Life after DUI
LIke your first car, your first marriage and your first child, your first -- and hopefully your last -- DUI conviction is a life-changing event, with ramifications well into the future. Your thoughtful, pragmatic consideration and selection of a drunk driving defense attorney can make all the difference to that future, of course, in terms of potentially minimizing and avoiding charges and penalties. But our concern here is looking at what the State of California will seek to impose on you in the absence of such competent and specialized attorney representation.
Below an obtained .15% blood alcohol level, in the absence of other charges (hit and run, resisting arrest, child endangerment), the first offender is facing up to 6 months in jail ( and don't be misled, jail is now increasingly a threatened reality after a loss at trial in most California jurisdictions), a state alcohol "education" program of up to 9 months, community service and fines up to $4000.00.
Since California's Vehicle Code expressly prohibits the option of foregoing an officer-requested blood or breath test, a blood test refusal inherently subjects you to the longest alcohol programs, the highest fines, 2 to 14 days jail time and a one year suspension of your California license or (potentially) national privilege to drive -- without the option of a "restricted"or provisional licence. Increased insurance rates, cancelled insurance, injured reputation, lost employment; all are prospective consequences-- for the next 10 years! -- beyond the anxiety and humiliation you suffered at the time of your arrest for your first DUI.
Gold & Witham are here to help you. Help you technically, courtesy of our staff of forensic court and administrative DMV experts. Help you psychologically, to smooth the road toward your best possible settlement and promote your safe, arrest-free driving in the future. Help you strategically, to motivate the Judge and Prosecutor to see you, not as the lastest in the thousands of those arrested for first offense DUI stopped each year, but as the typically responsible and civic person you in fact are, day to day.