San Diego DUI Defense Attorneys
Getting charged with driving under the influence, commonly called DUI, is a traumatic and nerve-wrecking experience.
If you, a relative or someone you care about has been arrested for DUI in San Diego, Chula Vista, El Cajon or any surrounding areas, please read information on our site and then seriously consider hiring a San Diego DUI lawyer who specializes in DUI defense.
California's DUI laws are complicated. Every San Diego DUI arrest results two separate and mostly indepndent DUI cases. One is the criminal case, and the other one is the DMV case. Both cases proceed largely independently one from the other. Without help from a DUI lawyer it is very difficult to fight both cases at the same time. Unfortunately, many DUI defense lawyers are good at defending one but not both cases.
Those arrested for DUI who hold professional licenses (attorneys, physicians, nurses, teachers, pilots, stock brokers, bankers, veterinarians, x-ray technicians, or other professionals) are at risk of having a third case which can potentially impact their license to practice their profession. Individuals who hold positions of trust, such as police officers, fire fighters and commercial truck drivers will be presented with specific issues requiring special consideration and close attention. An experienced DUI defense lawyer would appreciate sensitivites present in such cases.
Out of state drivers may also have a third case, carrying additional consequences, initiated by the state which issued them a driver's license, in addition to the California Department of Motor Vehicles DUI suspension case.
For non-citizens of the United States, DUI arrests carry unpleasant surprises such as the risk of deportation, denial of naturalization, exclusion from admission to the United States, denial of readmission to the United States, denial of an extension of an H1B work visa or an upgrade to Lawful Permanent Resident (also called, Resident Alien Permit Holder or Green Card Holder) or other upgrade of status with the United States Department of Homeland Security.
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Weekend DUI Checkpoint Nets No Arrests
March 21, 2012
The San Diego Sheriff’s Department is reporting the results of a DUI checkpoint held over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Encinitas, as well as countywide DUI “saturation patrols,” which place more officers on the street looking for erratic driving.
While 518 vehicles passed through the checkpoint, resulting in 229 screenings, SDPD made no DUI arrests. SDPD did impound one vehicle, cited two drivers for driving without a license and cited a third one for driving on a suspended license. SDPD did arrest two drivers for DUI as the result of a local saturation patrol.
Around the county, the saturation patrols resulted in 50 stops, 24 DUI tests, and nine arrests. SDPD issued 13 citations and six impounded vehicles.
Please contact us immediately to learn how an experienced San Diego DUI defense lawye can help you in your DUI case. Our consultations are free, confidential, and most importantly, informative. Contact us now about getting your DUI dismissed and saving your license!
2012 A new DUI law goes into effect
March 10, 2012
The California legislature passed a law, effective January 1, 2012 that somewhat lessenes the severity of punishment of a second DUI.
Originally, a person, charged and convicted of a second DUI, would face a one year suspension during which time the person could not drive at all. In 2010, second offenders received relief from this one year suspension. If a person was convicted of a second offense, the 2010 law allowed the person to obtain a restricted license 91 days from the date of their conviction for a second DUI. But the law was silent about a person who was charged with a second offense DUI but convicted of a lesser charge, a “wet reckless." Under the provisions of the 2010 law, unlike the person convicted of a second offense and who could qualify for a restricted license in 91 days, the person convicted of a “wet reckless” still faced a one year suspension. This loophole was very unfair because when a person is convicted of a “wet reckless” instead of a DUI, that person’s case was much less serious than that of a person convicted of a DUI. The law, effectivel was punishing a person more severely for a lesser charge.
The 2012 law closed this backward loophole. Now, if a person is initially charged with a second offense DUI but is convicted of a “wet reckless," they can obtain a restricted license 91 days from the conviction.
The qualification for a restricted license is not automatic. Whether the person is convicted of a second DUI or a “wet reckless," the law requires that the person install for 21 months an interlock device in any vehicle that they own or operate.
An interlock device is a machine that connects to a vehicle’s ignition system. Before being able to start the car, the driver must first exhale into the interlock device which then checks driver's breath for alcohol. IF the device detects any measurable amount of alcohol, the car will not start.
The interlock device reports a positive test for alcohol to the interlock company, who then forwards it to the court where the DUI conviction occurred and to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The positive test will likely result in a violation of the driver’s probation. San Diego courts always impose a condition for probataion following a DUI conviction under which the person may not drive with any measurable (detectable) amount of alcohol in their body. In addition, a positive test for alcohol may cause a possible suspension of the driver’s license by the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The interlock law for second DUI offenses and wet reckless convictions poses other serious problems. If a person is married and has several family vehicles, all family vehicles if owned by the person may be subject to the interlock requirement. Another problem is if the person drives a company vehicle for work. Besides the embarrassment of having an interlock device in the company vehicle, the person would have to disclose the interlock requirement to their employer. The law does create an exemption to the interlock device for company vehicles if the employer is notified of the interlock requirement and files a document with the Department of Motor Vehicles to that effect.
Please contact us immediately to learn how an experienced San Diego DUI defense lawye can help you in your DUI case. Our consultations are free, confidential, and most importantly, informative. Contact us now about getting your DUI dismissed and saving your license!
March 9, 2012
The San Diego Police Department is downsizing its DUI Enforcement Team down to one sergeant and four officers.
A department hiring freeze caused the department to gradually reduce the team, which is in charge of detection and apprehension of drivers who are suspected of being under the influence, according to Lt. Andra Brown with the San Diego Police Department.
Before the cut, the team consisted of eight officers and a sergeant. Now, SDPD will reassign those four officers to other squads in the traffic division.
Officers in the traffic division are in charge of arresting DUI suspects. This task will carry onregardless of the enforcement team's size, and so will DUI checkpoints, which are financed with grants.
The difference now is that the officers from the DUI enforcement team will not be exclusively focused on preventing and enforcing DUIs, Brown said.
"It stands to reason that the majority of the department's DUI arrests were not made by these four individuals," Brown said, "but they were made by the other traffic division officers or the patrol officers in the 9 divisions throughout the city. So we're not expecting that the level or quality of those DUI arrest will suffer in anyway."
The SDPD has experienced a hiring freeze, but Brown said they have been able to hire more officers who are now going through training.
"We are actually starting to move toward being able to build up more staffing so hopefully we won't have to see this with any other units," Brown said.
March 7, 2012
A San Diego County detective pleaded guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor drunken driving and hit-and-run charges stemming from a pair of Palm Desert crashes last summer.
Barbara Jean Crozier, 48, pleaded guilty at the Larson Justice Center in Indio to one count of not reporting an accident, two counts of DUI with injury,two counts of hit-and-run property damage and two counts of DUI.
At her attorney's request, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Harold W. Hopp reduced three of the counts to misdemeanors, according to court records.
Crozier is scheduled to be sentenced March 20. She is free on $50,000 bail.
Witnesses told Riverside County sheriff's deputies that the detective drove a vehicle which struck several parked cars and ran over a pedestrian's foot at an apartment complex parking lot at Fred Waring Drive and Town Center Way last Aug. 30.
"(The victim) yelled at the female driver, whom he could see clearly through the driver's-side window, to stop," according to a declaration in support of arrest warrant. "He yelled, 'Stop! You ran over my foot!' He said the female driver then drove away south ... without stopping to render aid or see if he was injured."
The witnesses gave investigators a description of the vehicle and its license plate number, said sheriff's Sgt. Joe Borja.
Later that night, deputies received a call that a vehicle had crashed into a water fountain at the entrance of the Marrakesh Country Club at 47-000 Marrakesh Drive. The license plate of the vehicle matched the one from the hit-and-run, Borja said.
Crozier had "an odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from her and through her own admonition she had consumed several alcoholic beverages prior to being involved in a traffic collision," according to the declaration, which says a forensic chemist later estimated her blood-alcohol level at around .9 percent.
Crozier was booked at the Indio jail on suspicion of hit-and-run and driving while intoxicated and released on bail.
The detective, assigned to the Santee substation at the time of her arrest, remains an employee of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, spokeswoman Melissa Aquino said. She said she could not comment further, citing confidentiality of personnel records.
As you can see non one is immune from being charged with a DUI. Contact DUI lawyers now about defending your DUI charge and saving your license!
