Each year, over 40,000 people in Washington are arrested and charged with a DUI. The ramifications of an arrest for DUI are overwhelming. What a person faces if charged with a DUI include: jail, license suspension, high risk insurance, large monetary fines and assessments, ignition interlock device, alcohol evaluations, DUI victims impact panel, and several years of probation. Not included in the sanctions with the court and the Washington DOL, is the impact this will have on a person's financial stability, their work and their conscience.
As an attorney who primarily practices DUI defense, I can attest that an arrest for DUI can have a huge impact on a person's own emotional well-being. Many of my clients are law abiding citizens who made a poor decision one evening. With the laws regarding DUI's in Washington being so severe, people who come to meet with me are embarrassed, bewildered and overwhelming frightened. Given the possibilites of what they face, and the uncertainty as to the outcome of their case, the impact of the arrest for DUI has placed their mental well-being in jeopardy.
Don't get me wrong, I am not here condoning people to drink irresponsibly and drive. But I recognize that anyone who drinks alcohol (whether socially to regularly) and then decides to drive, faces the possibility of a DUI. Many of my clients have never been cited for a ticket or arrested for any type of criminal offense before. And with the arrest for DUI, they now face so many possible sanctions, the stigma of a criminal record and a period of uncertainty where they just have to wait.
What I tell everyone I meet with is that they will make it through this incident. It is an aberration in an otherwhise fulfilling and law-abiding life. I have represented everyone from friends to family members, "soccer moms" to professionals and executives, and everyone of them, irregardless of the ultimate outcome of their case, made it through their arrest for DUI. I am attorney to fight and protect my client to the best of my ability in the legal arena. I am also a "counselor" to be their to listen to their concerns and give them insight (and if necessary, referrals to mental health professionals) to assure that they will be able to emotionally sustain themselves throughout the process.
