DUI Attorney Update for January 2010
There have a been a lot of changes at DUIAttorney.com in the past few months, and I have been neglectful of this blog while working on them. As I continue to refine the content on that site, I will make more of an effort to keep my readers up to date here.
As for the subject matter of this blog, for now I'm going to be shifting focus from DUI law and news updates, which are largely handled by my team at DUI and DWI News, to tracking the status of the DUIAttorney.com project and what our lawyers are doing. I also think it's appropriate to talk about the subject of DUI law as a business, including DUI marketing.
I want to say sorry to all of you who have posted comments over the last couple of months... I have not had a chance to go through and moderate them, and given the volume of spam comments we receive (mostly from DUI lawyers I should add), it's impossible for me to just do a blanket-approve-all with comments.
For those of you who have been posting stupid one-liners with links back to your websites, come on and get real. That might have been an effective strategy in 2003-2004, but not now. You should realize that most modern blogs automatically add no-follow tags to comment links anyways. In short, please don't waste your time and mine.
I'll post more updates about the progress and status of DUIAttorney.com soon, maybe later today. In the meantime, take care.
New York DWI Attorney Rachel Kugel Joins DUIAttorney.com
DUIAttorney.com is pleased to announce that New York DWI Attorney Rachel Kugel has become a member.
Ms. Kugel practices throughout New York City, and is the DUIAttorney.com NY attorney for all five boroughs and several surrounding counties.
DUI Forum Launched
DUIAttorney.com announced the re-launch of its DUI forum today. The forum is open for public registration.
When Police Officers Get DUIs
It happens every month. Police officers get arrested for DUI. They cause accidents while driving drunk. They commit other crimes too. So do defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges. Its a fact of life and shouldn't come as a shock to anybody.
Some people seem to relish the hypocrisy of somebody in law enforcement getting caught breaking the law.
To me, it's not the fact that an arrest happened or didn't happen that matters most. The big question is what the officer does after the fact. They can either run and bury their head in the sand, or the can use the experience as President Obama might say as a "teachable moment."
Hats off to Chief David Baker for agreeing to go on the radio to talk about his experience.
Police Chief David Baker to appear on Ridin' Dirty DUI radio show : DUIAttorney.com: "Baker was arrested for driving under the influence after a car crash in Arlington County. He had a blood alcohol level of .19 which is more than twice the legal limit. ‘I offer no excuses for my bad decisions and behaviors because there are none, and I am , and will be, forever haunted by the personal embarrassment and humiliation I caused to those who have supported me…’ said Baker."
Outsourcing police report dictation
One California city is now sending audio files of dictated police reports to a transcription service in Tennessee. They think this will be a good way to save money. Here's the basic description of what they are doing:
Vallejo Police Outsource Report Writing | NBC Bay Area: “The police department in cash-strapped Vallejo, Calif., may have found a way to save a little money.The Police Department is now using a transcription service based in Tennessee -- Nashville-McLintock Transcription and Consulting Services -- to write up its police reports.
The reports are dictated into a digital audio file then sent via a secure connection to Nashville-McClintock, where retired law-enforcement officials write them up.
The practice is less expensive than hiring new personnel and could possibly elicit more details from officers who might otherwise keep it brief if they had to do the typing themselves.”
Any practicing criminal lawyer, whether prosecutor or defense attorney knows that this is a seriously bad idea. Police reports are used in litigation to refresh police officers' recollections of events that often happened several years back.
Outsourcing the transcription will present a type of chain of custody issue in court. The question will be, is the transcription actually a true representation of that the officer said, and then is what the officer said a true account of what actually happened?
Criminal defense lawyers will want to hear the original audio, and the state will have to produce it, adding an additional expense that wouldn't be there if the officers simply wrote the reports themselves.
It is really scary to watch government agencies fall all over themselves and think that they are responsible for enforcing the laws in this country.
MADD shows true stripes
Marty Capetz had some very interesting thoughts about MADD's venture into the for-profit near-beer industry.
OPINION: MADD.org Betrays Supporters and Morphs into MADD, Inc. : DUIAttorney.com: “So here I sit, Saturday morning. Coffee freshly brewed, newspaper up on my screen, and I wonder as I peruse the latest news articles: What BIG news is afoot from the corporate world? What BIG announcements might a public service organization make today, on a Saturday morning?
If there was ever any doubt about the motives of corporate MADD, let there be no more confusion. MADD wants a piece of the industry beyond what they already have. They already have a monopoly on sentencing proceeds from Victim Impact panels. Now they want a piece of the dorky fake alcoholic beverage industry too.
First of all, this will only appeal to non-drinkers. Imagine a conditioned alcoholic liking MADD's stuff. Nonsense. So the church lady is gonna drink MADD's brew. It will do nothing to slow or stop DUI arrests and DUI deaths. Nothing!
Many DUI convictions in many states
Interesting question about whether there should be a single national standard for DUI laws across all states so that it is easy to determine whether prior drunk driving convictions are valid in one state when the prior is from another.
DUI News, Updates & Opinions : DUIAttorney.com: "Others question the validity of reciprocity because a person is convicted under a state's specific laws, not federal laws. This means the same person could be found not guilty in one state and guilty in another. Many question whether national standards must be set if a person is to be held accountable for the same offense in two different states."
For practical reasons, it is sometimes very difficult for a prosecutor to prove the validity of an out of state prior conviction, especially from a state that keeps records in a different way.
The most common DUI defense lawyer question
Nationally renowned DUI defense attorney Lawrence Taylor hit the nail on the head in a recent post on his DUI blog. The quote below as as eloquent as it gets:
DUI BLOG : Bad Drunk Driving Laws, False Evidence and a Fading Constitution: “But it always surprises me how many people are outraged that I would defend someone accused by the police of a crime – particularly when it’s DUI. Arrest is increasingly seen as guilt, and there is a public perception of criminal defense attorneys as being obstructionist in this rush to judgment, of being nefarious and somehow unethical. Certainly, every defense attorney tires of the ubiquitous cocktail party question: “How can you defend guilty people?” ”
What criminal defense lawyer has not had that question? I get it literally every time I go to a party and meet new people. Sometimes it gets tedious explaining it over and over again, and now I will just refer people to Larry's article. Thanks Larry!
Introducing Bethany Henderson
DUIAttorney.com LLC is pleased to announce that Bethany Henderson will be joining us to contribute news articles and updates at DUI News.
Bethany C. Henderson is a writer out of Los Angeles with a background in criminal defense writing. She received her degree in history and communications from Washington University in St. Louis and is involved in researching and reporting on DUI news throughout the country.
Welcome aboard Bethany!
Georgia DUI Lawyers Bill and Valerie Sherman
DUIAttorney.com LLC is pleased to announce that The Sherman Law Group, founded by Atlanta area DUI lawyers Bill and Valerie Sherman have joined as the sponsors for several Atlanta area counties. Learn more about the Shermans and Georgia DUI law.
