DUI / Driving Under the Influence defense in Lakewood, Colorado

Alexis explains: "A DUI in Colorado is more than a court case. In many situations, it's a direct threat to your professional career. If you're a nurse, a teacher, a realtor, or any other of the dozens of regulated Colorado professionals, a DUI case may cost you your professional license."

Alexis explains: "A good question that's come up with a lot of my clients is what happens if you're not quite at that 0.08, but you have some alcohol in your system. With the DMV, the way that they are set up, if you are below 0.08 they're not gonna revoke your license. Now, that doesn't mean that you're not gonna have issues with the criminal justice system. That's a completely separate entity, but for the purposes of the Department of Motor Vehicles, initially, if you're below that 0.08, they're not gonna revoke your license."

Alexis explains: "A lot of people ask, does the court system have the ability to influence the Department of Motor Vehicles' findings. Generally speaking, the DMV and the criminal justice system are completely separate. So things that happen at the DMV don't really affect what's happening in the court system. However, sometimes at DMV hearings we can get the officers to say things that are helpful to your case, and so attorneys will pull the information in the transcripts from that hearing and use it to benefit you in the criminal justice system."

Alexis explains: "a lot of the times, clients that come and are dealing with DUI's, they've lost their license well before they've even been to court for the DUI. So, it's completely separate, and it's a pain in the butt to try to understand."

Alexis explains: "a privilege to drive in a state is not the same thing as being licensed to drive in that state"

Alexis explains: "A question that's designed to elicit an incriminating response, for example, is how much alcohol did you have to drink? And you're sitting there in handcuffs? Now, the reason I said you're sitting there in handcuffs is that question, how much alcohol did you have to drink can be designed to elicit an incriminating response or cannot be. And what we see happening is it depends on whether or not you are in custody, and being questioned in a way that you could be made to incriminate yourself. So those are the two factors when we're looking at whether or not Miranda rights have to be read."

Alexis explains: "a summons is just a fancy word for a ticket so on your summons you'll have your name your information the alleged defense that they're saying the crime that you committed and then you'll have a date and a time to report you'll be asked to report either for a DUI case you'll be asked to report to County court on a certain date and then you'll be given that that summons which serves as a way to bring you into court"

Alexis explains: "After that halftime motion is made, then the defense has the opportunity to present any evidence. Now during this time in a DUI, like I said, a lot of the times you're not gonna have very much information to present in your defense, and you're not required to. You're considered innocent until proven guilty otherwise. So, the defense then presents their evidence if they have any and they rest. At that time the judge is going to go over jury instructions with the jury and this is an incredibly boring process just so you're aware. The judge is going to read from a book verbatim read the jury instructions to the jury. The jury's required to follow those instructions only."

Jimmy explains: "After you're arrested at the scene, officers will transport you to either a police station or a county jail. Where you go depends on where you arrested. In El Paso County, most DUI arrests end up at the Criminal Justice Center in Colorado Springs. In Douglas County, you're usually taken to the Douglas County Detention Facility in Castle Rock. In Denver, most people go to the downtown detention center. And in Arapo County, that's typically the detention facility in Centennial."

Jimmy explains: "After your arrest, officers transported you to a station or jail. And during that ride, they may have tried to talk to you casually. This is where people get into trouble. Anything you say, even small talk, can be written into a report and used against you."

Alexis explains: "an arrest actually just means that you are restricted by law enforcement from movement you're not free to leave at some point in time it doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to be taken to jail"

Alexis explains: "And that can be good or it can be bad. It depends on the specific facts of your case. But there are times that the the blood has been lost in certain cases or it's damaged because of this high volume of work. So CBI could drop a file and then all of the evidence has gone against you. Sometimes they can be mislabeled, sometimes it can get damaged in transport when they're sent in the mail to CBI. But generally speaking blood results do take quite a while and you'll probably have your first or even second court date at court before we even have blood results because of that backlog that we have currently in the state of Colorado."

Alexis explains: "And the idea is the higher the bail amount, the less likely you are to skip town. That's why you see much higher amounts set for more serious cases like murder, whereas with a DUI case, you may only see, you know, a thousand to $2,000."

Alexis explains: "And the reason for that is a point one five is what the DMV labels as a persistent drunk driver. So they say that if you're above a point one five, you don't get any special allowances, but below a point one, five. So basically, you're looking at anywhere between a point oh a to a point 149."

Jimmy explains: "And then there's paperwork. This is one of the most important parts of the booking process. You'll receive multiple documents, a summon to court, bond paperwork, and one document that's absolutely critical, the express consent affidavit, or sometimes called the notice of revocation. This entire booking process can take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours, sometimes longer. It really depends on how busy the facility is, whether it's a weekend or holiday, and how cooperative the process as a whole has been."

Alexis explains: "And then you're gonna have these court dates. So you'll have a couple of different pre-trial conferences that you'll have to go to with your attorney. A few of them we can go for you and you don't have to worry about it, but for the majority of the time, you're gonna have to take time off work to come to court, sit there, be prepared to be there for an hour or two, and then go on."

Alexis explains: "And then you've got this thing in your car where you have to blow into it, it's random, but it's usually every five to 20 minutes to keep your car running. So it does cause kind of a hassle in your life."

Gannon explains: "and you have to take it on on a case-by case basis, but it's it's really fact dependent on when somebody is actually in control of the vehicle for purposes of the DUI statute. And there's all sorts of situations in which that can come up. And maybe intuitively, you know that you're you're not driving or it doesn't make sense that you should be considered to be driving. Um but it is a different question uh under the law as to whether you have actual physical control of the of the vehicle uh for the DUI statute."

Alexis explains: "another thing is when you're dealing with this DUI process there are some proactive things that you can do to start preparing for your case before it even goes to court to start putting yourself in the best possible position to work with your attorney and to show the judge that you are very serious about this case and having an attorney on your side from the very beginning is going to help you navigate those things that you can do proactively and also help you avoid potential pitfalls that may come if you're trying to wait for blood results and figure out what's going on"

Jimmy explains: "Anything you say during transport can be written into a police report and later used against you in court. Even statements that feel harmless, even jokes, even frustration."

Jimmy explains: "At Riot Law Group, we get to work for you as soon as you hire. We request those DMV hearings. We investigate stops. We review body warrant footage. We challenge testing procedures. And we fight to protect your license, your record, and your future."

Alexis explains: "At Wright Law Group, we know that the consequences of a DUI may affect more than your criminal record. So, we know how important it is to have a quality DUI defense team."

Alexis explains: "at wright law group what we did with our prices is we looked over the course of a number of years of our firm being open we looked at all of the cases that we've worked on of a specific type so with that we said okay we have all of these people who have first time duis how much work went into this how much time on average did the attorney spend in court how much time on average did the paralegal spend drafting motions getting pleadings filed getting the discoveries collected getting it sorted how much time went into this dui case"

Alexis explains: "Because if you miss any UA, that can be considered a violation of your bond and the judge can put you back into jail."