Illinois DUI Lawyer Blawg

Ron Larson argues that DUI is nothing more than a scheme to extract money from the accused. He blames various actors involved in the DUI process for turning a DUI arrest into an expensive proposition. His solution is to remove all of them from the equation and automatically sentence someone charged with DUI to a year in prison.

Larson claims that DUI lawyers are an unnecessary expense. Let's examine his thesis more carefully.

DUI is a crime. Under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, anybody in this country who is charged with a crime is entitled to legal representation. This right is considered so important that the United State Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that the government is required to provide a free attorney to anyone who is accused of a crime and cannot afford an attorney.

Therefore, the author's solution- removing lawyers from the process- would require repeal of the Sixth Amendment. Were that to occur, no person charged with an offense- from speeding to murder- would have the right to a lawyer.

Under Larson's concept, you would not be given the chance to defend yourself and a mere accusation would stand as proof of your guilt. This would place our country's legal system on the same footing as those of North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela, where authorities imprison their political opponents on the basis of trumped-up charges that the accused has no right to contest through a lawyer.

Continue reading "Is DUI just a money racket?" »

To much fanfare, in 2009 Illinois instituted a DUI prevention program. Its publicly stated purpose was to prevent drunk driving.

Under the Monitoring Device Driving Permit (MDDP), if you are an Illinois driver arrested for DUI, your license will be suspended for 6 to 12 months if you have not been arrested for DUI in the previous 5 years. During all but the first 30 days of the suspension, you are entitled to an MDDP.

The MDDP allows you to drive for any purpose. However, at your expense, you must have a device installed in your vehicle's ignition and blow into a tube in order to start your vehicle.

The Illinois Secretary of State receives a fee for administering the program, as do the providers of the devices. Therefore, the providers and the Secretary of State had a financial interest in seeing that this program was put in place and continue to profit from keeping it going and maximizing its usage. Under current law, installation of the device is optional.

The assertion by advocates of the MDDP program that it has been successful, as evidenced by both its level of usage (6,500 devices installed in 2009) and reductions in fatal accidents, is questionable. They credit the program with reducing the number of fatalities, ignoring the impact of the recession and the corresponding reduction in miles driven. (These are the same folks who have brought us highly questionable claims of how often a person drives under the influence without being caught).

Continue reading "Recent DUI prevention measures shown to be of questionable effectiveness" »

The consequences in Wisconsin for DUI are quite less severe than those for a DUI arrest in Illinois. What do those penalties and other consequences include?

In Illinois, DUI is a Class-A misdemeanor for a first or second offense. The punishment is up to 364 days in county jail and/or a fine of up to $2,500.

The consequences of a first offense can be lessened if you are sentenced to court supervision. Court supervision is available only once in your lifetime and only if you have not previously been convicted of DUI.

In order to receive supervision, you must plead guilty to DUI but the judge does not enter a conviction on your record provided that you complete all of the supervision requirements, which includes staying out of legal trouble during the 1-2 years your supervision is in effect, paying all fines and other fees, completing the alcohol counseling, attending a victim impact panel or other requirements that your judge might choose to impose.

Continue reading "Criminal penalties and other consequences of an Illinois DUI" »

You may be facing your first DUI charge. It could have been one of those fluke situations--you had a couple of drinks too many this one time and ended up driving. That can happen in real life.

However, because of pervasive distorted reporting by powerful interest groups and their media mouthpieces, the DUI system operates under different assumptions. These assumptions explain why the DUI arrest and driver's license reinstatement hearing processes may not function as you would expect.

First, some background will be helpful. There are two related but different tracks in an Illinois DUI situation. DUI is a crime that can result in jail and or fines. You are presumed to be innocent of the crime of DUI until proven guilty.

A DUI arrest can also result in license sanctions (suspension), and more severe sanctions (revocation) result from a conviction. The law does not consider the license sanctions to be in the nature of criminal proceedings and therefore the protections afforded in the criminal case (such as innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt) do not apply. If your license is revoked for DUI, you must prove to the Illinois Secretary of State that you will be a safe driver in the future.

Continue reading "The Driving Under the Influence (DUI) charges you never received but must be prepared to defend" »