A charge of driving under the influence or impaired driving is not the same as getting a traffic ticket. There’s no pleading guilty and paying a fine. If convicted, you can bet there will be consequences for years.
Rather than yield to the DUI charges, get a lawyer. If you need some reasons why you need one, consider these four.
Did the Arresting Officers Follow Proper Procedures?
Since you’ve never been arrested before, this is new territory. You don’t really know what is and is not proper procedure for conducting an arrest. While you may not understand the ins and outs, you can be that your legal counsel knows exactly what’s supposed to happen.
One of the first things your lawyer will want to do is go over every detail of what happened prior to the arrest and what was done after you were taken into custody. The goal is to make sure that the arresting officers followed the procedures outlined in law to the letter. Should your lawyer find any irregularities, there may be grounds for getting the charges dismissed.
Your Right to Say Nothing Without Legal Counsel
There is very little information that you have to supply to the authorities without the presence of legal counsel. Once you provide that, say nothing else. If you’re pressed to provide more information, state that you will only answer further questions after being advised by your legal counsel.
Be sure to make a note of any questions that you were asked. If any of them did happen to be questions that you were not required to answer up front, that will be taken into consideration as the lawyer works to get you released pending the court date.
Reviewing all the Evidence
There is no aspect of the event that your lawyer wants to overlook. Do expect to recount everything that you can remember about what was said and done before, during, and after the arrest. For your own good, don’t attempt to leave anything out.
Your lawyer is in a position to relate each activity to the charges now being leveled at you. In some cases, minor details that don’t seem to mean much to you could mean a great deal to the course of your defense. Rest assured your lawyer will know if that’s the case.
Preparing the Defense
After collecting and organizing all the information, your lawyer will begin preparing the defense. Expect there to be more questions as the process continues. The lawyer will want to double-check some facts as well as clarify others. Since the goal is to provide the court with every reason to find you innocent or at least impose the lightest sentence allowed under current laws, make sure you cooperate with the legal counsel to the best of your ability.
Never face DUI charges alone. Hire a DUI lawyer from TorontoDUI.com and begin to prepare for your court date. With the right lawyer on your side, the odds of being able to avoid a conviction and not have it follow you around for year are much better.