When it comes to these DUI cases, people get a little confused about what’s going on because they don’t really have any basis of knowledge. They’re watching TV and seeing different things and they think they know how things should go. I have a lot people calling and saying, I’m a good person. I have no record. I have a good job. I don’t understand why I’m being prosecuted. Can you tell the prosecutors that I can’t have a DUI on my record?
The prosecutors don’t really care about all of that. That’s not really their main factors. The main factor in a DUI case is safety. If you’re endangering the public’s safety when it comes to a Los Angeles DUI, that’s when the prosecutors are going to go after you and try to get that conviction. That’s really the main thing when you’re looking at a case.
When a jury is evaluating a case, they’re going to look at safety. What I mean by that, in specific, is the whole DUI system in Los Angeles is set-up to evaluate whether somebody can safely operate a motor vehicle, and a lot of the tools that are used to do that are things like the breath machine. The breath machine that’s used, the Intoxilyzer 3000 in Los Angeles, basically is reading a person’s blood alcohol level. If the blood alcohol level is a .08 or greater, it’s already been determined by the legislature that that person cannot safely operate a motor vehicle. So again, it’s coming back to safety. The higher your blood alcohol level is, obviously, the more unsafe you are.
If you’re using some sort of drugs when it comes to a DUI offense — whether they be prescription drugs or illegal drugs — obviously, you’re not going to be as safe as someone who’s not using drugs, because drugs can affect your ability to safely operate a motor vehicle. That’s why when the police pull you over and they start looking in your eyes and they make you do all of those tests, those tests are supposed to be further indicators as to whether or not you can safely operate a motor vehicle on the roadways in Los Angeles.
Whenever you’re evaluating or thinking about a DUI case — and I’ve down a lot of them in twenty-five years – thousands in fact — it’s always going to come down to safety. If I as a defense attorney can show my client has a low blood alcohol level, has no prior record and, in this particular case, didn’t do anything unsafe — in other words, they were just driving and the police pulled him over for some ticky-tack reason, then I’m going to be in strong position to argue that they weren’t unsafe, and if they weren’t unsafe then they shouldn’t be convicted of a DUI. You see how it works? So, that’s what you have to focus on in these cases.
If your blood alcohol level is double the legal limit, do you think the prosecutor is just going to dismiss the case? Absolutely not. Double the legal limit, as far as alcohol cases go in Los Angeles, is unsafe. It’s dangerous. So, if you get in an accident and you’re drinking and driving, do you think the police are just going to dismiss your case? Of course, they’re not. So, this is what you have to start to focus-in on, and this is how we defend these cases and this is also how we mitigate these cases. Sometimes you don’t have the defense to get a straight dismissal or a straight not-guilty verdict, so you’re going to look to do damage control — to get a lesser charge, to stay out of jail — whatever is applicable and appropriate to your circumstances related to your particular DUI.
The best way to do that is, I get you in the office and we talk about what you should expect, what we should be shooting for in your case and what makes sense based on the circumstances that we find ourselves confronted with. Make the call today.
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