California DUI Defense Lawyer

Beating DUI Charges

There are many ways to win California DUI cases or get charges reduced and penalties minimized, to protect your driver’s license, your job and your record. Some example DUI defenses include:

• Breathalyzer Test Errors
• Lack of Probable Cause for the Police Stop
• Inaccurate Field Sobriety Tests
• Inaccurate or Inadmissible Blood Test
• Ketosis from Atkins Diets or Diabetes
• For more see: 20 Ways to Beat a DUI

Stop Automatic DMV Driver’s License Suspension

You only have 10 days from date of arrest to request a DMV hearing or your license will be suspended! We handle all this for you to protect your rights and work to save your license. Our goal is to achieve the best outcome possible.

You can rest assured that our Former District Attorneys know the legal system inside out and how best to fight to get your charges reduced or dismissed.

We offer affordable fees and flexible payment plans.

DUI resources:

• The 20 Best ways to fight a DUI
• What to do after a DUI arrest
• How to save your license in a DMV Admin Per Se hearing
• California DUI laws and costs
• Foreign citizen DUI issues

If You’re Facing a DUI, Give Us a Call

We know a DUI or drunk driving arrest and losing your license can have a major impact on your personal and professional life.  Our skilled California DWI defense attorneys have handled thousands of cases including first time DUI, 2nd, 3rd DUI, commercial drivers license, nurse DUI, non-US citizen DUI and bodily injury felony DUI including vehicular manslaughter.

Regardless how serious your case is, our experienced DUI defense attorney will carefully analyze the evidence to identify any issues that will contribute to a successful DUI defense.

We know how government prosecutors and California courts operate and how to navigate the system for you. Our aggressive defense will help achieve the best possible results in your case.

Immigration and DUI lawyers for immigrant DUI visa issues

Chudnovsky Law offers both DUI and immigration attorneys experienced with minimizing the DUI immigration consequences for foreign nationals. Chudnovsky Law is known for skilled DUI representation of F1 international students & H-1B visa holders. DUI arrests can cause immigration visas to be revoked. Even if the case is dismissed.

Best legal defenses to DUI charges

California DUI cases are rarely hopeless. Police officers bungle roadside investigations. Breathalyzers and blood testing are prone to error. Medical conditions and certain foods render falsely high blood alcohol readings. Our experienced DUI defense lawyer knows how to capitalize on these issues to win cases or reduce the charges.

Most people arrested for a California DUI or DWI charge assume the evidence against them is insurmountable. Most are wrong.

DUI & DWI cases often have flaws or errors

Fighting a DUI or DWI charge almost always makes more sense than simply pleading guilty. For example, did you know:

• More than 100 interfering substances, medical conditions and equipment malfunctions can cause DUI breathalyzers to generate falsely high readings?
• DUI blood testing is prone to error. When we re-test clients’ blood samples at independent laboratories, we frequently get different results…and sometimes find that the original sample was contaminated?
• Police officers are required to follow a standardized set of procedures in DUI roadside investigations…and very few do?

There are four key elements to a prosectors case

Under California DUI laws, the standard of proof requirement for the prosecution is beyond reasonable doubt. If your Long beach DUI attorney can show the case is not 100% free of reasonable doubt then the court can dismiss the case. The four key elements prosecutors typically use to try and convict are:

1. Driving impairment patterns: The NHTSA has identified 24 visual driving clues for police officers to detect impaired drivers such as swerving or running stop lights
2. Physical signs and symptoms: Observations such as red eyes, alcohol odor or unsteady gate are probably the most easily discredited by the defense
3. Field sobriety tests such as the one leg stand or Nystagmus tests
4. Chemical test results or refusal: There are many ways to defeat breath and blood test results

Successful DUI defenses usually involve your DUI law firm identifying issues in any of the four components above to show there is a reasonable doubt. The best DUI attorney will analyze your case evidence to identify the highest probability defense strategy to use.

CALIFORNIA DUI PENALTIES

You only have 10 Days after a DUI arrest to stop DMV license suspension

How we work to save your driver’s license

In California, DUI and driving while intoxicated DWI charges trigger a criminal court process and a parallel California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Admin per se (APS) hearing process. The process and procedure involved in an APS hearing is separate from the criminal court.

1) We request APS hearing within 10 days to halt suspension

The DMV provides a short 10 day window to request an APS hearing to dispute the license suspension. They strictly enforce the deadline.

Your license will be automatically suspended 30 days after arrest if we do not request the hearing in time.

2) The DMV’s APS officer typically focuses on three questions:

1. Were you the driver of the vehicle involved?
2. Did the officer make a lawful arrest and have reasonable cause to think you were driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol?
3. Was your BAC above the legal limit? (.08%, .04% or .01%, depending on the driver).

Your exact blood alcohol level may not be known at the time of the hearing since labs can take weeks to release their testing results. Even if you weren’t driving drunk, the police usually have justifiable reasons why they believed you were.

3) Our former DMV APS hearing officer or lawyer will represent you and argue to keep your license

Usually only an expert in California DUI laws knows how to provide the best answers to the DMV officer. It can be tricky to answer the questions in the best way for your case. Our experts have handled thousands of DMV hearings and are skilled at utilizing the process to your best advantage. Our goal is to save your license and further your defense.

4) It’s important to retain a DUI attorney before the DMV hearing

The sooner we begin your defense, the better your odds of success. The DMV hearing is a key step that can function as a mini-trial allowing us to prepare for the potential criminal court process to come. At the APS hearing:

• We can request important evidence before the APS hearing such as the exact BAC lab test results.
• We know DUI arrest laws and are skilled at making the case whether an officer’s arrest followed all California laws.
• California offers a public defender for those without attorney representation. County public defenders are not able to represent you at APS hearings, nor take advantage of the benefits they provide you. But we can.

5) The APS hearing can be an important source of evidence to use in your DUI defense

For the APS hearing, your DWI lawyer can subpoena the arresting officer which may reveal mistakes in how you were arrested. Your attorney can also subpoena calibration and maintenance logs for the breathalyzer and explore the device’s history of malfunctions and issues. This evidence can later be used in your court trial or to negotiate with the District Attorney to get your charges reduced or dismissed.

APS hearings and criminal court cases are complex but offer valuable opportunities to build a successful DUI defense. Since the consequences of losing a DUI case are so high, it is important to have the best DUI lawyer that has done thousands of cases handle it for you. Our experienced California DUI Lawyers know how use every opportunity to achieve the best possible outcome for your case.

What to do after a DUI

The entire process, from getting pulled over, through field sobriety test, an arrest, a chemical breath tests, all the way to your release from custody, can happen quickly and become a blur over time. To assist your drunk driving lawyer, it is important to document as much as you can about what happened throughout the entire process. Write down as much as you can remember, including:

1. What happened when you were pulled over
2. What the police officer said about sobriety tests, and how they were executed
3. What the police officer said about a preliminary alcohol screening test (breathalyzer)
4. What happened during the arrest & transportation to the police station
5. What the police officer said about providing a chemical breath test
6. How the officer executed the chemical breath test

All of this information may be helpful for your DWI defense lawyer to explore defenses available to you in your DMV administrative license hearing and in your criminal case. Even though police officers conduct DUI stops all the time, they can make mistakes or take shortcuts in violation of your rights. You CA DUI attorney can make sure an unconstitutional traffic stop does not lead to a criminal conviction.

California DUI statistics

According to the most recent year California DMV and California Highway Patrol DUI statistics:

• California arrested 162,199 people for DUI during the year.
• 16,060 of the arrests were alcohol involved injury collisions.
• 155,599 or 97% were misdemeanor DUI arrests.
• 4,789 or 3% were felony DUI arrests.
• 17,568 or 11% were alcohol or drug involved reckless driving convictions.
• 1,197 driving fatalities involved alcohol.

MADD estimates that drunk driving costs the United States $132 billion a year.

Resources:

• DMV Summary of New California 2020 DUI Laws
• New California criminal laws in 2021
• How to find out if you have a DUI warrant

DUI Defense in Spanish and French

Avocat DUI | Alcool au Volant | Abogados de DUI

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Written by Tsion Chudnovsky, Robert Weinberg and Suzanne Crouts.