Can a DUI lawyer help?

Having a lawyer may drastically improve your chances of beating the charge or getting a favorable plea bargain.

The only way to know whether hiring a DWI attorney will help your case is to educate yourself by interviewing DUI lawyers and reading up on the subject. When you ultimately choose to put yourself and your case in the hands of a professional, you will feel better having done so with your eyes open.

It may be tempting to try to save money and represent yourself. Although you may save money on attorney's fees, that savings could end up consting you a lot more in the future in the form of fines, license suspensions, jail time, lost employment, etc.

There are two adages that come to mind when you are accused of drunk driving and trying to decide whether to hire a DUI attorney:

• A person who represents himself has a fool for a client; and
• This is the rainy day you've been saving for.

Warning: Do not rely on the advice of other people who have been through a DUI case. Their situations may be drastically different than yours. An attorney may have helped them, but may not be the right fit for you. On the other hand if somebody who has gotten a DWI conviction tells you not to bother with a lawyer, make sure you educate yourself and make sure that their advice actually applies to you. Ask questions to determine how their case is similar to or different from your own DUI case.

Representing yourself in a DUI case:

If you chose to represent yourself, you will be held to the same standard as a practicing lawyer. This means that you must know the rules of evidence and criminal procedure. You must be able to formulate a proper question, and you must make objections at the proper time in order to preserve your rights.

Some judges will go out of their way to help guide self-represented people through the system, but others will be annoyed and frustrated by a non-lawyer trying to play lawyer for his or her own case. How do you think the hospital administrator would react if you, as a patient, announced that you were going to come into her hospital and operate on yourself? Although the analogy is absurd because it is unthinkable that a person would operate on himself in a hospital, people do try to represent themselves in court every day in DUI cases.

If your case needs to be litigated, it is NOT a good idea to try to go it alone. On the other hand, it is difficult to even know if your case needs to be, or should be litigated (which essentially means argued rather than plead). In order to find out what kind of strategy is best suited for your case, and whether you would benefit from a plea bargain or from trial, it is always a good idea to sit through at least one free case review with a qualified local attorney. To get a free consultation with a lawyer right now, use the search box on the left side of the page and enter the zip code of your arrest or of the court where your case is pending.