Win Your DUI Criminal Defense and Force the Government to Prove Their Case Part II

So you were coming home from the wedding a little late at night and you had decided to toast the bride and groom one too many times….. You were stopped, the officer started the process and DUI education, here you come at full speed. Each DUI in the Bay Area, California triggers two separate and totally different types of cases.The first case is the most well known because it involves the great big chamber and the big robe and gavel. Yes, I mean the Court Process or Criminal Court Proceedings. This involves any evidence collected at the time of arrest among other things. The second charges brought against someone once arrested for drinking and driving involve the Department of Motor Vehicles and an administrative per se or APS case.In California vehicle code 13558, 14100 and 14103, time limits were set on how many days until contact must be made with the DMV after arrest. Due to these time limits, when an attorney takes a new DUI case in the Bay Area, they must contact the DMV within the first 10 days of arrest and request an APS hearing. A very important step and one that sadly enough sometimes forgotten or overlooked during the drama on a DMV arrest.This step is critical for the Attorney or person charged to be completed in a timely manner and affects whether or not the arrested individual will be able to keeo his/her license in the ling run. When calling a criminal defense attorney about drunken driving charges, most of the time, one of the first questions asked after, when were you arrested, is have you filed paperwork with the DMV to request a DMV hearing?DUI’ s in the Bay Area in California are growing, almost on a monthly basis since the new laws lowered the legal limit to 0.08%. The drunken driving arrests affects poor people more than the rich. Even though the public defenders office and system will help the poor in court and during the criminal part of the proceedings, the arrestees are completely on their own when it comes to the Department of Motor Vehicles.Most of the low income clients that you will find in a defense attorney’s office are looking for a lawyer simply for the DMV hearing and nothing else. They are worried about their license and of course the status of transportation when it comes to getting to their jobs, families and shopping.Anyone who forgoes the DMV hearing automatically loses the right to drive in California and any rights and defenses that existed are waived by the person arrested. If in the Bay Area at the time of arrest, and you have a CA drivers license, it is suspended for at least 4 months (or one year upon first offense refusal of chemical test). Having a commercial drivers license has steeper penalties for the arrestee.Most people simply don’t understand their rights once arrested and released and end up waiving all of their rights at the APS DMV Hearing. Not obtaining the proper defense attorney quickly after arrest can lead to several problems in the end, not the least of which losing your drivers license. Your lawyer should file that paperwork for you and make sure to make the 10 day limit and get the DMV their request in a timely manner.Looming foremost on most arrestees minds once they have been charged with a DUI is normally, what will happen to my drivers license? Hopefully once arrested, they have the state of mind needed to obtain the proper lawyer and get the paperwork filed with the DMV in time to keep the worry to a minimum.