Dan Smith
On Vacation, I Got a DUI Ticket in San Diego! How Do I Hire a Local Criminal Lawyer ?
Given the weather, beaches, World Famous San Diego Zoo, Sea World and all the other wonderful things about San Diego, it is no wonder it is one of America’s top vacation destinations. Even in when it is hot in Arizona, it is cool in California. When it is freezing out of state, California that is, it is relatively nice in San Diego, El Cajon, Chula Vista and especially South of the Border in Tijuana, Ensenada, and Rosorito.
So whether you are staying in the Mission Beach, Pacific Beach or Ocean Beach area, you may hop in your car to get back to the hotel or airbnb. If you are at the beautiful San Diego Convention Center and are having a blast in the Gaslamp Quarter or in Little Italy and you have found the hidden tiki bar called the False Idol www.falseidoltiki.com/, you may accidently think that you are okay to drive and don’t realize these areas are prime DUI Checkpoint areas.
One of the things that means is that a lot of people visiting San Diego for vacation › United States › California (CA) › San Diego
get arrested for DUI’s. It makes sense. The people who are here on vacation want to relax and enjoy themselves, maybe enjoying a few drinks. Put that together with the fact that most tourists are staying in areas with lots of restaurants and bars and the expected lots of DUI cops patrolling and you end up with many arrests. In fact, it is a running joke in the criminal courts, “Come to San Diego for vacation, leave on probation.”
Getting arrested while on vacation can be an enormous hassle. Aside from losing some of your vacation to sitting in a jail cell, waiting to get bailed out and the negative feelings for the rest of your trip, you also then have to figure out how to deal with your DUI court case. Beyond that, even though you have a driver’s license from your home State, the California DMV is going to suspend your privilege to drive here and that may mean you lose your license at home, too. The Arizona MVD is on an “inter-state compact” wherein “California and Arizona participate in the interstate Driver License Compact together with 37 other states and the District of Columbia”. The “APS” or Admin Per Se information h each other and vice verse as explained in an unpublished California case.
The key to dealing with your vacation DUI is finding a good DUI lawyer who has handled DUI’s for people from out of town. Their skill and experience can be key in getting a whole host of things taken care of. You need your local DUI lawyer to:
1. Fight the DMV suspension and know how to advise you if you will have your home State license affected.
2. Deal with your rental car if it was impounded.
3. Make all of the Court appearances (per rule 977) so you do not have to come back.
4. Work with the bail bondsman to ensure there are no problems with them.
5. Be able to come up with creative alternatives if the prosecution asks for some sort of alcohol monitoring (one alternative is SCRAM) while the case is pending.
6. Know how to use the fact you were on vacation to try and negotiate the best possible plea deal.
7. The prosecutor should know that your local attorney is ready and willing to threaten to have you, the client, come back for trial if necessary because the prosecutor will assume they don’t have to worry about trial. That is one of the most important qualities of a local lawyer like San Diego Defenders. That is, the prosecutor must know that your lawyer has a good reputation for litigating and winning cases.
8. Make sure anything you are ordered to do by the Court for probation is allowed to be done in your home state, and not just here in San Diego.
Your local San Diego DUI lawyer needs to know how to handle all of these issues and more to ensure your vacation DUI is taken care of properly with the least harm to you.
If you have any prior DUI’s from another State, having an experienced San Diego DUI lawyer becomes even more important. Not only is the potential penalties worse, but, depending on the State the old DUI is from, a good DUI lawyer may be able to prevent the prosecution from using it against you.
So, to everyone who comes to San Diego on vacation, enjoy yourself and support our local businesses. But, should things go bad and you get arrested for a DUI, make sure you get a good San Diego DUI lawyer to help you. Of course, it goes without saying that it helps tremendously if you local lawyer is affordable and offers payment plans even to out of state clients. So give San Diego Defenders a call 7 days a week, 24 hours a day to speak with a local lawyer like Dan Smith and Jon Pettis to answer your questions and put your mind at ease.
