If your friend already has been arrested, he needs the best attorney that
his money can buy. An expert on the particular offense preferably.

From start to finish it will probably cost him about $15,000.00 and that
is getting off cheap. That usually includes Financial Responsibility
Proof for a minimum of 5 years. Through the roof motor vehicle insurance rates for 5 to 10 years. Depending on which state he is in
it can be an over night in the lockup and bail after a few hours. If he is
not so lucky, and arrested on say a Friday night, may have to wait till
Monday morning to get out of jail and that’s not including the time a
judge could give him plus a fine of a few hundred to over a thousand
dollars. Most jails are not nice places, and some are complete hell
holes. Who would want to give up their freedom for a jail just because
they had a few too many and weren’t smart enough to get a ride home
in a taxi or from a friend.

Our state just put the screws to one of the pro football players because
even though he wasn’t driving his vehicle, he was a passenger in it and
let someone else drive drunk, so he got popped under state law for
allowing and permitting that which made him as dui as the driver under
the law.

If your friend was involved in a traffic crash and anyone was injured, he
would even be facing criminal as well as civil court down the road, again
the best thing he can do is get the absolute best lawyer he cannot
afford.

As a retired NYC Police Officer, I have handled too many DUI’s. Picked up too many body parts and washed down too much blood from the roads to feel sorry for anyone who gets caught driving drunk.

Lock them up!

So far, he’s spent about $7,000 on attorney’s fees. He will propably lose his license for three months.

To make matters worse, he could lose his license as a — get this — drug and alcohol abuse counselor!

DUI is a serious charge. They don’t let people off easy for the first offense anymore.

A person might as well be running blind-folded down a busy city sidewalk waving a pair of razor sharp swords, just as easily as they are behind the wheel of a car after drinking alcohol or taking a mind-impairing drug. As far as I’m concerned, driving while chemically impaired should be considered a premeditated reckless endangerment offense at the very least, and if a by-stander is injured or killed by the offender, a premeditated attempted murder or premeditated murder charge should be brought against them.

The key question to be asked is: When the person first set out to pollute their body, did the offending person intend to drive a vehicle after they were done? If they did not provide for alternative transportation when they began to drink, it must be assumed that their intention was to drive impaired.

I can think of only one possible defense, provided that the offender is already proven to have been impaired: Proving that someone kidnapped them, tied them up, crammed the offending chemicals down their throat, or forcibly injected it in their veins, then locked them in a rolling, in-gear vehicle aimed down a public highway. In that case, the law should prosecute the kidnapping assailants for the above offenses.

What people fail to remember is that they are doing nothing more than picking up a loaded gun and pointing it into a crowd and firing. A car is a weapon that can kill, especially when someone is impaired from drinking.

In my opinion, I would change the DUI or DWI penalties to attempted murder without intent.

Yes, I said and meant MURDER! If you have been drinking, you have NO right whatsoever to get behind a wheel. You are taking not only your own life, but the lives of everyone around you, into your hands when you drive while intoxicated. You don’t even have to be fall down stupid drunk to be a hazard. Even a beer or two can affect your reaction time – and those seconds can mean the difference between life and death.

If you don’t want to do the time, as they say, don’t do the crime.

Is it harsh? YOU BET!

I agree with Jason on this one – if he’s actually guilty of this then I’d try to work out some lesser sentence rather than trying to plead not guilty. I rendered a fair verdict in my case and would have followed the law had there been any out for him, but I will admit to being a little annoyed that he wasted 2 days of court time, took an officer off the streets, and tied up several people in a jury when it was clear that he was guilty.