Seattle DUI Attorney | You Can't Talk Your Way Out

Time and time I see this scenario play out in court. It is an arraignment calendar. People are there to show up and show the court they know they are in trouble, find out exactly what they are charged with (if they don't already know), plead not guilty, and find out if they are going to have to do anything special to remain out of jail while the case is pending.

A Seattle DUI case is called and a guy gets up who does not yet have a Seattle DUI attorney and walks up to the front of the court. Once the guy gets up to the front, the judge asks the guy a couple of questions, "Is your name really Guy?" "Yes." "Do you know what you are charged with?" "Yes." "How do you plead?" "Judge, I don't think I should have been charged with a DUI. I only had four beers..." And that is when the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan.

If you are charged with DUI in Seattle, or charged with any other crime, for that matter, you should understand one important concept about your arraignment - the judge doesn't care why you are there, the matter is purely procedural, and you should say as little as possible, get your next court date, and get out.

If you start telling the judge or the prosecutor about your case, including why you did what you did, not only will they not care, but it could significantly damage your case down the road. If you didn't understand the concept, when you are talking in court, your statements are being recorded. They will use those statements against you later on if they can. And they don't care what you have to say.

So, if you are charged with DUI and you don't have a Seattle DUI attorney yet, here is a word of advice - don't talk at your arraignment except to answer the judge's questions (and don't worry, he or she will not ask you about what happened). Hire a DUI lawyer as quickly as possible and just try to get out of there without doing more harm than good (by the way, this advice works if you need South Carolina DUI Attorneys too).

Contrary to popular belief, you cannot talk your way out of anything. What you can do is make things worse. So, moving forward, be quiet, keep your head low, and let your attorney do the work for you.

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The question often arises with groups of people discussing Seattle DUI attorney as to what constitutes "weaving" such that a Seattle cop could pull you over. To see if you know the law, let me give you an example and you can tell me if you think the police officer was justified in pulling over the driver and then investigating them for Seattle DUI.

You have had a long day of work and stop by a happy hour with a couple of friends. You have a couple of drinks and decide to head home. On your way home you are driving along, maybe up I-405, and you are staying in one lane. As you are driving, you begin to notice that you are weaving a bit within your lane, even going outside of your lane once.

And then you see the flashing lights behind you and a rush of fear goes through your body (you can see the DUI attorney in Seattle bills just piling up). The police officer pulls you over and says he saw you swerving in your lane, even crossing the line once. He asks if you've had anything to drink, and because you listened to your buddy who is a DUI attorney, you know not to answer his questions. You also know not to do any field sobriety tests or a portable breath test. Based on your driving and alcohol on your breath the officer arrests you for Seattle DUI. Is the arrest valid?

If you said no, you are correct. The Washington Supreme Court has determined that:

Washington State's requirement that automobile drivers remain within a single lane of travel "as nearly as practicable" does not impose strict liability.1 A vehicle crossing over a lane once for one second by two tire widths does not, without more, constitute a traffic violation justifying a stop by a police officer.

What this meant in the case the quote is taken from is that not only is the traffic stop illegal, but everything that happened as a result of the traffic stop (i.e. the DUI). In the end, the DUI was dismissed.

Stay tuned to the Seattle DUI Attorney Blog for more helpful information.

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Watch Out for the Seattle Police this Weekend

If you have been around for any length of time anywhere, you know that during high volume weekends, particularly those associated with drinking and partying, the cops are going to be out in full force to catch as many drunk drivers as possible. But no matter how much everyone knows that, as Seattle DUI attorneys, the most busy time of the year for us is the Monday after Memorial Day, the Monday after Labor Day, and the Monday after the Fourth of July. No matter how aware people are of the increased police presence, people still gamble with their driving privileges by drinking and driving.

And they even let you know they are stepping up efforts (and we at the Seattle DUI Attorney Blog let you know too). For example, I saw in the newspaper on Thursday an article that said the police would be increasing efforts to keep drunk drivers and speeders off the roadways this weekend.

If you didn't know, a DUI can follow you around for a long time. It is expensive to defend, the rules are stacked against you (to the point of being unfair) and they are just embarrassing to get. So why take the chance, particularly on these very busy weekends? Personally I don't mind you taking the chance, because you pay my salary and office expenses. But from a practical standpoint it is a bad idea, and something you can plan around.

If you are ever pulled over and investigated for DUI, don't try to be the tough guy and talk your way out of it. Give the officer your driving information and shut up. Be nice, but don't talk any more than you have to. And at the first opportunity, let the police officer know you'd like to speak with a DUI attorney in Seattle. And don't stop asking until you get in touch with one.

I hope everyone's Fourth of July weekend was enjoyable and filled with fun times with friends and family. And I hope none of you reading this have to pick up the phone tomorrow and use me for my services. If you do I'll help you fight your DUI and do my best to get you the results you deserve.

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It's kind of a strange phenomenon, but as a Seattle DUI attorney I see it a lot. There are many people out there driving after drinking (whether too drunk to drive or not is a subjective question that hopefully you have a good enough DUI attorney to refute it!) who never ever get stopped by the police. And then there are those that need to have the best criminal lawyer in town on speed dial because they have an uncanny way of always finding the cops and getting into trouble for DUI (if you are stopped more than once, that is a very statistically improbable thing).

But sometimes people just bring trouble on themselves. For example, there is this guy, reported on in the Kirkland Reporter (you can read their story here).

Allegedly, he'd had too much to drink and was driving home and on his way home decided to speed and swerve (these are from the facts of the story, but from what happened next I'd have to tend to believe them). Once the Kirkland police officer tried to pull him over this guy didn't do the smart thing and pull over and try to get his traffic ticket and move along. No, he tried to outrun the cops.

Now here is a word to the wise from seasoned Seattle DUI attorneys, nobody really ever outruns the cops anymore. Once you take off they get a helicopter on you and it's pretty much impossible to get away.

This guy decided it was going to be cool to take off and reach speeds of 125 mph. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't often get to practice driving that fast. And apparently this guy doesn't either. After some time he rolled the vehicle, where, you guessed it, the police nabbed him. I don't think he made it to Bellevue but he definitely broke his car.

So, lesson for the day, if you are going to drink and drive (and not be drunk and drive - we can't condone that here) try your best to follow the traffic laws. Sometimes you are just unlucky if a taillight or something goes out, but if you are speeding and driving around like a crazy person, you are just asking to get pulled over (and that's about the only way it can happen, since Washington State doesn't allow DUI checkpoints). So drive safe, put your seat belt on, and wait until you get home and play video games to try to outrun the police.

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Seattle DUI Attorney | Seat Belt Patrols Pretext for DUI Stop

I think everyone out there agrees that seat belts save lives. And I would even agree that seat belt education is important, and people should wear them. But is it really necessary to have saturation patrols to catch and ticket people that aren't wearing their seat belts? Aren't there better things our patrol officers could be doing, like at least catching people who are putting other people at risk? And if there isn't, should we be doing this anyway?

In the news today is a story about a statewide seat belt saturation patrol. And on top of it, it is a night saturation patrol. I am not making this up, but on May 21 and several date thereafter, there will actually be "sting" operations set up where an officer will be on the lookout for individuals that are not wearing their seat belts, who will then radio ahead to another officer who will pull over and ticket the individuals (at $112 a pop). The patrols will be occurring in King County, Auburn, Black Diamond, Kent, Kirkland, Maple Valley, Redmond, and Shoreline.

Like I said, I am all for wearing seat belts, but this crackdown on seat belt use sounds like one of two things: (1) a backdoor way for cities and counties to fill their coffers with traffic fines; and (2) a backdoor way to find and cite individuals with Seattle DUI. If either is the case, I wish they'd just come out and say it instead of cloaking it as some safety initiative. And that they are doing it at night because more accidents happen at night is ridiculous. How are these officers going to be able to see is someone in wearing their seat belt? Are they going to shine a spotlight on each passing car as it approaches?

As a Seattle DUI attorney I see instances all the time where people are stopped for minor traffic violations so they can in actuality be investigated for DUI. It is sneaky and it is underhanded, and pretextual stops are technically not allowed. But if I get to use all of the rules to my advantage, so do they.

I guess, then, on that note, the message is clear. Make sure you wear your seat belt. Don't give the spotters a reason to pull you over. And besides, wearing your seat belt is good for you.

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