What Information To Prepare Before Meeting With An Arizona DUI Lawyer

A DUI can end up costing you your freedom, your license, quite a bit of money and even your job.  If you have been issued a citation for a DUI in Arizona, you need to find a good Arizona DUI lawyer whose practice mostly consists of defending DUI cases, who keeps you informed of your case and who has vast experience in this field.  When you meet with your DUI lawyer, you are going to want to have as much information about your case as possible to help with the defense. The information to prepare includes the following:

The Citation

Your lawyer is going to want to look at the citation to see what you were charged with and why. They will want to see the reason that you were stopped. Were you stopped for driving erratically?  If you were stopped for no reason, the DUI lawyer may argue that stopping you and forcing you to take a breathalyzer test is a violation of your civil rights.   It will be very important for the lawyer to have a copy of your citation so that he or she knows what they are up against and how you are being charged.

Accident Reports

If you were involved in an accident that resulted in a DUI charge against you, the lawyer will want to know the extent of the damage to the other vehicle and to your own. They will also want to know if anyone else involved in the accident was issued a citation. This can be important to your case.  However, your DUI lawyer will most likely not defend you when it comes to a civil suit that can evolve from such an accident. This is often up to your insurance company. Depending on their area of practice, they may file a personal injury lawsuit against the other party in the accident if it appears that it was not your fault. The civil lawsuit has nothing to do with the criminal lawsuit and will be tried in a separate court.  A DUI is a criminal offense and will be tried in either traffic court or criminal court.

Employment Information

Your Arizona DUI lawyer is going to want to get your license back for you so that you can continue to drive, at least back and forth to work. They will need to know where you work and how far you have to commute in order to get the judge to issue a hardship license. This is often one of the first things that the Arizona DUI lawyer does after entering your plea. The hardship license is available if this is your first offense and can only be used for you to drive back and forth to work. Depending on the severity of your charge, however, you may or may not be eligible for the hardship license.

Medical Conditions

If you have medical conditions that may have been contributory to you getting arrested for a DUI, you need to give this information to your attorney. There are many medications that can mimic the effects of alcohol. If you are on such medication, your lawyer may argue that the medication was the reason why you did not pass the breathalyzer test. For most DUIs, a breathalyzer test is given right on the road that requires you to breathe into a device that will measure how much alcohol you have consumed. This is not exact, however, and only a blood test will state for sure if you were drinking alcohol or under the influence of drugs or medication.  Any medical conditions that you have should be documented and brought to your Arizona DUI lawyer as it is quite possible certain conditions can be used in your defense.

An Account of What Happened

You will want to write down an account of what happened and all that you can remember from the night in question. Your lawyer will want to know exactly where you started out and where you were going when you got pulled over for a DUI. Try to think of everything that you can remember about that night including the officer or officers who pulled you over, what they said to you and what tests you submitted to. If you were taken to a hospital because of an accident, you need to tell your lawyer that you were in the hospital as most likely a blood test was taken to determine the amount of alcohol in your blood. Anything that was unusual or seemed to be inappropriate on that night should be written down in this account and presented to your DUI lawyer.

Any Past Arrests

If you have had prior trouble with the law, let you lawyer know about it. Even if it does not relate to a DUI, if you have a past criminal history, you need to tell your lawyer as this information is something that the prosecutor in your case will have. You want to arm your lawyer with as much knowledge as you can so that he or she can work your defense.  If you have never before been arrested for any criminal conduct, this will most likely work in your favor.

A DUI can be a frightening experience and can also be very costly if you do not have the right attorney. By giving your Arizona DUI lawyer as much information as possible when you meet with them, you are giving them the tools that they need to defend your case.  They may suggest that you plead guilty to a lesser charge, such as reckless driving.  Or they may decide to fight your case on the grounds that there is no proof that you were drunk, that inappropriate action was taken by the police officers in your arrest or that there was a violation of your civil rights.

A good Arizona DUI lawyer will know the best defense to use on your case, but will have to review as much information as possible in order to come up with a defense for you. This is why it is so important that you give your lawyer information that may be pertinent to your case.   The relationship between a client and lawyer is privileged so you do not have to worry about anything that you say to your lawyer being repeated elsewhere.  Do not hold anything back for this may impede your defense. Be open and honest with your lawyer and provide them with the information that they need so that they can defend you against your DUI charge.

You or someone you know has just been pulled over for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or another impairing substance. Perhaps you encountered a sobriety checkpoint, or swerved into another lane; you may have been sober but were speeding, made an illegal turn, or had one of your headlights out. Whatever the reason, a policeman or woman pulled you over, and at some point during your conversation with the officer he or she came to believe you were intoxicated. What happens if, innocent or guilty, you are read your Miranda rights and taken to a police station?

A chemical BAC test will be administered at the station, a hospital, or even a mobile station. You may have already undergone a breathalyzer test, or you may have refused and requested the blood test. For our purposes, your blood alcohol level was found to be above the legal limit or the results have not yet come in. Stay calm and bare in mind that an arrest does not automatically call for incarceration. If for some reason you are booked into jail, expect the officers to search and fingerprint you, ask you some basic questions, and photograph you.

Regardless of whether this is your first DUI arrest or you have a history of DUI arrests or convictions, you will need to obtain a DUI Lawyers in Arizona. For first-timers, a lawyer is essential to understanding the process that follows your initial arrest, as well as to verifying the validity and legality of the arrest and the arresting process. While the police and the court—the prosecutors—look into your background to uncover any previous arrests or convictions, including those that were out of state, you can brief your DUI Lawyers in Arizona on any histories they can and will dig up, the conditions under which you were pulled over, and the arrest and—if relevant—booking processes.

When your history and the conditions of your arrest have been established, you will be charged either with a misdemeanor DUI or a felony DUI. If a misdemeanor, you should immediately be issued a citation to either a county justice court or a city municipal court with a readily available court date. If a felony—and if you have a record, this is likely—your case will be prosecuted in superior court.

The next steps will depend on your current custody situation. If you were booked into jail, you will—typically within 24 hours—be given a hearing in which the judge will set bail or other conditions of release. While bail is generally granted, the amount may vary and as in all court cases, is meant to ensure you will show up for your next hearing. If you fail to appear for the next hearing, you give up the money and gain a warrant for your arrest. For felony hearings, a preliminary hearing will be held to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to move the case on to the Superior Court for an actual trial. Occasionally, the matter of bail will be revisited. This is where your DUI Lawyers in Arizona can make a motion that you be released on your own recognizance During your arraignment, you will be formally informed of all charges, and you may enter a plea of guilty, not guilty, or no contest (which is generally taken as “guilty”). If you abstain from answering, a plea of “not guilty” will be entered for you by the court; your lawyer will likely advise you to enter a plea of “not guilty.”

A pretrial conference will give your DUI Lawyers in Arizona a chance to negotiate with the prosecutor, during which time the State of Arizona may offer you a deal. After weighing the pros and cons with your attorney, you may accept or decline the deal or attempt to negotiate a better deal, though seldom does a better deal surface.

Your DUI Lawyers in Arizona may bring motions or evidentiary hearings to convince the judge to allow or refuse admissibility of pieces of evidence in open court. Evidence may include sobriety or breathalyzer tests, BAC tests, statements you made to the arresting or other officer, etc. In some instances, witnesses may be allowed to testify at this time.

In Arizona, you the defendant have a right to a trial by jury, and most arrested for DUIs choose this option. Your DUI Lawyers in Arizona will advise you if waiving this right in favor of a bench trial is in your best interest. Assuming you choose a trial by jury, the first step in the trial process will be selecting the jury. Your case is not John Grisham’s Runaway Jury, rife with corruption, but the concept of weeding out the prospective jurors who hold prejudices to one side of the law or the other applies. Both your attorney and the prosecutor may exercise preemptory challenges to remove jurors who appear unable to remain objective.

Once the jury is selected and the trial begins, the prosecutor will begin his or her opening statement, during which he or she will explain how the State plans to prove your guilt. Your own DUI Lawyers in Arizona may immediately follow the prosecutor’s opening statement with the defending opening statement or may choose to defer the opening statement until after the prosecution rests and all evidence and witnesses for the prosecution have been seen and heard.

The prosecution will then admit evidence and question witnesses, especially the arresting officer in your case. For a DUI case, the prosecutor will likely present the State’s case in the order the events occurred. The arresting officer will speak on the indicators that you were impaired, any admissions you made to the officer, the sobriety tests you submitted to—or your refusal to submit to sobriety tests, which does not shine favorably on you—and the reasons a person cannot operate vehicles safely while impaired. Your DUI Lawyers in Arizona may, as the prosecution rests, make a motion to dismiss the charges against you, claiming the prosecution failed to make the case against you. If the motion is denied, it will be your attorney’s turn to present your case.

Your attorney can, if he or she deferred the opening statement, make that statement now. Any evidence to support your innocence will then be admitted, although your attorney may choose to admit no additional evidence if the State has presented a particularly weak case. Your lawyer will advise you either to testify or to opt out of testifying, and will call any expert or otherwise qualified witnesses in your defense.

Once the defense rests, closing statements are made beginning and ending with the prosecution and then the jury begins its deliberations. The verdict is read in open court; if one could not be reached, the case will be declared a mistrial.

While sentencing can occur immediately after the reading of a guilty verdict, a sentencing hearing is typically held after a short—no longer than a month—delay. During the sentencing hearing, the judge takes into consideration any abnormalities in your situation that may call for a sentence that deviates from the standard. Regardless of your sentence, you have the right to appeal, even all the way up to the Supreme Court, if legal issues arise during any part of the trial process.

If you are convicted of a DUI, expect jail time. In Arizona, it is mandatory. First-time offenders must serve a minimum of ten consecutive days in jail and are not eligible for probation or suspension. If you are convicted of an extreme DUI, which will occur if your blood alcohol content was .15 percent or more, expect to serve 30 consecutive days in jail. If you were driving on a suspended license, had a child in the car, or this is your third DUI offense within seven years, your conviction will fall under “aggravated DUI,” expect a more “aggravated” sentence. Everyone convicted of a DUI is required to install an ignition interlock device in their vehicles, which is used to ensure you cannot even start your vehicle if you are intoxicated. Extreme DUI and Aggravated DUI offenders often find themselves performing community service and under continuous alcohol monitoring.

Those under 21 years old, the legal drinking age, are subject to Arizona’s zero tolerance laws and are automatically granted two years probation and a $1,500 fine, plus and 80 percent surcharge, in addition to the ignition interlock device. Everyone, of every age, may be made to pay fines—in addition to the fees you pay your DUI Lawyers in Arizona—have their license suspended, undergo treatment, serve jail time, and suffer the consequences of having a record in the working world.