PHOENIX DUI ATTORNEY ANSWERS A SIMPLE QUESTION: WHAT DOES A DUI ATTORNEY DO ANYWAY?

As a Phoenix DUI Attorney with over a decade of experience, I am asked by many people, “what do you really do for people charged with a DUI offense?” It is a completely valid question. I have met with many people who previously were arrested for a DUI case. They hired another attorney and felt that they got little in return.
I have found that the bulk of these people had one common complaint, they just had no idea what their attorney did for them. The lack of information made them suspect that the attorney cashed their check and went to go play golf. While it is possible that their prior attorney did next to nothing, it is more likely that the client was simply never informed about what steps were taken. Representing a client for a DUI actually is a lot of work. We have to travel to court numerous times over a period of months. Interviews are conducted. Motions are written and evidentiary hearings are conducted. The trick of the trade is to inform the client of what is occurring.
Honestly, it didn’t used to be so much work. Arizona DUI lawyers had more options when defending clients charged with drunk driving. Back in the day, say 1995, a lawyer could go to the prosecution, explain that the client had no prior convictions and was generally a good person. The prosecution could conceivably dismiss the DUI and offer a reckless driving plea. But today, the “good ol boy defense” (as I call it) is a thing of the past.
Most DUI courts have very rigid policies and procedures. A prosecutor probably isn’t going to fall for the, “Come, on, please?” defense. As a result, DUI attorneys in Arizona have to get more creative, more diligent and more focused in their case defense. The good news is that there still are many ways to win a DUI case, and the prosecution is even more burdened with high caseloads than ever. Prosecutors who are dealing with gigantic caseloads are more likely to make mistakes and more likely to want to bargain if they are forced into a corner.
The best way to make a DUI prosecutor want to deal is to file a motion to dismiss the case. There are several basic motions to dismiss that are more commonly filed that you would think. For example, the police have to pull a DUI suspect over for a valid reason. Quite a number of police officers simply don’t sufficiently document why the traffic stop occurred in the first place. Without a valid reason to stop the car, the case can be thrown out. If the suspect asks to speak with an attorney, the police must make reasonable efforts to allow the suspect to call an attorney prior to drawing blood or performing a breath test. If blood is taken, adequate documentation must be kept. Finally, even in cases where the prosecution has all their ducks in a row, they still need witnesses to appear in trial and testify coherently against the defendant. You might be surprised how many times they have a difficult time getting their witnesses to court. If witnesses don’t appear, we file a motion to dismiss the case.
One of the things we do at Alcock & Associates is fully inform our clients of the moves we make. We ensure that our clients know about the witness interviews we are conducting. We give our clients copies of motions we file. We also give them status reports so they know what happened in court. Hiring aDUI attorney in Phoenix doesn’t have to be a roll of the dice. We make it so that our clients are educated as to exactly what our strategies and tactics are. As a result, we have had tremendous success in building our Arizona DUI law firm.