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Prosecution in Los Angeles for Exhibition of Speed or Speed Contest (VC 23109)
Do screeching tires violate the law? Do you need an attorney who can defend you in a speed contest or exhibition of speed prosecution? Los Angeles DUI Attorney can help. Los Angeles DUI Attorney specializes in DUI, criminal, and “traffic” cases throughout Los Angeles county. Los Angles DUI attorneys will represent you in court to the best of our abilities, fighting to get a dismissal of all charges or to get a result that you will like. We also offer extensive motion and trial practice where our attorneys will convince the court or the jury that your criminal or traffic case should be thrown out of court or that you should get acquitted by the court or jury of all […]
Bench Warrant DUI. Tips on Handling and Getting Dismissals
Tips on Handling (and Getting Dismissals For) Some DUI Cases in a Bench Warrant DUI Status (Serna Motions) When a defendant fails to appear in court after being cited to appear by the arresting officer or fails to appear after a court order, the court may issue a warrant for the arrest of the defendant. A Los Angeles DUI Attorney can recall such a warrant, usually without the defendant having to go to court. Having a Bench Warrant DUI for an arrest can be very stressful and dangerous because any contact with a police officer can end up with a defendant being arrested. Many DUI cases in Los Angeles result in bench warrants simply because DUI defendants who are cited […]
DUI Defense: stop for not showing a turning signal
When a driver is pulled over without a reason, he can get his DUI in Los Angeles dismissed by suppressing the evidence obtained against him, including results of his blood or breath test, in a search and seizure motion pursuant to Penal Code Section 1538.5 and the Fourth Amendment. The police are allowed to pull over a driver only based on a violation of the Vehicle Code or some other law. (See People v. Durazo 124 Cal App 4th 728). If you were pulled over in Los Angeles because you failed to signal a turn and later arrested for a DUI, your DUI case can be fought based on a recent Court of Appeal decision. A recent Court of Appeal […]
One-Leg-Stand Test: Los Angeles DUI
This post is part of an ongoing series by a Los Angeles DUI Attorney analyzing field sobriety tests and how law enforcement officers in Los Angeles often rely on them to form subjective and unreliable conclusions that a driver is under the influence of alcohol or drugs — thus justifying an arrest under California Vehicle Code § 23152(a) (driving under the influence) or § 23152(b) (driving with a BAC of 0.08% or more). DUI Investigations in Los Angeles: How They Begin If a police officer smells alcohol during a traffic stop in Los Angeles, it often triggers a DUI investigation. As any experienced Los Angeles DUI Attorney will tell you, the typical DUI investigation in Los Angeles includes several field […]
Walk-And-Turn Test in DUI prosecution in Los Angeles
Voluntary Walk-and-Turn Test often used by Police agencies in Los Angeles county during the field sobriety drunk driving investigation to determine if a driver is impaired. It is rarely a good idea to submit to this test because the results of the tests are extremely subjective and more often then not are used as circumstantial evidence of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol in DUI prosecutions. The Walk-and-Turn Test is significant because the courts believe that many of the same skills used on this test are needed for driving, such as small muscle control, information processing, reaction, balance, coordination, and short-term memory (U.S. v. Stanton 501 F.3d 1093, 1100). The Walk-And-Turn Test involves “walking hill-to-toe for nine steps, […]
How the Court Calculates DUI Fines in Los Angeles
The statutory miniminal DUI fine in Los Angeles is $390.00 plus penalties and assessments. The legislature made the penalties and assessments the majority of the fine. There are 12 different additional types of penalties and assessments ranging from $1 for every $10 fine to $100 for every misdemeanor conviction. Those additions increase fines for a DUI conviction in Los Angeles to at least $1,790, a huge increase from the $390 base fine. The fine structure is not unique to Driving Under the Influence conviction. A conviction for running a red light, a $50 base fine, will be at least $225. Here is the breakdown of the fines by statutes. PC 1464 adds $10 for every $10 of a base fine […]
BODY ALCOHOL EFFECTS
BODY ALCOHOL EFFECTS are be different from person to person. Some people are effected by alcohol very quickly and some are not. Some people are affected by alcohol slightly and some are impaired after only one drink. The difference in alcohol effects can be attributed to variation in human physiology. In a DUI case you need an expert DUI attorney who will help you determine how your body is affected by alcohol because your Los Angeles DUI defense might depend on it. Here we discuss one enzyme that affects alcohol metabolism in a human body. An enzyme that is commonly present in stomach and liver, Alcohol Dehydrogenase (ADH), is responsible for alcohol metabolism. ADH body alcohol effects are such that […]
Should I Use An Attorney When I Am Guilty Of Drunk Driving?
Alcohol is probably the most abused substance in the world. Millions of Americans are dealing with this problem with up to 10% of alcohol users being alcohol-dependent. Some research indicate there are 3 times as many males as females who are alcohol depended. A lot more users are under 45 years of age, apparently a critical age, with most of the death from alcohol abuse falling below 45 years mark. More people in the 15-45 age group die from alcohol misuse then from any other cause, with an estimated yearly figure for all age groups in the 200,000 range. A third of suicide and half of traffic death are connected to alcohol use by people in this age category. Also, the […]
Helmandollar plea or How to Keep Driver’s License after DUI
Typically, any DUI conviction or an adverse finding by the DMV at an APS hearing will result in a loss of driver’s license. Short of pleading to a reduced charge (a wet reckless or a dry reckless) and getting a set aside at the Admin Per Se hearing, the driver’s license will be lost for a period depending on number of priors. An attorney can negotiate a DUI plea that will result in no loss of license. Under a 1992 decision from the Court of Appeals, a plea to a VC 23152(a) and an explicit finding of not guilty on VC 23152(b) will result in set aside from the DMV and a no-loss of license to the driver. Around 1992, Mark […]
DUI DEFENSE: No Driving Defense
“No driving defense” is One of common defenses for driving under the influences. It is typically used in cases where the police did not not observe driving (such is a common case in DUI prosecutions that involve an accident). A recent case in my practice involve an arrest of an extremely intoxicated Spanish speaking gentleman who was found next to his crashed car. No one observed the accident, however, there is an apparent confession by the client (who incidentally does not remember confessing). Eventhough client denied driving, his story was somewhat improbable and I knew that Los Angeles City Attorney could not be convinced by my client’s statement. To convince the prosecutor that my client was not the […]