Alameda DUI Attorney

0.08%, meaning that approximately 8% of your blood consists of alcohol. For minors (persons under 21 years old) this amount is even lower at 0.01%. However, under California law, you may be still convicted of drunk driving under California Vehicle Code 23152(a) even if you are driving under the influence of any amount of alcohol or drugs.

2. What are enhancement penalties?

Enhancement penalties are circumstances that serve to increase the penalties associated with your DUI. Examples are:

Driving with a Minor under the age of 14 in the vehicle at the time of the DUI
Refusal to Submit to or Failure to Complete Chemical Test
Excessive Blood Alcohol Level .20 or Above
Second or Subsequent Offense Involving Alcohol or Drugs – Multiple DUI’s within Ten (10) Years
Speeding 20 or More mph on the Street or 30 or More mph on Freeway + Reckless Driving Under California Vehicle Code §23103
Impoundment of Vehicles or Sale as Nuisance
Fourth or Subsequent DUI Conviction Within Ten (10) Years Makes Current DUI Chargeable as a Felony
Prior Felony DUI Conviction Within Ten (10) Years Makes Current DUI Chargeable as a Felony
DUI in Highway Construction or Maintenance Zone
DUI in Safety Enhancement Zone (e.g. Golden Gate Bridge)
Bodily Injury inflicted on Another Person

Each one of these Enhancements carries specific penalties that will dramatically alter the direction your case takes.

3. Will I have to come to court or to my DMV hearing?

Your time is valuable and the answer to this depends on your case. In most cases an experienced DUI attorney can appear on your behalf and you will not have to make any appearances at all. However, your attorney might ask you to attend certain hearings for strategic reasons as well.

4. Will I lose my Driver’s License?

In some instances the arresting officer will confiscate your license during the arrest. If this happens they will typically provide you with a temporary license that will be good for 30 days. In any case, you will have 10 days to schedule a DMV hearing. If you are convicted of a DUI by a court, your license will most likely be suspended or revoked for a period of time to be determined by the court. Enhancements will affect the period of the suspension and any other punishments. Also note that as of July 1, 2010, the DMV will require Ignition Interlock Devices in certain DUI cases throughout California.

5. Will I have to serve Jail time?

If you are convicted of a DUI you may have to serve time in jail, however, with the aid of a skilled DUI Attorney, your chances of proving your innocence and avoiding any jail time will go up exponentially and dramatically.

6. What are the typical penalties for a DUI?

The penalties for a DUI will vary from case-to-case and court-to-court. However, if you do not have a skilled DUI Attorney to help you, you can almost always expect more severe penalties and disappointing results.

7. Do I need an attorney to help me protect my rights after a DUI charge?

The reality is that you have several options available to you; one of them is to try and represent yourself. However, this course of action is similar to someone operating on themselves. Attorneys spend years learning about the law and its application in law school and we spend even more time mastering our profession as practicing members of the Bar and it is unwise to try to represent yourself if you can afford an alternative.

If you cannot afford an attorney, you can apply to recieve assistance from a public defender. While public defenders are attorneys licensed by the CA bar, they often have exasperating caseloads, which leave little time available to focus on each case. Whether you hire a private attorney or are appointed a public defender, you should feel comfortable with the attorney who is representing your case and, in essense, what happens in your life.

Originally published here.

Expungement of DUI Cases

If you have already been convicted of a DUI, you may become eligible for an expungement of your DUI conviction under California Penal Code Section 1203.4. An expungement results in a dismissal of your case. If you are granted an expungement, the court will set aside and dismiss the conviction. Specifically, the court will withdraw your guilty or no contest plea, or guilty verdict if you went to trial, and grant a not guilty plea.

Why should you apply for an expungement of your DUI?

There are several personal and professional reasons why someone would want to apply for an expungement. An expungement is not automatically granted, and will not be granted in the event that you have broken any law since you received your DUI conviction, so the fact that your conviction is set aside proves to you and others that you have learned from your experience and have lived a law-abiding life since your conviction.

On a professional level, you can truthfully tell private employers that you have not been convicted of a crime. What’s more, California Labor Code §432.7 prevents employers from asking about any arrest that didn’t result in a conviction, inquiring about it from other sources or use it in a hiring decision.  Note that if you ever apply for a job with a public entity, or for a professional license, when asked if you were ever convicted of a crime, you will have to report “Yes, and my conviction was dismissed.” Again, the fact that your conviction was set aside will definitely reflect more favorably on your character and indicates that you have fulfilled the requirements necessary to have your conviction set aside.

Additionally, most Licensing and Certification agencies in California will not grant a license to someone who has been convicted of a crime. The same is true for Governmental jobs. However, if your conviction has been expunged, most Governmental licensing and hiring agencies (except police agencies) are required to treat you the same as if you were never convicted of the crime.

What An Expungement Can Do For You 

An expungement will reflect that your conviction has been set aside. An expunged record cannot be used by private employers as a basis to deny you employment. Also, in the State of California, Government Employers (except for the police) and Licensing Agencies such as the Department of Real Estate, Board of Nursing, etc., will treat you the same as if you have never been convicted of a crime if your record has been expunged.

What An Expungement CANNOT Do For You

An expunged record can still be reviewed by a judge for the purposes of increasing your sentence if you are ever convicted of another crime in the future.  Also, an expungement does not wipe out your criminal record. Your criminal court file will not be physically destroyed, and is therefore searchable and is often discovered by private investigators and others who perform background checks. If your criminal court file is discovered, it will show that your conviction was set aside by the court. Accordingly, the Judicial Counsel of California advises that if you are asked by a private employer if you were convicted of a crime, you should answer “Yes, and the conviction was dismissed.” In the case of public employers and licensing agencies, you are required to answer that you have been convicted of a crime and that your conviction has been dismissed. Additionally, an expungement will not automatically grant you the ability to possess a firearm, nor will it restore any driving privileges that were revoked by the DMV due to the conviction.

When Can You Apply For An Expungement?

If you have been convicted of a misdemeanor DUI in a California state court (a 1st, 2nd or 3rd DUI with no accidents or injuries involved), and were not sentenced to prison, you are eligible to apply for an expungement at the end of your probation term.  If your probation term has not ended but you have fulfilled all other terms of your probation (such as CalTrans, community service, payment of fines) your lawyer may apply for early termination probation. Once early termination of probation is granted, you will be eligible to also apply for an expungement.

If you have been convicted of a Felony DUI in California, you would first need to petition the court to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor. So long as you were not sentenced to prison, and your Felony is reduced to a misdemeanor, you will be eligible to apply for an expungement.

If you served time in State Prison or otherwise were under the care of the Department of Corrections, you will not be eligible for an expungement, but may be eligible for a Certificate of Rehabilitation from the California Board of Prisons.

Originally published here.

In California it is considered to be a really serious offence to drive while under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs. Even the use of legal drugs for various conditions or illnesses, if there are warnings against driving while taking them, and these are ignored, these violations are regarded in a serious light. If you have been apprehended for these offences, you need to take serious steps to get an experienced California DUI defence attorney. You are seldom likely to get a decreased penalty or sentence, but a good attorney ought to be able to prevent an increased penalty. The harsh laws against DUI are an attempt to prevent the horrendous loss of life and injuries caused by alcohol involved accidents.

In 2009 the following figures for California were released concerning statistics for 2007:

* 1,489 people were killed in 2007 directly as a result of alcohol use. This is 32% out of a total of 3,967 total auto accident fatalities. About 30,780 people were injured in alcohol related accidents in the same year. Approximately 65% of all automobile accidents occurring between midnight and 2 am were alcohol related. 31% of alcohol related accidents occurred at weekends, compared with only 15% on weekdays, and 36% occurred at night compared with 9% that happened during the daylight hours.

* There were 203,866 DUI arrests. Over 81% of drivers arrested for DUI were male. The average age was 30 years old.

* Fewer than 1% of drivers arrested on DUI charges were under the age of 18, but horrifyingly, 30% of all alcohol related fatalities were drivers between 15 and 24 years old. Even so, in 2007 fatalities of people under the age of 16 years decreased by 17% compared with the previous year.

* Country wide, it is believed that about 5,000 under age young people die from alcohol-related injuries every year. An estimated 20% of children killed in auto accidents were in the company of DUI drivers.

* About 75% of convicted DUI drivers were alcoholics or regular heavy drinkers. Drivers killed with very high blood alcohol levels are eight times more likely to have been previous offenders than other DUI drivers.

* 66% of drivers killed, who had high levels of blood alcohol were not wearing seat belts.

* The mandatory suspension of DUI drivers’ licenses in 1990 is known as ‘admin per se’. In 2007, more than 192,000 licenses were suspended.

* In twelve months, 2007/8, a California DUI program enrolled 150,484 drivers.

* In 2007 alcohol related fatalities dropped by 6.8%.

So it would seem that even though the measures being taken did not solve the problem, they did help somewhat.

If you are a DUI offender, whatever your reason for drinking and driving, or being on drugs and driving, you need to contact a really good California DUI attorney as soon as possible, so that he can look into the matter and start building up your DUI defence, without delay.

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http://www.californiaattorneysdui.com

Originally published here.