The Difference Between Great and Mediocre DUI Attorneys

California DUI attorneys come in various levels of skills and experience. Because of this wide range in skill sets among lawyers, choosing the right dui lawyer is the most important decision you will make in your DUI case . This article will show you the different ways your case may go depending on the type of attorney you hire.

How your case may go with a mediocre or bad attorney

In your typical case your California DUI attorney will receive the police reports and schedule a time for you to come in to discuss the case. He will sit down with you for about an hour and go through the case with you. He will ask any questions he feels are necessary, take notes, and then send you on your way reminding you of the next court appearance.

After your first court appearance, your attorney will go to the prosecutor's office where he will have a few minutes to discuss your case along with three or more other cases. Your case may only get a couple minutes of discussion. Your attorney will get an offer from the prosecutor and move on. Your case will blend in with all the other cases. You will be just another name on a complaint in the eyes of the prosecutor.

The defense attorney will then tell you what the offer is and let you know what he thinks your chances are of winning the case. You end up accepting the offer, and you enter a plea in the case. The judge sentences you, and you believe that your attorney did a fine job in defending you. He listened to you, read the reports, met with the prosecuting attorney, counseled you, and showed up at every court hearing. Heck, he even made a nice little thirty second argument on your behalf just before the judge went along with the plea agreement and sentenced you. Not a bad job you say. In your mind there is nothing different he could have done. And besides, that is how most cases are handled. But that's the mistake.
How your case may go with a great attorney

You somehow find enough money to hire a great DUI attorney or by some miracle you are appointed an attorney who only takes a very small handful of public defender appointments every year. You are invited to his office to discuss your case. His office is immaculate. His secretary greets you, and the attorney comes out and escorts you into his office. He goes over some preliminary rules with you and then has you explain what happened. He then goes through the events with you again and begins to ask questions. He continues to ask questions until he gets all the answers you can give. You may even schedule several meetings with him to discuss your case.

The attorney is on the phone after your meeting talking with any witnesses that may require immediate questioning. Or he quickly gets a private investigator to speak with any relevant witnesses. He will schedule time to go out to the place where you were actually stopped by the police, to see what the conditions were at the time you performed the field sobriety tests.

Before you ever get to court your attorney may request an administrative review to see if you should lose your drivers license. He questions witnesses at this hearing and gets more valuable evidence before he ever meets with prosecutors

Just before the first court appearance he waits out in the hallway by the prosecutor's office. When the prosecutor comes out the defense attorney begins to tell the prosecutor your good points and also tells the prosecutor why he has a weak case. He may even mention some of the evidence he has gotten in the interviews with witnesses that helps your case. The prosecutor does not want to hear how bad the case is before he even gets to the first court appearance. He listens to your defense attorney but is too busy to get into any lengthy discussion.

He appears with you at your first hearing and then prepares for the pretrial conference. He goes to the pretrial conference and once again takes time to get into the details of your case. He also mentions what motions he can file that will hurt the prosecutor's case. This is at least the second time the prosecutor has heard these arguments.

Somehow your attorney has helped the prosecutor to see you as an actual person and not just another statistic. The prosecutor knows your attorney. He knows that your attorney is very talented when it comes to winning motions and winning at trial. The prosecutor might actually give you a better offer than you would have received with most other attorneys. If your attorney thinks that he can win some pretrial motions, then he may advise you to reject that very good offer.

You have the pretrial motion hearings before the judge, and some key evidence is kicked out of the case. The prosecutor now has a very difficult time proving his case. Now you get an incredible offer or even a dismissal. If you get no dismissal then you may want to press it and go to a jury trial.

You go to jury trial and watch as your attorney shreds the testimony of the police officers and other witnesses. The prosecutor is wondering how he ever thought this case was a slam dunk when he first charged it. It takes the jury an hour to eat lunch and another fifteen minutes to find you not guilty.

This very typical of how many cases unfold for defendants with great California DUI Attorneys. Yes, sometimes they lose. But even when the evidence is overwhelmingly against you, the great dui lawyer will still have a much better chance of getting a better deal or winning on a technical point of law.

You can visit California DUI attorneys that can give you the best chance to win your case.

Pierce Langdon

DUIAttorneyAces.com