Fairfax mandatory minimum jail time is avoidable through full trial preparation and skilled negotiation, says Virginia criminal lawyer

Fairfax mandatory minimum jail time is not a foregone conclusion when you hire the right Virginia DUI lawyer and fight like hell against a conviction, and alternatively also pursue a favorable case settlement. As a Fairfax DUI defense lawyer, today I present a case in point from my recent successful plea negotiating reducing the alleged blood alcohol level in a Fairfax DUI prosecution to nearly half of the 0.26 blood alcohol content (BAC) claimed by the blood analysis of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science (DFS), with no active jail time and the ignition interlock as the only condition to restricted driving, together with an agreed fine, agreed suspended jail time, and (by operation of law) the obligation to complete the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program (VASAP).

Rather than seeing poop in the risk of a Fairfax mandatory DWI jail sentence, Virginia DUI defense lawyers can seek the gold in that poop and ways to dissipate and eliminate the poop

The initial reaction that a Virginia criminal defendant might have to a blood alcohol content over 0.22 (and I have defended BAC’s up to 0.34) may be aw sh*t. However, one of my earliest criminal defense teachers was wise in counseling that reality if no obstacle, to a point. Not all prosecutorial allegations are provable. Moreover, specific to this and all my other Virginia blood draw DWI cases, the private lab I ordinarily use repeatedly reports BAC’s below the DFS results. Here, even the margin of uncertainty of +/- 0.14 in the DFS certificate of analysis brings us to the 0.24_ range. The private lab result is 0.248 with a +/- margin of uncertainty 0f 0.15, which, when subtracted from the foregoing private lab result, brings us to a 0.233. (The forensic toxicologist with whom I have dealt with for hundreds of Virginia DUI defense cases confirms that it is only scientific to subtract the margin of uncertainty). The foregoing calculations do not bring us below the ten-day mandatory minimum of jail if convicted of a first offense Virginia DUI for a BAC over 0.20. However, this also gave me the opportunity to point out to the prosecutor that my client’s blood alcohol level at the time the police stopped his car for alleged moving violations, may have been less than at the time of the blood draw over one hour later. Although Virginia caselaw says to look at BAC at the time of testing rather than driving when the BAC is alleged to be 0.15 or higher, that foregoing point still provides an important talking point to the prosecutor for negotiating a favorable settlement. Moreover, the prosecutor had not yet successfully moved to amend the charging document to reflect an elevated BAC, which is an element of the crime for obtaining a Fairfax mandatory minimum DUI sentencing, and I was ready — if this case had proceeded to trial — to object to any effort to amend the charging document.

Virginia DUI and criminal defendants: Commence your self improvement steps early

As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I receive a wide range of reactions from my clients to my tailor-made self improvement plans to my Virginia criminal defense and DUI clients. Those reactions run from being on board with such overcovering of risk, for starters, to resistance to such self improvement, when seeing the defendant as innocent, or out of concern that taking such steps amounts to admitting guilt. I respond that if the prosecutor is not dismissing a Virginia criminal defendant’s prosecution, the prosecutor probably does not see the defendant as innocent. Furthermore, the judge is not ordinarily going to know about a defendant’s self improvement steps without there being a conviction first. In this Fairfax DUI defense, the prosecutor indicated that he very much liked that my client had completed Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings. And this was not just a completion of a smattering of AA meetings, but attendance at over 30 such meetings. Such proactive self improvement for Virginia DUI cases as documented completion an appropriate driver improvement class, obtaining an alcohol program evaluation, attending numerous AA meetings, and completing MADD victim impact panel can be seen as akin to self-imposed significant probation conditions. Where, as here, substantial Fairfax mandatory minimum jail time was at risk, my client has no reasonable choice but to pursue this self improvement path.

What do I do if prosecuted for an alleged Virginia DUI offense, with a high alleged blood alcohol content to boot?

A Virginia DUI conviction can be a scarlet letter — let alone a Fairfax mandatory minimum sentence that accompanies a criminal conviction — as can a slew of criminal convictions. Fight like hell against your DWIU or criminal prosecution, starting with obtaining the right lawyer for you. Fairfax DUI attorney Jon Katz’s commitment to persuasive excellence in Virginia DUI defense is such that nearly one-third of his law practice is devoted to DWI defense. On top of that, Jon keeps on top of the science and procedure in DWI defense by collaborating in over one hundred Virginia DWI defenses with a forensic toxicologist, and by having been trained in administering field sobriety tests (FSTs) to people who have consumed alcohol, with the training of one of the nation’s top FST trainers to police. Jon Katz is among the small percentage of Virginia DUI defenders who is a member of the tremendously beneficial National College of DUI Defense, and also a small percentage of Virginia DUI practitioners who have been trained by a top-flight police trainer in administering FST’s, which as a result enables Jon to identify errors and deviations by the investigating police that are ripe for attack and challenged.

Fairfax DUI lawyer Jon Katz will help you return to your life while he performs the heavy lifting in defending you against Virginia DWI, felony and misdemeanor prosecutions. By the conclusion of your first meeting with Jon Katz, you will feel more informed and confident about your defenses. Call 703-383-1100 for your free initial confidential consultation with Jon Katz about your court-pending case.