You’ve been arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) of alcohol and/or drugs.  The jail let you go with a citation to appear in court in about 30 days.  What do you do now?  Do you need an attorney?  Or should you use the public defender?  Or just handle it yourself?

Most people who are facing the criminal justice system for the first time in their lives have no idea what to do first upon being released from jail after a DUI arrest.  Many attorneys will tell you the first thing you need to do is to hire a qualified DUI attorney.  I don’t agree with that advice.

When a person is arrested in California for DUI, the arresting officer will confiscate the driver’s license of the accused, and issue him or her a temporary driver’s license.  This license will be good for 30 days from the date of the arrest.  After 30 days, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will suspend the person’s license to drive unless a request has been made to hold a suspension hearing.

If you wait until you go to court to get an attorney, in most cases your license will already be suspended because many law enforcement agencies will set a court date more than 30 days after the date of the arrest.

If you meet with an attorney right away, your attorney will have lots of questions about the case that you may not be able to answer. These questions include what was the blood alcohol test results?  Why did the officer pull you over?  How long was it from the time of the stop until the time of the test?

Follow these three simple steps to greatly improve the defense of your case before you start looking for a qualified DUI attorney.

Request a DMV Hearing

First, look at the temporary driver’s license provided to you when the arresting officer confiscated your regular driver’s license.  In the top right corner of the form is a telephone number to call DMV and set up a hearing for your license suspension.  Do this immediately even before you start looking for an attorney.  You must do this within ten (10) days of your arrest.  Don’t worry about the date DMV gives you; if your attorney cannot make the date provided, he or she can have it changed later.

Once DMV has set a date for your hearing, they will mail a copy of the reports needed for the suspension hearing.  This will include the reason the officer pulled you over, the results of any field sobriety tests, and the result of any blood alcohol or drug test results.  You will need these reports when you start looking for an attorney to represent you in the case.

Write Down Everything That Happened

Second, write down everything you did on the day of the arrest in as much detail as you can remember.  Start when you woke up that morning and include all meals, including exactly what you ate and drank, all activities you engaged in, list out every place you went with times when you arrived and left, and include a list of every person you spoke with or met.  Include all these details up to the time of the first contact with law enforcement.

When writing down the details of the contact with law enforcement, include as much of the conversation as you can remember word for word.  Include every field sobriety test the officer asked you to conduct and your best memory of how you performed or what the officer said about how you performed.  Include all the officers present, even if they are from a different agency, if there are more than one.  The more details the better.  Nothing is insignificant, so include every detail you can remember.

If you would like a FREE comprehensive DUI Questionnaire that will help you remember the majority of the important details your attorney will need to know, click HERE .

Take Reports and Written Events to Meeting with Attorney

Third, take the reports you receive from DMV and the detailed statement of what happened on the day of your arrest with you to any meeting with an attorney.  These documents will allow the attorney to review the facts and circumstances from both the point of view of the arresting officer and from your point of view.  Having these facts will also allow the attorney you are interviewing the opportunity to give you a first impression of the case.  With this information in hand, a qualified DUI defense attorney should be able to tell you some of the general strategies he or she would use in your case to start attacking the prosecution case.

If you are looking for an experienced, reliable criminal defense attorney who can provide the best defense available in a DUI case, schedule an appointment on this web site or call to set up a time to meet and discuss your case.

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