If you have been arrested for a DUI offense, you are probably asking yourself if you should retain an attorney. It certainly is comforting to have someone on your side in that situation. Facing a courtroom and all that goes along with is a really scary situation. Do you need a lawyer to represent you in a DUI case? (Refer Driving Laws website) Hiring an experienced DUI attorney always has its benefits —  familiarity with the court system, knowledge of plea bargain details, and the ability to navigate complex administration procedures. It’s especially important if you are a repeat offender. However, if this is your first DUI and there were no additional or aggravating circumstances such as reckless driving,  DUI with a minor in the vehicle, or a high blood alcohol content (a BAC over .12) you may choose to proceed without a DUI attorney.

Pleading Guilty

If this is your first DUI, you may choose to simply plead guilty. That might be a wise choice if there were some certainty that you would be convicted — for example if your BAC is higher than .11 and the arresting officer testifies that you were driving erratically. But before you plead guilty, you should learn about the DUI / DWI laws penalties and fines in your state in order to make an informed decision. Even if you are convinced you should plead guilty, it is always possible that a DUI attorney may offer advice or counsel that could affect the severity of your sentence. Also keep in mind that if your BAC was between .08 and .11 (and there may be some question as to whether the reading was accurate) conviction is less of a certainty and a DUI attorney may be able to better plea bargain your case. Another fact to consider is that in most first non-injury first offense DUIs, judges hand down a routine sentence that seldom varies from one case to another.

Negotiating Your Sentence

In addition to plea bargaining (where the charge is reduced to a lesser one, like from DUI to reckless driving), most states have sentence bargaining. Sentence bargaining is extremely useful where a guilty plea might result in a long period of incarceration. For example, you may be willing to plead guilty to a second DUI but only if you know what your sentence will be. The same is true with an aggravated DUI cases where your BAC is over .15, or injury or death has resulted. In these types of cases you probably wouldn’t want to plead guilty unless you knew what sentence you’re going to get, and you would be well advised to have an attorney (as is generally true with all non-routine DUI cases).

Second Offenders Should Seek an Attorney

If this is not your first DUI / DWI, you will most likely need the assistance of a DUI attorney. If you’re concerned about the costs, some DUI attorneys will work with you and may offer credit payment plans or discounts.

Schedule an initial consultation with DUI attorney

Why not? If there’s no charge. You should have the facts before making a decision. Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.criminallawyerclearwaterflorida.com
or call (727) 799-3550.

Refer New York Times June 21, 2014

Lawyers gawked from office windows last month when a BMW S.U.V. swiped a parked police cruiser in the parking lot of a courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, then slammed into a gate over and over again.

A judge was at the wheel.

As lawyers used smartphones to snap pictures of the morning spectacle, Judge Lynn D. Rosenthal became the third Broward County judge in six months to be arrested on charges of driving under the influence. A colleague, Judge Gisele Pollack, had been suspended five days earlier after getting arrested on a D.U.I. charge while already on leave for taking the bench intoxicated — twice.

Even for South Florida, where absurd news events are routine and the sheriff went to prison for corruption, the spate of judicial scandals has raised serious questions about whether the arrests in Broward are a bizarre coincidence or underscore a larger systemic problem. In a county where the judiciary is known for old-school nepotism and cronyism, and judges have been caught smoking marijuana in a park and found drunk and partly naked in a hotel hallway, some lawyers find themselves wondering: At what point do isolated instances of misconduct point to something bigger?

On Wednesday, WPLG, an ABC affiliate, citing anonymous sources, reported that a Broward family court judge was under federal investigation on suspicion of allowing a now-convicted Ponzi schemer to influence a case.

And this month, a former judge in Broward was disbarred for exchanging 949 phone calls and 471 text messages with the prosecutor during a death penalty case. Yet another judge was recommended for removal in April after being accused of cheating clients and a co-counsel in the settlement of a civil suit she handled as a private lawyer a decade ago.

As it turns out, bad behavior by judges has become distressingly common across Florida in recent months. Judge John C. Murphy in Brevard County is on leave after he was caught on video this month threatening a public defender, who later accused the judge of punching him in the head. In the Keys, a judge who was replaced on the bench after dozing off told a local news reporter that Ambien made him hallucinate about “ ‘Fantasia’ and the dancing brooms.” Another stepped down because a blogger exposed a sexually explicit profile the judge had posted on a gay dating site.

But Broward — a heavily Democratic county of 1.8 million people with many judges who are the children, spouses, siblings and fraternity brothers of other judges and some of the region’s most powerful people — seems to be ground zero for allegations of judicial misconduct. The system’s critics say that is because Broward has a highly politicized and clannish culture that is known for protecting its own, which has led some in the judiciary to feel invincible, even as they preside over a county court system that produces the state’s highest exoneration rate.

“I do think it belies an underlying systemic problem in Broward County,” said Howard Finkelstein, Broward’s elected public defender. “I don’t think this stunningly embarrassing fact of having all these charges pending at the same time is indicative of a judiciary with substance abuse problems, but I do think it is a manifestation of the greater problem of a circle-the-wagons mentality.”

Records posted online by the Judicial Qualifications Commission, the independent agency that investigates misconduct by state judges in Florida’s 67 counties, show that 17 percent of the 62 formal disciplinary cases filed against sitting judges since 2001 have been in Broward.

Those figures do not include two judges who were recently arrested or those who resigned before a case was made public, such as Judge Lawrence L. Korda, who, in 2007, after presiding over parts of the Anna Nicole Smith case, was caught smoking marijuana in a park. (Not to be confused with Larry S. Seidlin, the Broward judge who sobbed on the bench during a nationally televised ruling on where the reality TV star should be buried.)

Many judges accused of wrongdoing remain on the bench, such as the family court judge who took in a foster child who had appeared in his court, only for the teenager to accuse the judge years later of molesting him.

refer Chicago Tribune May 6, 2014

65% of kids in the fatal crashes are riding with impaired driver, study says

If, as authorities allege, a Romeoville man was driving drunk when he struck a median on Interstate 55 and contributed to the death of his 4-year-old son, the incident is an example of an unsettling characteristic in impaired driving deaths nationwide.

Sixty-five percent of children killed in crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver ride with the impaired driver, according to a decadelong study published Monday. Overall, about 1 in 5 child passenger deaths in the U.S. involve an alcohol-impaired driver, the study authors report.

Dr. Kyran Quinlan, lead author of the analysis and a pediatrician at Erie Family Health Center in Chicago, said many people think impaired-driving deaths among children usually occur when an impaired driver strikes the car in which the children are riding.

The study results represent “a pattern that’s different from what most people might expect,” Quinlan said.

The article, published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, states, “Alcohol-impaired driving remains a substantial threat to the safety of child passengers in the United States.”

The authors suggest expanded use of sobriety checkpoints, tougher enforcement of DUI laws and seat belt laws — especially at night — wider use of ignition locks and even increasing the price of alcohol to reduce the problem.

“These are tragedies that we’ve got to find ways to prevent,” Quinlan said.

The I-55 crash occurred shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday, when, authorities contend, Shannard M.L. Dyer, 29, of Romeoville, was driving a Dodge Journey on I-55 in Bolingbrook. After striking the concrete median wall, the SUV flipped and ejected all three passengers in the back seat, the Illinois State Police said.

Taylor Dyer was pronounced dead at 3:40 a.m. at the scene, according to the Will County coroner’s office. The two other boys, ages 2 and 7, were taken to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. Condition reports were unavailable Monday.

Shannard Dyer was taken to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, and he was charged Monday with six counts of aggravated DUI. He also was cited for driving too fast for conditions, state police said.

Police took Dyer into custody upon his release from the hospital Monday, and he may be in bond court Tuesday afternoon, state’s attorney’s office spokesman Charles Pelkie said.

The Pediatrics report noted that during the study period — 2001 to 2010 — 2,344 children under age 15 were killed in crashes involving at least one alcohol-impaired driver.

Illinois, which recorded 42 of those deaths during that time, holds one of the lower rates of child passengers killed in crashes involving impaired drivers, the study found. South Dakota had the highest rate. New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts registered the lowest rates.

Of those 2,344 deaths, 1,515 of the children were riding with an impaired driver, according to the study, which analyzed data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In addition, those impaired drivers were more likely to be male, convicted of DUI in the past three years and be without a valid driver’s license, the authors said.

Most of the drivers in those cashes survived, the study reported, a trait suggesting that a certain number of the children killed might have survived had they been properly restrained.

On the encouraging side, the number of children killed riding with an alcohol-impaired driver decreased by 41 percent during the study period. That trend mirrored substantial reductions in child passenger deaths, alcohol-impaired driving deaths and total motor vehicle deaths during that time, the report stated.

Shannard Dyer had been ticketed for traffic violations four times since July 2012, according to Will County records. Those violations included running a stop sign, driving 81 mph in a 55-mph zone and traveling at 50 mph in a 35-mph zones. In those three cases, he pleaded guilty or was found guilty and paid fines, records show.

His most recent traffic citation before Sunday’s crash was an improper lane usage ticket that Romeoville police issued April 12, records indicate.

In 2009 he pleaded guilty to speeding in a construction zone in DuPage County and received supervision, records show. He also has a pending resisting a peace officer charge and traffic charge in Cook County, stemming from a December incident, according to records.

Along Dyer’s street in Romeoville, a neighbor described the family as “super private, super quiet” and said the home was the site of large family gatherings in the summer. The neighbor, who asked not to be named, said she spoke to Dyer only in passing and that he was a hard worker.

“They’ve always been very polite, very nice,” the neighbor said. “When he’s home, he’s outside playing with those kids. My heart breaks for all of them.”

Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.criminallawyerclearwaterflorida.com
or call (727) 799-3550.

article from admin

Battery: Definition

Although the statutes defining battery will vary by jurisdiction, a typical definition for battery is the intentional offensive or harmful touching of another person without their consent. Under this general definition, a battery offense requires all of the following:

• intentional touching;
• the touching must be harmful or offensive;
• no consent from the victim.

Battery: Intent Requirement

It may come as some surprise that a battery generally does not require any intent to harm the victim (although such intent often exists in battery cases). Instead, a person need only have an intent to contact or cause contact with an individual. Additionally if someone acts in a criminally reckless or negligent manner that results in such contact, it may constitute an assault. As a result, accidentally bumping into someone, offensive as the “victim” might consider it to be, would not constitute a battery.

Battery: Act Requirement

The criminal act required for battery boils down to an offensive or harmful contact. This can range anywhere from the obvious battery where a physical attack such as a punch or kick is involved, to even minimal contact in some cases. Generally, a victim doesn’t need to be injured or harmed for a battery to have occurred, so long as an offensive contact is involved. In a classic example, spitting on an individual doesn’t physically injure them, but it nonetheless can constitute offensive contact sufficient for a battery. Whether a particular contact is considered offensive is usually evaluated from the perspective of the “ordinary person”.

Some jurisdictions have combined assault and battery into a single offense. Because the two offenses are so closely related and often occur together, this should probably come as no surprise. However, the basic concepts underlying the offense remain the same.

Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.criminallawyerclearwaterflorida.com
or call (727) 799-3550.

article by admin findlaw

Assault: Definition

The definitions for assault vary from state-to-state, but assault is often defined as an attempt to injure to someone else, and in some circumstances can include threats or threatening behavior against others. One common definition would be an intentional attempt, using violence or force, to injure or harm another person. Another straightforward way that assault is sometimes defined is as an attempted battery. Indeed, generally the main distinction between an assault and a battery is that no contact is necessary for an assault, whereas an offensive or illegal contact must occur for a battery.

Assault: Act Requirement

Even though contact is not generally necessary for an assault offense, a conviction for assault still requires a criminal “act”. The types of acts that fall into the category of assaults can vary widely, but typically an assault requires an overt or direct act that would put the reasonable person in fear for their safety. Spoken words alone will not be enough of an act to constitute an assault unless the offender backs them up with an act or actions that put the victim in reasonable fear of imminent harm.

Assault: Intent Requirement

In order commit an assault an individual need only have “general intent”. What this means is that although someone can’t accidentally assault another person, it is enough to show that an offender intended the actions which make up an assault. So, if an individual acts in a way that’s considered dangerous to other people that can be enough to support assault charges, even if they didn’t intend a particular harm to a particular individual. Moreover, an intent to scare or frighten another person can be enough to establish assault charges, as well.

We will discuss Battery in the next blog…

Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.criminallawyerclearwaterflorida.com
or call (727) 799-3550.

findlaw by admin

Given the rise in boating injuries and fatalities by recreational and commercial boaters, convictions for boating under the influence can have severe consequences.

You could have a criminal record, not simply a fine like a traffic ticket.

Recreational boat operators could have their boating licenses suspended or revoked. Repeat offenders could face higher consequences, as do boaters convicted of BUI while minors were on board, or who gave alcohol or drugs to minors on the watercraft. Your driver’s license may also be affected by a BUI conviction.

Commercial boat operators could lose not only their license, but their livelihood.BUI convictions can also generate monetary fines and affect your boat and car insurance rates. A court or administrative judge may also require people convicted of boating while drunk or under the influence to get alcohol and drug counseling.

A felony conviction could mean you lose your right to vote.

Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.criminallawyerclearwaterflorida.com
or call (727) 799-3550.

information by admin

The U.S. Coast Guard warns that “alcohol is more hazardous on water than on land.” The federal law enforcement agency cautions that BUI regulations exist to prevent and minimize the possibility that an intoxicated person will operate a vessel on the water, reduce the threat of harm to oneself and others, and use criminal and civil laws to discourage operating a boat or watercraft while drunk or under the influence of narcotics. Federal and statute authorities can pull the operator of a boat or other watercraft over, just like on the highway or street if you are suspected of drunk driving. Different factors can affect a boat operator’s physical and mental abilities while on the water. These include heat, sun, noise, wind, glare, and the motion of a boat on the water for a long period of time. These factors are often referred to as ‘boater’s fatigue.’ If alcohol and drugs are also involved, one’s ability to safely operate a vessel on the water can be severely affected.

Law enforcement officials may also set up BUI checkpoints on the water, just like roadside DUI checkpoints, to question and check boat operators for Boating Under the Influence (‘BUI’). Some states do not even require ‘probable cause’ before law enforcement officials can board your boat. In Delaware, they can just do it.

Will address more Boating Laws in next blog posting……..

An experienced lawyer knowledgeable about defending DUI and BUI cases can help you know your rights and legal defenses to charges of boating while drunk.

Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.criminallawyerclearwaterflorida.com
or call (727) 799-3550.

 artictle from Findlaw by admin

                                  Summer Time……. Boats On The Water

States have drunk driving laws that were enacted to help keep drivers, passengers, and the community safe. But did you know that every state and the federal government have laws against Boating Under the Influence (‘BUI’) that allow law enforcement officials to stop boats and other watercraft, and make sure that boat operators and their passengers are safe enough to be allowed on the water?

Being charged with BUI can put your legal freedom at stake, and have serious financial consequences. You could have a criminal record, face jail time, incur heavy monetary fines, and face increased boater and auto insurance rates.

A rise in alcohol and drug-related boating injuries and fatalities prompted state legislatures to enact BUI laws. Over half of all boating accidents involve alcohol or drugs, and alcohol is the leading contributing factor in fatal boating accidents, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The U.S. Guard reports that BUI incidents increase boating fatalities by approximately thirty-four (34%) percent.

Whether you operate a fishing boat, sailboat, yacht, personal watercraft, or sailboard, you could be charged with BUI. Just like driving under the influence (‘DUI’), legal penalties can range from civil fines and the forfeiture of your boating license, to prison time in criminal cases for causing a death while boating under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Since boating accidents and injuries rise dramatically when the weather is warmer, it is important to annually review boating safety requirements, and know how boating while intoxicated (‘BWI’) and BUI laws and regulations affect you.

We will discuss more laws on Boating in next blog

Alexander Truluck focuses his practice as a criminal defense attorney in Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Dunedin and the Tampa Bay area.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.criminallawyerclearwaterflorida.com
or call (727) 799-3550.

NOLO

information by Admin