utah’s DUI laws: the question of what a defendant’s blood alcohol level (BAC) was at the time of his operation of a motor vehicle versus at the time of the administration of the chemical test.  

As the court points out, there are two provisions in Utah DUI law that deal with directly with this distinction, and your Salt Lake City DUI attorney simply MUST understand this!  The DUI attorney in this case made a perfectly rational argument that, although the defendant’s BAC at the time of the administration of his test was over .08, it is entirely possible that the defendant’s BAC at the time of operation of his vehicle was below the .08 limit.  This is possible because alcohol is not automatically absorbed into the bloodstream.  For example, a rum swilling swashbuckler could shoot a whole bunch of hard liquor and then immediately go drive down the street, and collide with an ice cream truck, at which point he may not actually be “drunk” because all of the alcohol would not have had time to get into the blood stream.

Unfortunately for this poor motorcyclist, his DUI attorney did not seem to notice that while section 41-6a-502 (c) tells us that a person may not drive if they have a BAC of “.08 or greater at the time  of operation” of a vehicle, section 41-6a-502(a) says that a person may not drive if they have “sufficient alcohol in [their] system that a subsequent chemical test shows that the person has a [BAC] of .08 or greater at the time of the test.”

In other words, our rum swilling swashbuckler, although his BAC at the time of his collision with the ice cream truck was below .08, will nevertheless be guilty of DUI under subsection (a), even if he is innocent under subsection (c)!

The effect of the attorney’s mistake was to prevent him from allowing his expert witness to testify at trial on behalf of the defendant.  The expert witness, of course, will still get paid – by the client.  And what’s worse, the attorney’s confusion may have caused him to pursue this useless theory of defense at the expense of making an argument that may actually have benefitted his client at trial.

So, the moral of the story is, get a good Salt Lake City DUI lawyer who knows DUI laws!

Now, the part of this story that alarms me is the fact that this distinction is present in our DUI laws in the first place.  The provision in subsection (a) creates the possibility that someone can get a DUI when they were not operating under the influence of alcohol to an extent that the safety of the public is threatened.  The defense in this case eventually challenged the constitutionality of subsection (a), but were (of course) unsuccessful.

Some may not be too worried about a person getting a DUI when they weren’t technically under the influence, just because they were driving after drinking.  Some may say, “they deserved it”.  It is easy to vilify drunk drivers, but it is important that we not lose sight of the point of DUI laws; they are meant to protect the public not to punish people needlessly.  If the bottom line is that someone was not under the influence when they were driving, then punishing them doesn’t do society any good.

As a Salt Lake City criminal defense lawyer, I feel that the mere fact that a person can be convicted of a DUI simply because their BAC level is above .08 is a travesty of justice.  This belief is fueled by my knowledge of the inaccuracy of chemical testing, as well as my knowledge that the effects of alcohol vary wildly from person to person.  But, that is the way the law stands.  Unfortunately, subsection (a) provides the state with just one more short cut to convicting people of DUI.

Hey, Salt Lake City DUI Lawyer! My breath test came back over .08, doesn’t that automatically mean I’m guilty of DUI?

As I’ve mentioned briefly in other suggestions from a Salt Lake DUI lawyer, .08 seems to be a “magic number” for the general public when it comes to DUIs.  The general public is obsessed with the number .08 because they suppose that to be the level of blood alcohol content at which a defendant was clearly too drunk to drive.  They hear it from friends: “I was pulled over by this cop, and I only blew a .05″.  Or they hear it on the news: “famous athlete pulled over for drunk driving…and he blow a .08″; or, the suspect blew a .14, almost twice the legal limit”.   Imagine you were arrested for DUI and you blew a .08 or above…now what?

Well, it’s bad news.  Because the jury is made up of people from the general public, and if your Salt Lake DUI attorney doesn’t tell them any different, they think you were definitely too drunk to drive, and you’ll be convicted.  But did you know that those sacred results, ‘point-oh-eight’, can be attacked by a good DUI lawyer? Did you know that there are all sorts of things from engine vibrations, to radio frequency interference, to what the test subject ate for dinner that can mess those results up?  Did you know that the Intoxilyzer machines used for DUI breath testing in Utah are not warranted by their manufacturer to test for breath alcohol content accurately?  Does that seem insane?  This Salt Lake City DUI lawyer thinks so.

Here are a few of the many things that cause inaccurate results in breath tests:

• Where the test is administered in a patrol car or van, instead of at an indoor location, vibrations from the engine or passing cars can affect test results.
• Where administered in a patrol car or van, unstable power sources can affect the rpm of the test unit’s motor and the brightness of the infrared lamps the test unit uses, causing inaccurate results.
• Test results can be skewed if the test subject holds his or her breath before blowing into the machine.  The longer a person holds his breath, the higher the BAC results will be.  When officers administer tests, they are instructed to hold the breath tube for the test subject.  Whether intentional, or unintentional, sometimes the officer does not present the breath tube to the subject immediately, causing him or her to hold their breath before blowing into the machine.  Likewise, test subjects who are hyperventilating or crying will not produce accurate test results.
• The subject’s breath temperature can skew test results.  A mere 1 degree centigrade higher breath temperature will result in an 8.6% higher BAC test result – which would make a .075 BAC test at a .081!  So test results for a person with an abnormally high body temperature, or someone who is ill, or at a certain point in their menstrual cycle will be higher.

These are just a few of the factors that can cause a breath test to be inaccurate.  If you’ve been charged with a DUI, don’t just accept your test results as unassailable truth.  Instead, hire a Salt Lake City DUI attorney who knows the ins and outs of these machines, and attack those results if you decide to go to trial.