DUI Lawyer: Not Going to Court for a DUI without Attorney
If you have been arrested for a driving while intoxicated (DWI) or driving under the influence (DUI), plan to hire a DUI attorney of DWI lawyer near me. This guide will explain how to compare attorney ratings, obtain a free consultation, and make the best hiring decision for a lawyer near me for DUI representation.
Criminal law is a very broad law practice field. Many criminal defense attorneys never take any motor vehicle crime cases such as impaired driving, hit and run or vehicular homicide or manslaughter. Instead, they focus on categories of cases under federal laws or state laws (or both) that deal with felony or misdemeanor criminal charges. This article is dedicated to those motor vehicle crime "drunk driving attorneys" who have specialized in DUI-DWI defense.
Just because DUI attorneys have a state Bar license (meaning that the State has tested their basic knowledge of local laws and allows the legal professional to offer legal services), this is not a "seal of approval" for the that person being the best lawyer for DUI charges. The checklist provided below, which can be used to identify the right lawyers for DUI near me, is written by a nationally known speaker for teaching "best practices" to DUI defense attorneys on over 35 states.
Comparing DUI Attorneys or DWI Lawyers Near Me and their Lawyer Ratings: 7 Tips
- Can you ask for a referral from someone in this field of practice?DUI defense lawyers are much like medical doctors who have been trained to perform on type pf surgery. For example, when the author needed a knee replacement, the author contacted his now retired, former orthopedic doctor to ask for a recommendation of "who would you let do your knee replacement surgery?" The surgeon recommended was masterful, and the outcome was exceptional, with the author back to work without crutches in just 13 days, with no knee pain.
- Should I only hire OWI attorneys near me or DUI lawyers near me, versus looking in a wider geographic area?This is a tough question, since our lawyers for DUI defense have traveled statewide across the State of Georgia and have obtained as good or better results in the far corners of the Peach State as in our metro Atlanta "home courts."
One of our secrets is that we associate with and pay (from our fee) a local lawyer for DUI assistance in all aspects of fighting the DUI offense. In addition, the author has traveled to other states and worked in association with local OUI-DUI defense lawyers with law offices near the court handling the criminal accusation or indictment and had excellent overall results.
- What type of additional, special training should the best DWI attorneys near me have? This is a "hidden" qualification that almost no client asks questions about. Yet, it is crucially important to your chances of success in fighting an intoxicated driving case.
Since these roadside "exercises" are involved in most cases, knowing how to discredit and neutralize the standardized field sobriety tests is critically important. All three of our law firm partners have extensive training in field sobriety test protocols and are NHTSA standardized field sobriety test instructors.
In addition, our legal practitioners have all had special blood and urine testing training at multiple advanced- level training courses. The majority of these best trained attorneys will have received such high-level forensic training through their membership with either NCDD.com or DUIDLA.org
- Do I Need a Lawyer for a DUI? With very rare exceptions, this answer will always be "yes." The reason for this is that every state's DWI vs DUI laws have hidden beneficial "workarounds" that attorneys in the state can explain to you. Highly rated DUI attorneys near me are who you should take your free DWI case consultation, not a cheap DUI lawyer.
- Should I get a Lawyer for my first DUI? The same answer as above. Even if a guilty plea is going to be the case resolution, a local drunk driving lawyer who specializes in DUI-DWI defense or the local public defender usually can tell you how to minimize your loss of driving privileges, based upon an implied consent violation for a DUI refusal to test after arrest.
- How much is an attorney for DUI vs DWI? DUI lawyer cost is one question that everyone wants to ask in their initial free lawyer evaluation. The norm in DUI cases is for attorney fees to be scheduled as a "flat fee" depending on how far the case must go, to get the best outcome.
Our firm sets up these incremental payments in four categories: (a) DUI lawyer retainer fee, which takes your case up to the time of a possible pretrial motion hearing; (b) motion hearing fee; (c) trial fee; and (if needed) (d) appeal fee.
Beyond the lawyer costs, other out-of-pocket costs of a DUI will possibly be incurred, too. You may have to pay a court reporter, or cover the cost of duplicating police videos, or possibly employ a private investigator, or cover your lawyer's mileage and hotel if he or she travels to distant locations from his or her office for your defense.
In trial situations, a driving while impaired attorney representing you may advise you to hire one or more expert witnesses to help explain or neutralize the arresting officer's claims of field test reliability. Similarly, if the breath alcohol test results are "in doubt" for their reliability, an expert for that (or even a blood test) may be needed.
- What online sources should I trust to limit my search for the best DUI lawyers near me?The oldest lawyer rating service in America is Martindale-Hubbell. For over 100 years, it was the absolute "gold standard" for attorney rankings. Although the purpose and focus of that original directory (established in 1868) has drastically changed due to the Internet Age, their preeminent 5.0 ratings have great meaning.
Look for lawyers (5 or more) with multiple years of peer recognitions of excellence, at this highest level. Super Lawyers is a recent, Internet-spawned rating service. If you see one or two years of "recognition," and then no more favorable listings, this often means the lawyer "gamed" the ratings by illegally soliciting attorneys to "vote" him or her in.
Best Law Firms in America (by US News & World Report) is a reliable service for identifying top legal services firms, including OVI-DUI law firms. Best Lawyers in America ratings are also good, but the peer-review process is not openly transparent for this service. AVVO ratings are also good, but the criteria for achieving 10.0 (or close to that number) are much easier to achieve, and not nearly as "selective" as Martindale or Super Lawyers.
Written by Board-Certified William Head, a DUI lawyer GAwith 45 years of legal experience and multiple legal industry ratings as the best DUI lawyer in Atlanta GA. He and his law partners have 4 law office locations in Fulton County and Cobb County. The two other partners are also highly rated DUI lawyer AtlantaSuper Lawyers, Larry Kohn, and Cory Yager (an ex-cop).
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