Drunk Driving and What Your DUI Lawyer Should Be Interested In

If you intend to contest any aspect of your drunk driving arrest, you need a good DUI lawyer by your side. There's certainly nothing in the law that states that you cannot act as your own attorney, but it is not a recommended course of action. Even if you have a good working knowledge of the law, you're far better off being represented by someone who has the experience and education necessary to provide you with a good defense. Of course, not every lawyer is created equally. If you don't feel you're getting an adequate defense for your money, it is your right to find someone else. Here are some of the things your attorney should be interested in, regarding your case.

Your Activities and Consumption

If your DUI lawyer isn't asking you any questions about what you were doing prior to being arrested, then he isn't doing his job. This is crucial to the case at hand and may very well be the information that makes or breaks the case. Were you at a bar? A party? Were you sitting home, drinking in front of the TV? While the law doesn't care where you consumed the alcohol before deciding to get behind the wheel, these details could matter when it comes to determining how inebriated you were at the time -- if at all. If there were witnesses in attendance, they may need to be called for interview and possibly to testify on your behalf.

Officer Interaction

This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, and it is the very point upon which many a DUI lawyer has found his defense. A police officer must be very careful to uphold a citizen's rights when detaining them for questioning or sobriety tests. If your rights were trampled during this time, it could be enough to throw out the whole case. Many communities are understandably vigorous when it comes to pulling drunk drivers off the road. However, there is a difference between vigilance and overstepping the boundaries of the law. Your attorney should be very interested in figuring out which happened in your case.

Your Criminal History

While prosecutors are forbidden to bring in prior criminal history to argue a case against a defendant, it is sometimes wise for a DUI lawyer to bring up the lack of one as an argument for their client. If this is the fourth or fifth time you've been in trouble with the law, the judge is much less likely to show you leniency than if this is the first time you've ever been arrested.