After being pulled over and arrested for DUI you’re confused, worried, and shamed. You’re not sure what the process is and moreso what will happen to you as a result.

Here’s the top 5 issues you must deal with as soon as possible:

1. If you’re sober, get your car back (if it was impounded). The tow lot will charge you a holding fee (sometimes by the hour) the longer you wait to get your vehicle back. In order to get it back you’ll need the paperwork the arresting officer gave you which includes a pink piece of paper which serves as your interim drivers license.

There should also be a tow location on there where your vehicle is being held… if not call the police station and ask them where it is.

2. Review all the paperwork you were given by the arresting officer and the police station upon release. You should have:

**A pink piece of a paper that authorizes you to drive (since your license was most likely confiscated).

**A citation stating the offenses you are being charged with. The charges depend on the state you’re located in and the specifics of your case… but in standard drunk driving cases you’ll likely see 2 charges for 1 offense. The charges are (1) operating a vehicle under the influence and (2) driving with an unlawful BAC (blood alcohol concentration); .08% or higher.

3. Schedule your DMV hearing. On your citation there should be a telephone number to call in order to schedule a hearing to contest the suspension of your drivers license. Depending on the state you only have anywhere from 7 – 10 days to do this! So don’t wait, call and schedule the hearing. You should do this right away, even before you hire a DUI lawyer.

4. Recall the events of your DUI arrest. While it’s still fresh in your mind you should sit down and review the details of your arrest. Make notes of what happened but do not share these notes with anyone especially law enforcement!After you have retained counsel you can share them with him/her as they will be bound by attorney-client relationship and must keep any details confidential.

5. Start interviewing DUI Lawyers. Start looking for specialized criminal defense lawyers who ONLY practice DUI law. The best thing to do is call around to all the ones you can find in your geographic area using a variety of sources…

** Contact Our Member DUI Lawyers .

** Check the phone book, also ask family/friends for referrals.

Then start scheduling free consultations with them immediately to discuss your case and their ability to handle it effectively.

These are the immediate steps you MUST take if you’ve just been arrested for a DUI. I understand that it is a confusing and worrisome time for you and you probably just want to hide out for a few days, but don’t!

Get these things done as soon as possible as they’ll make a big difference for you in the outcome of your case.

No, the title wasn’t just to get your attention… it’s true!  From the world of the bizzarre, a federal bankruptcy judge,  Robert Somma, appointed by President Bush was arrested last week for DUI wearing a black cocktail dress, fishnet stockings, women’s high heels and carrying a purse!

Judge Somma was arrested after slamming his Mercedes-Benz into the back of a stopped car in New Hampshire.  The judge reportedly told the arresting officer that he had only had 1 drink that evening and was coming from a known homosexual bar out of his home state so he wouldn’t be recognized.

Want to see a picture?  Here’s the judge’s mug shot with eye shadow…  Judges DUI mugshot.

He has since resigned and plead ‘no contest’ to the charge and has been unavailable for comment.  

This is just too much…

DUI lawyers have been claiming that police departments use a quota system for a long time.  A DUI quota system is simply a pre-established amount of arrests that a police officer and subsequently the entire police department is supposed to make given a specified amount of time.

But is this true?  Do police departments use quota’s?  Or do they honestly arrest only those who they find committing a drunk driving violation…?

You be the judge.  Here’s a piece of evidence I came across while surfing the web.  It clearly is imposing a minimum number of DUI arrests allowed for the officers working an overtime shift paid for by the MADD organization.

What happens if no drunk drivers come through their ‘detail’?  Someone’s still getting arrested.

After 8 years a Pennsylvania man received a note in the mail about his DUI from the Cumberland County prosecutors office saying they wanted to send him to jail for his DUI - even though it was 8 years ago!  He was given a new date and ordered back into court. Pennsylvania DUI laws do allow this.

…Ouch…

The DUI Mix-Up

Apparantly, after he was convicted of DUI 8 years ago he was sentenced to prison for up to 23 months.  He appealed this sentence and the Pennsylvania Superior Court denied the appeal.  The mix up happened because the Superior Court took 1 year to deny the appeal and the prosecutor’s office was waiting to hear back from the courts about the appeal before they sent the paperwork on to the prison to admit the man.

In that time the paperwork somehow got lost and he was never processed into jail.  But suddenly this past summer the paperwork mysteriously ‘re-surfaced’ and now handled, even though it was 8 years ago and he has not been charged w/ any crimes since.

The devil is not in fact hiding in the details anymore… he’s now hiding in DUI crimes. 

DUI has been made easier and easier to commit by continuously lowering allowable BAC levels, increasing DUI checkpoints, and flat out ignoring Constitutional rights.  More and more people are getting roped into the DUI process by widening what we call “DUI” or any other drunk driving related offense like DWI, OUI, OWI, OVI and the like.

On top of the broadening of DUI laws legislators and lobbying organizations (uh, cough… MADD…) are churning out tons of propaganda and media hype to put the devil in DUI, or ruining the reputations of people that get busted with this moving target of a crime.

It’s easy to hate someone convicted of DUI because the propaganda tells you that these are BAD people, people that kill innocent children, people that put you at risk.. right?  It’s the devil hiding right smack in the middle of DUI.  But what isn’t being told is that the people stuck in the DUI system are you, me, your grocer, your pharmacist, your tax guy, your real estate agent, your boss, your school teacher, etc… 

My neighbor got a DUI because his kids asked him to move his car because they wanted to play basketball (his car was in the driveway below the basketball hoop).  He had a couple beers with his wife on their back deck while grilling hot dogs and hamburgers and moved his car from the driveway to the street.  (Note:  At the rate DUI laws are expanding I wouldn’t be suprised to see patrols specifically designed to look for people simply moving cars out of their driveway for DUI). 

Just remember that the “devil” resides in all of us because as DUI laws continue to expand everyone has the potential to end up in a DUI trap. 

Can you beat a DUI? 

Often times it seems unrealistic to think that you can beat a DUI case due to all of the initial commotion and turmoil that you go through when first arrested on suspicion of drunk driving charges.  You’re subjected to jail time, impending court dates, license suspensions, vehicle impounding, MADD impact panels, and on and on and on… 

It makes you think that maybe the system has this so streamlined that there really is no way to beat a DUI arrest.  But that just isn’t the case.  There are many avenues to explore regarding a DUI arrest.  Now, if you’re guilty you’re guilty… you can choose to accept your punishment or you can look to see whether or not the officer followed the proper procedures in regards to your rights.

Even if you were technically driving over the legal limit, your DUI can be thrown out if the police officer didn’t follow proper procedure and allow you your constitutional rights.  Yes, even if you were guilty if proper procedure was not followed you can beat your DUI case.  So how do you know what proper procedure is… and how do you know if you have a case?  Let’s discuss that right now.

Keep in mind though, that you’ll want to discuss your case with an aggressive DUI lawyer to help you figure out whether or not you actually have a case.  You can talk to a DUI lawyer for a free consultation and explain everything that happened and have them look over the police report and/or ‘discovery’ packet to see where you might be able to defend yourself.

But overall things to consider are:

1.  Was there are a legitimate reason for the stop?

2.  Were the field sobriety tests conducted properly?

3.  Are all the officers training records up to date?  Was the officer qualified to administer the tests that were administered?

4.  Are the calibration records up to date on all equipment used to charge me with DUI?

If you think that some of the above questions deserve looking into and may be an avenue for you to explore as you try to beat your DUI arrest then again, please contact a DUI lawyer for a free consultation.

The California DMV has some good general information for people just pulled over and arrested for DUI.  The info is specific for the state of CA but still a good general guideline for people in other states as well.  If you’re not in CA just visit your states dmv page and search on DUI on their site search function.

DUI Arrest Help.com is happy to announce the completion of our SR-22 Insurance directories.  By visiting our SR-22 section on the website you can quickly locate the absolute lowest cost full coverage SR-22 insurance policy for your specific state.

We have partnered with InsureNet.net for our SR-22 insurance quotes.  Insurenet has agreed to give DUI Arrest Help.com website visitors a discount on their insurance quotes by clicking on the links provided in our SR-22 insurance directory. 

Website visitors can simply visit http://www.duiarresthelp.com/sr-22.php  then click on their respective state to get the absolute lowest SR-22 insurance quote available on the internet today.  This marks a major milestone in the DUIArrestHelp.com website as we are now the lowest insurance source for DUI insurance (SR-22) available online.

This deal cannot be found anywhere else, not even by directly going to insurenet’s website directly.  Only here at DUIArrestHelp.com !!

A very sad bit of DUI news here… seems as if a young Florida girl was arrested and charged with DUI after leading police on a high speed chase in a Chevy Monte Carlo around 10:30pm.  The little girl told police that she was on her way to pick her sister up from a concert in in Orange Beach, Florida. 

What i’d like to know is where the heck were/are the parents or guardians here?!  It’s a shame that this little girl is now going to enter the juvenille court system and have her young life begin like this because of her parents negligence.  How did she get the alcohol?  How did she get the keys?  How, how, how, how…

Obviously with a young person of this age the police aren’t going to release details (rightfully so) but it’s so disappointing to read about things like this.

DUI Arrest Help.com is pleased to announce the availability of our DUI laws section of the website.  The DUI laws section can be found on our homepage or by visiting the DUI laws page directly.  It lists state specific DUI statutes, punishments, drivers license suspensions/penalties, SR-22 insurance details and overall state specific DUI news updated daily.

This marks a major milestone in the DUI Arrest Help site as it strives to provide the most comprehensive and complete DUI information tailored towards helping DUI offenders.  This coupled with the forum on the site gives DUI offenders a place to research their situations to learn more about the process and to contact a DUI lawyer if they feel it’s necessary.

Las Vegas DUI Attorney 

In the city of Las Vegas, Nevada as in other major cities across the United States the allowable blood alcohol concentraction (BAC) for DUI is below .08%.  Meaning, if your BAC is .08% or greater you will be charged with suspicion of driving under the influence or DUI.  If you are facing this situation I would strongly suggest you retain a qualified Las Vegas DUI attorney to represent you.  Do not attempt this alone.

In this instance your drivers license will be confiscated by the Las Vegas police officer who makes the arrest and you will be issued a paper drivers license normally valid for a period of 7 days.  Either you or your Las Vegas DUI attorney will need to schedule a hearing to contest the suspension of the hearing.

The paper drivers license is pink in color and has instructions on it for you to contest the suspension of your driving privileges with the Nevada DMV.  If you request the hearing before the deadline stated on the temporary pink drivers license the Nevada DMV will issue a temporary drivers license for you.

At the hearing if they determine that you did operate a motor vehicle with a BAC of .08% or greater they will suspend your drivers license for a period of 90 days for a 1st offense.  A Las Vegas DUI attorney should be able to get you a restricted drivers license after 45 days that will allow you to drive to, from and during the course of employment.  This should enable you to continue working.

In summary, when arrested for suspicion of DUI in Las Vegas you should at the very least meet with a DUI attorney to discuss your case and possible out comes.