DUI Defense - Choose your level of defense representation wisely.

Traffic Ticket Answers - Las Vegas, Nevada
Originally published on Thursday, November 27, 2008 at ETrafficCitation.com.

As in many services, competitors race to the lowest price to charge and still provide the service. The result is to turn the service in to a commodity - commonly known as “commoditization.” In many regards this is good for the person seeking help when the quality of the service, generally speaking, will produce similar results. A good example is assistance with traffic citations. (See my blog entry for June 22, 2008 regarding this exact point.) Competition causes service providers to streamline their processes, and thus benefit the customer by providing lower prices.

Assistance for individuals charged with DUI in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson, over the past few years have been commoditized. This may not be bad. The individual seeking assistance from an attorney for a DUI should know how many attorneys are competing on price and the services provided. Generally speaking, DUI defense has evolved into two levels of assistance, The FIRST level of representation generally revolves around negotiating a plea with a city or district attorney, or the SECOND level of representation is full-on preparation for trial. An attorney’s level of advocacy between the two could be surprising for the unsuspecting individual looking for assistance in defending a DUI.

The reader should note, the discussion below is provided in general terms ONLY. The facts and circumstances of each DUI case varies, so an attorney may perform more or less work than described below. Furthermore, my colleagues may provide less or additional services at different hourly rates. The discussion is provided to give the reader a general overview of what happens at the different levels of representation.

Under the FIRST level of representation, generally speaking, the attorney will appear at 2 or 3 hearings before the court (different courts have different procedures), obtain documents from the prosecutor (legal-eeze - “discovery”), review the discovery, possibly investigate matters related to the defense of the DUI, speak to the client about what has been discovered, give an opinion on the options, negotiate a plea with the prosecutor, and attend with the client the allocution (this is the procedure a judge follows to accept a guilty plea in a criminal action. This process usually consists of the judge asking the defendant a series of questions designed to assure the judge that the defendant understands the charges, is guilty of the crime accused of, understands the consequences of a guilty plea, that the defendant is entitled to a trial, and is voluntarily entering the plea.). What you need to know is that at the FIRST level of representation, the Attorney is not preparing for trial and will likely attempt to negotiate a plea for a lower charge.

Under the FIRST level of representation, any attorney worth his/her weight in salt will, with the limited facts obtained, negotiate toward the best deal possible for the accused. Depending upon the facts and circumstances, the minimum requirements of DUI may be the best negotiated deal obtained for you. As such, persons accused of DUI should understand that hiring an attorney to negotiate does not guarantee a plea for a lesser charge such as reckless driving.

Under the SECOND level of representation, generally speaking, the attorney will do most of, or all of the FIRST level of representation, but more in-depth and prepare for trial. Generally speaking, in addition to obtaining the discovery from the prosecution, the attorney may consider medical defenses that could produce false-positives for the breathalyzer or blood tests, chain-of-custody issues, technical attacks on procedures the police used to obtain probable cause to stop you in the first place and implementation of sobriety tests, attacks on the credibility of the officer on the stand, and etc. Additionally, experts will likely be hired to prepare for and testify at trial supporting a defense. The attorney may have exhibits produced to be shown at trial. You should note that after the attorney performs additional discovery with the intention of taking a defense to trial, that the prosecution may offer a plea for an accused to possibly accept. Depending upon the facts and circumstances of the case, the accused may still want to take a plea after consultation with the attorney. If the plea is not accepted, then the accused will have a day in court to present a defense.

As you can see, the SECOND level of representation is much broader and robust than the FIRST. As such, the fees and costs for the SECOND level are much greater - by thousands of dollars. Under the FIRST level of representation, the attorney knows well how much time will be spent representing the client. Under the SECOND, while time can be estimated, time cannot be known as in the FIRST. Medical experts are very expensive - around $400/hour and more to review documents and testify in court. Some experts require a large retainer and may charge more to testify in court. If an expert (whether technical or medical) is brought from another state, expect to pay the costs of flight, hotel room, meals and miscellaneous expense. Some experts will fly only first class, stay in only a very nice hotel room, and eat only expensive food. What you may not know is that experts charge their hourly rate while waiting to testify. So your expert could be sitting outside the court waiting for hours to testify. Your representing attorney will likely not front these expert expenses. This leaves you with the bill. In addition to the expert fees, your attorney will likely perform more discovery. This takes time, the result is additional attorney fees at a few hundred dollars per hour. Next, preparation for trial takes time to coordinate your defense, and to cross examine the police officer and any experts the prosecution may put on the stand.

I am sure as you read the previous paragraph that you heard dollar signs ringing in your head and envisioned your bank account going down or your credit card balance going up. So when you see advertised amounts for DUI representation for flat fees of$1,500, $1,400, or mine of $1,200, the FIRST level of representation is likely what is offered. If the attorney expects a deposit of $5,000 or more and he/she talks about experts and etc., you are talking about the SECOND level.

At this point reality likely sets in. The client needs to weigh whether the job (do you make a living by driving, flying, or are a brain surgeon, etc) or other factors required in life that demands the SECOND level of representation. Many people who come to my office can barely pay the fees for the FIRST level of representation, let a lone the SECOND. So, economics many times becomes the dominating factor.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at (702) 933-4248.