Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Choosing the Right Long Island DWI / DUI Attorney



If you are looking for help in a criminal matter it is best to weigh your alternatives and find the right Long Island Criminal Attorney. Visit http://www.licriminallawyer.com and check out the best of the best in Long Island Criminal Lawyers.


If you have been arraigned with a Dwi/DUI offense, then you need to read this short article before you go to court. If you're thinking of representing yourself, stop and think again. DWI/DUI defense is not a'do it yourself' project. Instead, you must get a lawyer that makes a speciality of Drunk driving defense.

Sure, a Drunk driving attorney is more expensive, but you are also getting more proficiency and competency in this area ; and, he's going to be prepared to be paid for his efforts. So, take a moment and read this short guide to choosing a Dwi attorney. You might just save a heap of your time and dollars.

Drunk driving Is a very hefty Criminal Offense in New York and Long Island.

DUI is a heavy offense even though it is a misdemeanor. Every time an innocent individual is killed by a drunk driver the media sensationalizes the event. As a consequence, juries are becoming less tolerant or boozed up drivers and are much more likely to give the offender a heavier sentence. I don't know whether or not you are guilty of the offense as charged.

Assuming you are then we manifestly know that you already made one significant mistake in judgment. Don't make another mistake by endeavoring to represent yourself. Going to court on your own is a bad move that may only cost large amounts of your time and bucks. It may cost you your job, liberty, family or friends. Under the best result, the fines, charges and costs assessed by the court can destroy you financially. Don't be the misguided person that represents himself. Get a DUI attorney you'll have trust in.

Drunk driving attorneys Are Criminal specialists on Long Island and New York

All Drunk driving attorneys practice criminal law, but not all criminal attorneys can try a Dwi case. DWI lawyers engage in a dedicated practice. You are not in a position to trust your defense to just any criminal attorney. Instead, look for an attorney that has a Dwi specialization or ratification, if your state bar has such as designation.

If not, try to determine if your potential lawyer is aware of those issues that are unusual to DUI defense. A number of these issues include the use of an intoxilyzer, diabetes and hypoglycemia, horizontal gawk and nystagmus, and other such tests. You will pay more for a Drunk driving lawyer with this sort of specialized knowledge, but are you actually in a position to mount a defense'on the cheap?'

Paying Your Dwi lawyer on Long Island and The Big Apple

An attorney that specializes in Dwi defense is going to charge a more expensive fee than a family doctor or criminal solicitor. They have specialized information you absolutely need and they know that their services command a higher rate of compensation. Never hesitate to discuss the matter of solicitor's charges early in the conversation with your attorney. You will probably be quoted one of 2 types of fee arrangements. Either the solicitor will agree to take the argument for a single fee or an hourly rate.

In either case, you'll be needed to post a retainer ( or deposit ) for your Long Island Criminal Lawyer's services. The total amount of the fee is due before trial and you'll owe it irrespective of the outcome.

Drunken Drivers have no business representing themselves anywhere in Long Island and NY

Drunk Driving litigation is complex. You most likely understand that when it comes to a Drunk Driving, your defense is not'do it yourself' project. Instead, you want to find a qualified Drunk driving lawyer that's intending to make the state prove their case. He'll have the knowledge and knowledge to challenge the evidence and raise all likely and legit defenses.

Yes, he is going to charge more. But , when you are arrested for a serious criminal offense, you can not afford to be cheap.

Long Island Criminal Defense Lawyers - Protecting Your Freedom



Please visit us at http://www.li-lawyers.com for assistance.

Envision yourself as a young adult, pulled from friends and family and called upon to defend your country in a foreign land. One day, while on guard duty with your platoon, you're suddenly surrounded by several hostile, threatening people--a jeering, taunting mob, probably armed, and stirred to anger by faceless voices in the darkness calling on them to fire. A shot rings out--your platoon returns fire--and the next day, you're hauled into court and faced with murder. Your case is set for trial, and the only jury around is made up of the identical mob that was threatening you the night before.

The Critical Role of Defense Counsel

Defense lawyers are called upon by our system of justice for a variation of tasks. They explain to their clients what exactly is happening, and make sure that each defendant knows his rights, and is fully receptive to what's happening. As defense counsel, the lawyer is faced with protecting those rights, and ensuring that the client receives the protections afforded to every citizen by our laws. The lawyer will take over managing the prosecution, call and examine any witnesses in court, and do everything the law allows to keep his client from harm--or, at the least, to minimize the damage. It really means challenging the prosecution's case, its conduct, and on occasion, the very laws that govern the case.

We sometimes take these liberties for granted, or scoff at them as mere "technicalities" that do little but allow criminals to escape justice. It is easy, and often tempting, to dismiss defense lawyers (and, for that matter, all lawyers) as professional hacks, whose only function is to befuddle juries and confound courts. And sometimes, when defending people who are clearly guilty, it may seem that defense lawyers are a needless extravagance, who only get in the way of protecting people from the worst elements of society. But just as crimes come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, criminals will often be indistinguishable from the ordinary citizen, a fact that some of us only come to realize when we find ourselves seated at the defendant's table, with fingers pointing at us. It is then that we realize just how critical a vigorous and independent defense bar is to a free society--allowing ordinary citizens to challenge the actions of their own government. Viewed in this light, the bedrock of American liberty is our right to use the rules we have all agreed to live by to defend ourselves in a public setting, where the actions of the same government that seeks to condemn us must prove that we have broken the law.

Defense lawyers don't exist just to make everyone else's life difficult. And their job is a critical, if often misunderstood safeguard against tyranny. Just picture what would happen if the government could decide whom to jail--without the messiness of subjecting their actions to the test of law. The freedom of all of us would be in the hands of government bureaucrats--people, like all others, who may have their likes, dislikes, biases, and petty grievances.

A Safeguard of Liberty

In large measure, the law exists to protect us from bullies. But lacking the means of challenging the actions of our own government, there would be little protection for the common citizen against a bully who happened to wear a policeman's badge, or a prosecutor's suit, or who happened to take pleasure from the friendship of someone to whom justice means doing right by his friends. And if you should ever find yourself on the wrong end of action taken by the government, you will find that the ability to resort to the law to defend yourself shall be critical. Among the first casualties of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia was the independence of the courts and the legal profession. Once those bulwarks against tyranny fell, there was nothing to protect common people resistant to the unbridled assertion of governmental power--no matter how misguided, petty, or malevolent it may possibly end up being. But it is the rare government that will attack its own citizens directly: instead, the attacks come against marginal groups, ones that nobody would rise to defend, and who seem to everyone to be a threat to the security of the state. Unfortunately, those threats never appeared to end; and so the knocks on doors of enemies of the state continued, as the government kept finding new enemies to fight, and new threats to fear.

The example cited in the beginning is from one of the most famous confrontations in American History--told from the side of the defendant, rather than the victim. It was the Boston Massacre, which arose at a time of growing tensions between the Colonies and Great Britain. The encounter amongst soldiers and the angry mob led to shots--nobody knows for sure who fired the first one, although some testimony indicated that it was a terrified British soldier--and in a country devoid of a strong defense bar, the young soldiers would likely have been swiftly taken out and hung, if not by the Law, then by the mob itself.

Thanks to a daring Boston attorney, the defendants received a fair trial and a lot were acquitted on grounds of self-defense, the sentiments of the mob notwithstanding. A couple were convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter and released--the proper verdict when emotions and provocations don't quite excuse a homicide, but make it less an outrage and more a fallible human reaction to extreme stress.

The defense lawyer was a pronounced member of the state bar, who later served his country in a range of ways--statesman, ambassador, signer of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the second president of the new United States.

That patriotic man was John Adams...patriot and rebel, for the defense.

Long Island Criminal Law - Things to be Aware Of

Please visit us at http://www.licriminallawyer.com

I am often asked by my clients exactly what a criminal conviction for a DWI or other misdemeanor will mean for their long term job prospects in New York State. I am proudly a native New Yorker, Queens born, Long Island raised,and a graduate of the Institution of Hard Knocks. Even though, I now take pleasure in the practice of criminal defense law in beautiful and picturesque Long Island, NY.

The greater I learn of all the legal whimsy inherent within the New York laws I both chuckle as well as cry. My comments center on just how prior felony convictions can impact the application for a professional license in New York State.

The Barber's license, Boxer's license, and also Check Cashier license are discretionary within New York. For the Boxer or Wrestler or Check Cashier making application for a New york license, that means they might be declined a license (or permission) to box or wrestle or cash checks professionally in the event the applicant has been convicted of a criminal offense or is consorting with anyone convicted of a crime. Consorting is defined as to keep company or even associate with. New York State can be conscious of those you decide to hang out with. Friends and family might cost you a license, as well as the disapproval and ridicule of your respective associates!

For all those holding a Barber's license, any crime or offense involving moral turpitude as well as for habitual substance abuse may result in a suspension or revocation of the license. I presume this happens because of the risk of a lousy haircut.

Bingo Operators are barred from receiving a New York State license for the conviction for virtually any crime under Executive Law section 435 (2)(c)(l).

Licensed Electricians might have their capability to make a living suspended or revoked if convicted of a criminal offense under NYC Admin Code section 27-3016 (1)(vii), but Licensed Plumbers face absolutely no like restriction. Sanitation Workers could be disciplined or even dismissed for conviction of any kind of legal offense, conduct injurious to public peace or welfare, or immoral practice under NYC Admin Code section 16-106. In NYS any unlawful possession of cannabis (UPM) is considered a violation (and not a crime), therefore theoretically speaking you could potentially lose your job as a garbage man for having a joint even though it is not a crime to possess it. Seemingly, the State wishes to ensure that a garbage man is a straight arrow!

Which gets me to some good news, to the many professional jobs where a criminal misdemeanor conviction pose NO automatic restrictions to obtaining a NYS license:

You could rest easy knowing you could be an Accountant (CPA), Acupuncturist, Architect, Legal professional, Baby Chick Seller, Chiropractor, Controlled Substance Manufacturer, Dental Hygienist, Dentist, Industrial engineer, Insurance agent, Midwife, Registered nurse, Nutritional expert, Occupational Therapist, Optometrist, Pharmacist, Physical Therapist, Doctor, Physician's Assistant, Podiatrist, Psychologist, Securities Broker, Social Worker, Speech Pathologist, Teacher, or Vet with a criminal conviction on your record. However, the nature of the conviction can, and will, have an effect. Also, a conviction for just about any felony could have extremely dire implications.

The goal of each representation I take on is to reduce the impact that being charged with a crime may have on the individual both now as well as in the future. You have my word on it.