Articles Posted in DUI

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Recent statistics have shown that there are approximately 13,000 DUI arrests in Orange County alone, out of nearly 200,000 in the State of California. In some years, more than 90 percent of Orange County DUI arrests result in conviction.

A conviction of DUI carries severe and long lasting effects on a person’s life. An experienced DUI defense attorney can help to minimize the consequences of being arrested and charged with driving under the influence.

DUI, or driving under the influence, charges are typically charged as misdemeanors. However, some DUI’s can be charged as felonies. A DUI that is charged as a Felony DUI, usually involves DUI manslaughter; DUI causing serious injury; 3rd DUI conviction within 10 years; and 4th DUI conviction at any time. Drunk drivers who cause injury, or DUI with injury is sometimes referred to as a “wobbler” charge, which means that it can be charged as either a felony or misdemeanor. However, prosecutors typically pursue the charge that carries the most punishment. An experienced criminal defense attorney, or DUI defense attorney, will have the knowledge and experience to determine the likelihood of getting the felony reduced to a misdemeanor. A conviction of felony DUI carries a much more serious punishment than a misdemeanor DUI. A misdemeanor first offense DUI can be punishable by up to six months in the county jail, whereas a felony DUI can carry a year or more in state prison sentence.

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Could A New Law In Colorado Make 3rd DUI’s In California A Felony?

There is a proposed new law being considered in Colorado, which would make a third DUI a felony. Representatives of Weld County are reintroducing a bill that would make a third offense for driving under the influence a felony. If this law passes, and the results prove to be beneficial to the public in reducing DUI’s, it could have an impact on other states, including California. The proposed law would allow prosecutors to seek class 4 felony charges for people charged with their third DUI within seven years or their fourth during any time period. If passed, the bill would also lengthen the time period convicted drunk drivers are required to have interlock devices installed in their vehicles. Rather than one year, it may be as many as five years.

It appears that Colorado is cracking down in a serious way on people who drive while intoxicated. California, Orange county specifically, is extremely strict when it comes to DUI and thus, may be watching Colorado carefully to see how this all plays out. Orange County is continually trying to come up with new ways to seek out and crack down on individuals who drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

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Orange County Cracks Down on Driving Under the Influence Drivers

Orange County continues to reinforce their commitment to crack down on individuals who drive under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.

As they do every year, Orange County law enforcement agencies began their “Avoid Campaign” during the holiday season with their DUI task forces out in full force. It began on December 15, 2014 with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department searching out high risk DUI offenders with outstanding arrest warrants. Individuals who either failed to show up for their court date or who had violated the terms of their probation were sought out and arrested.

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Consequences Of DUI With Passenger Under The Age Of 14

In California, if you are arrested for driving under the influence and you have a passenger in your car under the age of 14, Vehicle Code section 23572 states that any sentence/punishment associated with the conviction of DUI may be enhanced. The enhancement depends upon whether it is your first, second or third offense for driving under the influence. For a first offense, the enhancement would be an additional 48 hours in jail and up to 90 days in jail for multiple offenses. This is in addition to your sentence for the underlying DUI charge.

So what this means is that when the District Attorney is filing their case, they may or may not include the enhancements for having a child under the age of 14 years. This often depends upon the circumstances of the arrest such as, the blood alcohol level of the defendant, the driving pattern, the age of the child, and the officer’s observations of the defendant during the initial stop.

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In California, when a driver is arrested for driving under the influence, they are given a temporary, 30-day license from the Department of Motor Vehicles. On that notice, it states that the license is good for only thirty days and that after that time, the driver’s license will be suspended unless an Administrative Per Se hearing is requested. This request must be made within 10 days of the date of the arrest. The following is a list of situations for which the DMV may suspend your license:

  1. Driving with a blood alcohol level of .08% or higher;
  2. Refusing to submit to a chemical test or, if under 21 years of age, refusing to submit to a PAS test;
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Every summer, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department launches their “Summer/Labor Day National Anti-DUI mobilization” in an effort to minimize the number of people who get behind the wheel after drinking.  The campaign has been in effect for several years now, and the Sheriff’s Department has made the campaign public, hoping to deter people from driving after a night of drinking and partying with friends.

The campaign usually starts sometime in late June or early July and continues through Labor Day weekend.  The Sheriff’s Department puts out extra effort to crack down on drunk drivers during this time because the summer months, after school lets out, is the time when people are celebrating the end of school, graduations and vacations.   Also,  summertime in Orange County, with its beaches and great weather, brings people out of their homes to socialize in their beach communities.

The campaign this year began with the “Avoid the 38” campaign, which started on August 15th and ended on August 24th.  The campaign consisted of officers and deputies from 38 Orange County law enforcement agencies, and resulted in 483 arrests for DUI of alcohol and/or drugs.  This number is up from 374 arrests that were made during the same campaign in 2013.

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You’ve just been arrested in Orange County, California for driving under the influence. What happens next?

The most time-sensitive matter you need to address is the DMV Administrative Per Se (APS), hearing. You have ten days from the date you are arrested to request this hearing, in writing.

What many people don’t know is that when you are arrested for DUI, if you fail the blood, breath or urine test, meaning that you had a .08 or higher blood alcohol level, your driving privilege in California is automatically suspended by the Department of Motor Vehicles. The length of the suspension depends upon whether it was your first arrest for DUI and, whether you were under the age of 21 years at the time.

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As a DUI defense attorney, practicing law in Orange County California for more than 20 years, I have handled hundreds of driving under the influence cases. My clients come from all walks of life. They include lawyers, doctors, business professionals, college students, as well as the average person who is just living their life comfortably, until one day when they make a mistake and drive after having had a few too many drinks. This is the time when you need an experienced attorney who will look closely at your case and determine whether or not there is a good defense. The following is a list of some defense to DUI that I routinely look for when evaluating a new case.

1. Can the prosecution prove that you were the one driving the car? This may sound obvious, but surprisingly, there are those situations where police officers come upon a car and there is more than one occupant in the car. If no one is in the driver seat, how can they determine who was driving.

2. Did the police officers have reasonable suspicion to stop you in the first place? As most people know, all an officer has to have in order to pull you over is a reasonable suspicion that you have done something wrong. Challenging the stop is extremely difficult because there are so many reasons an officer can pull you over. Obviously any traffic violation, regardless of how minor, gives an officer reasonable cause. It can be something as small as a taillight out, driving too slow, or forgetting to use your turn signal. So, one of the first things I look at is why you were pulled over in the first place.

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We all know that drinking and driving is a bad idea and extremely dangerous to anyone else on the road around you. But, once that alcohol kicks in, our common sense or logical thinking kicks out. Most people feel that they are perfectly okay to drive and may very well be but, if you are stopped and your blood alcohol level is over the legal limit, the fact that you can drive straight while under the influence won’t matter. You will be arrested for driving under the influence, and if convicted, will suffer the consequences of that. Depending upon whether it’s your first, second or third, you will lose your license for a period of time, be required to attend an alcohol class, required to attend a MADD panel, pay fees and fines and be placed on informal probation for three years. For multiple offenses, you are potentially looking at jail time. So, yes it would have been a good idea to call a taxi but, for those who don’t and get caught, the next step is finding a good DUI defense attorney to review your case and try to mitigate the severity of the consequences.

What may surprise you is that there are defenses to DUI’s. A good DUI attorney will charge more than an average DUI defense attorney and while you can find a cheap attorney to handle your case, keep in mind that you get what you pay for. When you hire an experienced DUI defense attorney, you are paying more for his experience and reputation for getting good outcomes.

Some DUI’s are defensible and can be won and some are not. So what determines this? Well, several things. The most common are how and why you were stopped, how the police officer conducted the investigation, proper calibration of the machines used and what you told the police officer at the time of the investigation. Equally important is having a competent attorney who will take the time necessary to investigate these things.

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When someone is arrested and convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, there is no doubt that you will feel the effects of the conviction. The consequences are in place so that you feel and experience the negative effects of a conviction for DUI to deter it from happening again.

The punishments/consequences, fees and fines vary depending upon whether it’s your first, second or third DUI. There are also other facts taken into consideration like speeding, high alcohol content, minor children in the car, etc. To learn more about the consequences of a conviction for a 1st, 2nd or 3rd DUI, visit my DUI website.

This writing will discuss the consequences of an arrest/conviction for a fourth DUI. This is a very serious charge and, if caught driving while under the influence for the fourth time in a ten-year period, will cause the case to be filed as a felony. And, although prior convictions for DUI are serious, they are misdemeanors and may not be looked at the same way a felony conviction would be.

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