DWI / DUI

When a criminal defendant’s trial date continuance motion is denied, s/he ordinarily must proceed to trial on that date, or resolve the case by settlement negotiations. When a Virginia prosecutor is unable to obtain a trial date continuance, s/he can move the court to enter...

My clients usually ask me what their chances are in court. This is not merely to satisfy natural anticipation, but also to have plans in place in case they are convicted, and depending on the type of conviction and sentence. I do my best to...

Five months ago, I blogged about winning a driving while intoxicated trial when the judge ruled that the police stope of my client’s car was unconstitutional, for being based on no more than a hunch about whether my client or his passenger had been involved in an amorphous...

My clients tend not to care how I win for them as long as I win, even if through a final dismissal rather than through the greater excitement of an acquittal. Recently, I got a case dismissed due to the Sixth Amendment violation of my...

A vehicle collides so hard into the one in front of it that the struck vehicle suffers substantial damage, and the struck vehicle then collides into the next car ahead. Police arrive to find my client with bloodshot and watery eyes, all upset about a...

Last April, the Supreme Court generally limited blood draws of criminal suspects to those obtained by consent of the suspect or by a valid search warrant, absent exigent circumstances. Missouri v. McNeely, 133 S.Ct. 1552 (2013). Criminal defense lawyers need to challenge all three with...

Our tax dollars pay prosecutors and police to serve the people, including those they arrest and prosecute, not just to serve the amorphous “people that I — the cop or prosecutor — am here to protect.” How many police, prosecutors and other civil servants see...

When my clients get arrested for drunk driving in Virginia, sometimes I mention how much better they would have fared in Maryland, which has no mandatory minimum jail sentencing for first-time driving while intoxicated (DWI) defendants, less harsh sanctions than Virginia on driving for first-time...

Here is an overview of events leading to my recent trial win for a 0.14 blood draw case in Virginia General District Court. GDC: The police officer testified to seeing my client’s car stuck in a ditch, and my client’s saying he drove the car and nothing to drink...

During the year between college and law school, I was a financial auditor at one of the nation’s then-thirty largest banks. We reviewed the bank’s financial activities to assure the bank was adhering to safe and sound financial practices. This was the closest I ever came...