San Diego Defenders – DUI San Diego Criminal Lawyer
If you are arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI), DUI in San Diego, the deck is stacked against you but you have come to the right place. Unlike a traffic ticket, a DUI in San Diego is a crime and can be prosecuted either as a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the circumstances. Police are trained to assume everyone out driving after dark may be DUI in San Diego. You are required by law to take a blood or breath test and if you refuse, your driver’s license will be suspended for at least a year.
Police Driving Under the Influence investigations, including field sobriety tests, are terribly biased and almost always conclude the person was DUI in San Diego. For all of these reasons, for you or your loved one who has been accused of DUI in San Diego to have a fighting chance, you need an experienced and skilled DUI defense lawyer to represent you and fight for your rights. San Diego Defenders has some of the most successful DUI San Diego criminal lawyers and they are ready to help you.
Read more here on the consequences for your job or immigration status.
If you or a loved one were stopped for a DUI in San Diego, call our DUI San Diego criminal lawyer immediately at (619) 258-8888. Do not make any statements or pay bail before consulting with us. No matter the circumstances, we will mount the most effective defense for you and attempt to avoid your DUI in San Diego to become a DUI conviction.
Law Enforcement Focus: DUI San Diego
DUI is one of the most common crimes prosecuted in California with tens of thousands of arrests each year. It is also the subject of intense lobbying by groups like MADD, causing lawmakers, law enforcement, prosecutors and judges to be very tough on offenders. Understand, driving when you have had too much to drink is very dangerous. But, groups like MADD and the Federal government have used scare tactics and misleading statistics to justify ever harsher treatment for people accused of DUI. Those who get a DUI in San Diego are in a very serious legal situation.
Because of all of this, to have any chance of getting a fair resolution to your case, you need an experienced and aggressive DUI defense lawyer representing you to fight your DUI in San Diego. At San Diego Defenders, our Team is dedicated to providing the finest defense representation for those who have received a DUI in San Diego.
How Serious Is A DUI in San Diego?
A DUI in San Diego is very serious. A DUI in San Diego can be charged as either a misdemeanor DUI or a felony DUI depending on the circumstances. Even for a first time misdemeanor DUI in San Diego, State law allows for up to six months in jail, fines and fees that add up to approximately $2,000.00 and loss of driving privileges. For second and third offense within ten years, penalties are even greater, with mandatory custody.
For a felony DUI in San Diego, you can be facing years in State prison. If someone was injured in a DUI accident, the costs of taking care of the victim can be astronomical.
Whether it is a felony DUI or a misdemeanor DUI, the California DMV will also seek to suspend your driver’s license. You also face the expense of increased car insurance premiums as well as many people losing their jobs. For all these reasons, it is critical to hire an experienced and aggressive DUI defense lawyer to fight for your DUI in San Diego.
Why Hire A DUI San Diego Criminal Lawyer?
Almost any criminal defense lawyer and many lawyers who do not even regularly practice criminal defense will take your money to represent you in a DUI San Diego case. But, what you are probably getting is someone who knows little about the science of DUIs or police procedures and is going to give you the wrong advice. That results in a waste of your money and the loss of a chance to beat the DUI in San Diego or minimize the punishment you face.
As with any profession, there are many who will make any claims to win you over but only a few with the experience and training to achieve results. Anyone who is accused of DUI in San Diego needs an experienced DUI criminal lawyer representing them.
To get the best possible outcome in you or your loved one’s DUI San Diego case, you need a DUI San Diego Criminal Lawyer who understands:
- The law and court decisions concerning police traffic stops – if it was not a proper stop; that can mean a case being dismissed.
- Police DUI investigation procedures, especially field sobriety tests – if they are not done properly, a jury can be shown how they are worthless and that the police were assuming a person was DUI in San Diego when they weren’t.
- The science of blood and breath testing – if tests are not done properly, the results should not be relied on.
- How alcohol is absorbed and processed by the human body – there may be a defense to your DUI in San Diego based on science.
- How to investigate a DUI in San Diego for possible defenses – a good defense lawyer will leave no stone unturned.
- How to deal with DMV – having a license is critical to most folks, and you want to do everything possible to keep it.
There are very few outstanding defense criminal lawyers who can take care of your DUI in San Diego. San Diego Defenders has assembled a DUI defense team that has one of the most successful records for taking care of a DUI in San Diego.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teoLnnWaO8c
San Ysidro border crossing DUI and Drug Cases – By Daniel M. Smith
San Ysidro cases, particularly the case that arise out of arrests at the border generally go to the Chula Vista Court. Many arrests start as a conversation to declare items to Customs and Border Patrol agents at the San Ysidro Port of Entry or the Otay Mesa border crossing. If the CBP officer smells alcohol on a college student or anyone, including people visiting family in Tijuana or Baja, they will typically send that person to Secondary. Secondary inspection is the are off t the side of the stations that the CBP officer asks for immigration status, something like “your citizenship?” and “are you bringing anything with you today?”. You may also see a narcotics sniffing detection dog walk by your car.
So, at Secondary Inspection, the officers generally ask you to get out of the car and wait on a bench or in a very small room. At that point, if the officer thought you were intoxicated, they will have called the CHP or California Highway Patrol at the nearby Otay Mesa Station to come and ask you questions on whether you have been drinking. A lot of my clients ask, “Did I have to take all those tests?” The simple answer is “No”. But that may be water under the bridge. If the officer believes there is a probable case for your DUI arrest, you will be taken all the way into downtown Central San Diego Jail. That confuses many people, because the jurisdiction in the case will be at the Chula Vista Court. I am a Chula Vista lawyer that sees a lot of these cases together with HDTA, an acronym for high density trafficking area where there relatively small amounts of marijuana seized from a vehicle.
Either way, it is important that your attorney have a good working relationship with the judges and even the prosecutors. My office is right across the street from the Chula Vista Court House, so if you are faced with this type of case, or know someone who is, just call my office and I can help you.
