The psychology of being a DUI defendant
Washington State DUI Lawyer Aaron Wolff had an excellent post yesterday on the emotional impact of DUI.
Here is a quote from his post:
What I tell everyone I meet with is that they will make it through this incident. It is an aberration in an otherwise fulfilling and law-abiding life. I have represented everyone from friends to family members, "soccer moms" to professionals and executives, and everyone of them, irregardless of the ultimate outcome of their case, made it through their arrest for DUI. I am attorney to fight and protect my client to the best of my ability in the legal arena. I am also a "counselor" to be their to listen to their concerns and give them insight (and if necessary, referrals to mental health professionals) to assure that they will be able to emotionally sustain themselves throughout the process.
What Mr. Wolff says is true, and sometimes DUI Lawyers lose sight of the fact that they are there to emotionally as well as legally support their clients during this most difficult time.
There are some DUI attorneys who view their function as perfectly technical. And this probably is the best way to get the best legal result, since the lawyer's time is not spent (could be translated as wasted) on coddling and comforting a client. But this is the wrong approach in most cases, because as DUI lawyers, we have to be holistic in our approach. It doesn't matter if we get the client's case reduced if we do emotional damage along the way. Like physicians, lawyers should consider first doing no harm.
DUI defendants are in a vulnerable position when they come to DUI defense lawyers, and the lawyers would be doing themselves, their clients and society a great service by being mindful of the fact that behind the title "defendant" there is a human being going through a very tough time.
We also need to realize that sometimes our clients have alcohol problems. Sometimes their alcohol problems are caused by underlying mental or emotional issues. Sometimes they are self-medicating with alcohol or drugs.
I'm just saying that, as DUI lawyers, we are in a superior position to help our clients not just turn their cases around, but acquire tools to make the rest of their lives better.
