VirginiaDrunkDrivingLawyer.com: The Law Office of T. Kevin Wilson P.C.

15 Mistakes Commonly Made After Being Arrested for DUI inVirginia.

1. Not taking the matter seriously. A charge of driving while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol (DUI) is a serious charge that can impact many aspects of your life for many years. If you are convicted of DUI you may be jailed, you will probably be fined, and your license to drive in Virginia will automatically be suspended/revoked for at least one year. In addition, your insurance rates will increase, and before you can get your license to drive reinstated you will have to provide SR22 proof of insurance and complete an alcohol treatment education class. The Department of Motor Vehicles will report your conviction for at least 11 years. Lastly, since a DUI charge is a misdemeanor criminal offense it may have an impact on your employment, security clearance, etc.

2. Not hiring an attorney. Although you can give up your right to have an attorney and represent yourself, you should not do so. The law is complex and you need a lawyer to ensure your interests are protected. The right defenses must be raised at the right time or they will be lost. Every day people don’t get the best result in court simply because they don’t have competent counsel to assist them. Don’t be one of those people. By hiring an experienced and skilled attorney immediately following your arrest, you demonstrate to the Court that you understand this is a serious charge, you ensure your rights will be protected, and you provide your lawyer the maximum amount of time to research your case, file motions, have subpoenas issued, and prepare a strategy for trial.

3. Hiring an attorney based on the amount of the fee alone. The Commonwealth of Virginia has extensive resources, and you need to hire an attorney and pay a fee which will allow your lawyer to put the time and effort into your case which is necessary to counter the efforts of the prosecution. As attorneys develop expertise, they get better results and they often charge higher fees. Higher fees allow attorneys to handle fewer cases and give each case the personal attention it deserves. A lawyer who charges a lower fee may have too many cases to thoroughly investigate and prepare for your case. You wouldn't purchase a car or select a doctor based solely on cost, and you shouldn't select an attorney based solely on cost either.

4. Hiring an attorney without any specialized education and training. Law, like medicine, is very diverse, and attorneys, like doctors, have many different areas in which they can practice. Just as you wouldn't want your eye doctor performing your open heart surgery, you don't want an attorney without specialized training handling your DUI case. Interview as many lawyers as you need to until you find one you like and feel comfortable with that has specialized education and training related specifically to defending those accused of drunk driving.

5. Not asking the Court to review the 7 day administrative license suspension during the period of the suspension. Your driver's license will be automatically suspended for 7 days if your breath test result was more than .08, or more than .02 if you are under 21 years of age, or if you refused to submit to the breath test. If you successfully challenge the administrative suspension your license to drive will be reinstated immediately. If you do not successfully challenge the administrative license suspension you can not drive during that 7 day suspension period, and your license will be returned to you at the expiration of the suspension period.

6. Driving during the 7 day administrative license suspension period. Driving during the 7 day suspension period is a serious criminal offense and if you are found guilty of doing so your license will be suspended for an additional period of time and you will probably be put in jail and fined.

7. Failing to appear in Court. If you fail to come to court for your case, the judge will probably issue a capias/warrant for your arrest, and once you are arrested you will probably held in jail without bond until your trial date. In addition, if you are found guilty of failing to appear in court, it makes it more likely that if you are arrested again in the future you will be taken to jail and required to post a bond before being released.

8. Taking the Commonwealth Attorney's offer and pleading guilty. You are presumed to be innocent and the Commonwealth must prove the case against you before you can be found guilty. If you accept the prosecutor's offer and decide to plead guilty, you lose the opportunity to have the judge rule on any constitutional and evidentiary challenges you may have, and you give up your right to force the Commonwealth prove the case against you. Never plead guilty unless you are getting something valuable in return for giving up your right to have a trial.

9. Driving after your license has been suspended/revoked for a DUI conviction. Upon conviction for DUI your license to drive in Virginia will be suspended/revoked. Driving during this period of suspension/revocation is a very serious offense, and if you are found guilty of driving with a suspended/revoked license you will probably be jailed and fined. In addition, your license to drive will be suspended/revoked for an additional period of time and you will not be able to obtain a restricted license to allow you to drive for work, school or any other reason during the additional period of suspension.

10. Not requesting a Restricted License. Although your license to drive will automatically be suspended upon conviction for DUI, in many cases the Court can grant you a Restricted Operator’s License to allow you to drive for school, work and other limited purposes.

11. Not paying the fine and Court costs. Many courts will not issue a Restricted Operator’s License until the fine and court costs have been paid in full, so you should be prepared to pay any fine and the court costs on your court date. In addition, failing to pay the fine and court costs will result in whatever license to drive you may have being suspended, and may result in you being arrested and jailed for violating the Court’s order to pay these items within a specified amount of time.

12. Not enrolling in and successfully completing VASAP. In most cases, you must enroll in Virginia’s Alcohol Safety Action Program (VASAP) in order to obtain a Restricted Operator’s License, and you must successfully complete VASAP before you can have your license to drive fully reinstated. In addition, in many cases failure to successfully complete VASAP will result in you being arrested and jailed.

13. Not keeping Restricted Operator License information current. In many cases, the Court has the authority to issue a Restricted Operator’s License to allow you to drive for limited purposes. When the Court does so, the Restricted Operator’s License will indicate the days and hours during which you are allowed to drive, as well as the locations to and from which you are allowed to drive. If the times or days during which you need to drive, or the locations to and from which you need to drive changes you must return to Court and get your Restricted Operator’s License updated so that the information reflected on it is current. Failure to do so could result in you being arrested.

14. Driving outside the parameters of your Restricted Operator’s License. If you are granted a Restricted Operator’s License you are only allowed to drive within the limits set forth in that Court order. If you are caught driving outside the limits set forth on your Restricted Operator’s License it could cause you to be arrested, jailed, fined and have your Restricted Operator’s License taken away.

15. Talking to anyone but an attorney about your case. There is an attorney-client privilege which protects what you tell your lawyer and prohibits disclosure of that information without your consent. But no such privilege exists for things you say to friends, family, or others and the police and the prosecuting attorney can use those statements against you. It is smart to write down the details of what happened and the circumstances surrounding your arrest immediately after it occurred while your memory is fresh, and to give that information to your lawyer.