Atlanta, pick your DUI attorney carefully

You know one of the most important things you can do to ensure a smooth legal case is to pick your DUI attorney carefully. Your primary goal is to hire someone you are convinced will get you the best possible result. In order to do this, you need to ask a lot of questions.

A problem arises when you feel you are asking dumb questions. Remember: there are no dumb questions. One question I find most people are a bit embarrassed to ask me is this:

who in the office will be actually handling my case? What are their qualifications?

I love hearing this question. It's very legitimate and important. Many large law firms that specialize in DUI have a handful of lawyers and dozens of support staff. Which ones will be handling your case? I downsized my practice  after I decided I lost sight of my goals when I assigned cases to my paralegals and my lesser-experienced associates whom I carefully monitored. This is very common in law firms of any size.  Do you want an experienced Atlanta DUI lawyer actively working on your case, or have one just supervising your case?

Signs to watch out for:

Signs you are working with a large firm who can’t actually tell you who will be defending you (because they don’t know who will be assigned to the court that day) are:

• Having your intake done by a paralegal or an “investigator”—this means the lawyers are always in court and don’t have the time to talk to potential clients -- or current clients;
• Being introduced to whomever is in the office that day, as opposed to meeting the actual person who will work on your case;
• Being told that the office takes a “team approach” to each case. This is code that they have no idea who will work on your case.

You deserve more. Insist on working with an experienced Atlanta DUI attorney who is dedicated to your case.

Atlanta DUI Lawyers Clark & Towne

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Safe Holiday Decorating, Atlanta

Did you get around to putting up for holiday lights and decorations yet? Are you sure you did it right? The CPSC folks in D.C. want to make sure you did, so follow their tips for trees:

4 Tips to a beautiful & safe tree:

1. When purchasing a live tree, DO check for freshness. A fresh tree is green, its needles are hard to pull from branches, and its needles do not break when bent between your fingers. The bottom of a fresh tree is sticky with resin, and when tapped on the ground, the tree should not lose many needles.
2. When setting up a tree at home, DO place it away from heat sources, such as fireplaces, vents, and radiators. Because heated rooms rapidly dry out live trees, be sure to monitor water levels and keep the tree stand filled with water. Place the tree out of the way of traffic, and do not block doorways.
3. When purchasing an artificial tree, DO look for the label, "Fire Resistant." Although this label does not mean that the tree will not catch fire, it does indicate that the tree is more resistant to catching fire.
4. In homes with small children, DO take special care to avoid sharp, weighted, or breakable decorations. Keep trimmings with small removable parts out of the reach of children who could swallow or inhale small pieces, and avoid trimmings that resemble candy or food that may tempt a child to eat them.

Atlanta DUI Lawyers Clark & Towne

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Atlanta needs to know: marijuana and DUI

The Wall Street Journal wrote about a study that shows states with medical marijuana laws have lower traffic deaths. The researchers recon it is because people who smoke marijuana don’t drink as much alcohol as those who don't smoke.

9% drop in traffic fatalities

Examining federal data before and after the passage of medical marijuana laws, the researchers found a nearly 9% decrease in overall traffic fatalities. In states with legalized use of marijuana, people over 18 smoked more marijuana (beyond prescription use) and drank less alcohol. Researchers believe the accident rate is lower in these states because smokers “may be more aware of their intoxication and correspondingly less reckless,” and because they use marijuana at home instead of in bars.

I wonder if the researchers comment on the fact that marijuana use does not necessarily make a user a poor driver.

If you read the article “Medical Marijuana Laws, Traffic Fatalities, and Alcohol Consumption,” D. Mark Anderson and Daniel I. Rees, Institute for the Study of Labor working paper (November), let me know what you think.

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Are illegal drugs treated differently than alcohol DUIs?

Are women worse at driving stoned?

Are you safe to drive with any amount of drug?

We're better off with stoners on the road

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Watch out Atlanta-- they're gearing up to arrest drivers under the influence of drugs

It appears as though NHTSA and the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety are switching gears to arrest drivers suspected of driving while under the influence of drugs.

As you know, it's illegal to drive if you have active or inactive metabolites of street drugs, that is, drugs that are illegal to possess no matter what (cocaine, heroin, meth).

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have medical marijuana laws; this means that under the doctrine of equal protection, if you could have obtained marijuana legally, and you are driving with inactive metabolites of marijuana in your system, you will probably avoid a DUI conviction.

Prosecutors still don't understand this concept. You see, the effects of marijuana, like alcohol, rise and fall over time. Someone who ingests marijuana on Tuesday will still show metabolites in urine on Saturday, but is likely no longer high. Someone who ingests marijuana at 6:00 p.m., however, is likely legally "high" at 8:00 p.m, but probably not after 10:00 p.m.

Most people do not go out and ingest marijuana when they know they have to drive later on. Unlike alcohol consumption, the medical community has determined when a person's blood alcohol level is so high, he cannot safely drive. The medical community cannot determine this with marijuana.

Georgia Crime Lab Toxicologists are neutral scientists, right?

Toxicologists, the folks who work at the Georgia Crime Lab, cannot tell when you're driving under the influence of your legally prescribed medications. Your personal physician can, based upon lab results, because dosages vary and an individual's response to medications differ. If your doctor wants you to take a particular medication, listen to the warnings your doctor offers; when you pick up the prescription, listen to the pharmacists recommendations regarding driving (or rather not driving until you know how the medication affects you personally).

But toxicologists, supposedly neutral scientists, remember that the State of Georgia issues a paycheck to them, just like it issues paychecks to the prosecutors. They think they're part of the prosecution team. They like to offer an opinion that you're incapable of driving safely based only on what the lab results say, and sometimes what the officer's testimony was (even though they didn't hear the testimony in court).

A great DUI defense attorney knows how to point out these flaws and work with your physician to point out how long you've been taking a particular drug, how it affects you, the warnings and counseling you received and how to find reasonable doubt in your case

Recently, one of my colleagues successfully pointed out that xanax, a commonly prescribed drug, can be ingested according to medical guidelines, without causing a driver to be automatically guilty of DUI because its metabolites are in a driver's blood or urine. He used the 1999 case I argued, Love vs. The State of Georgia to show that unless the driver is incapable of driving safely, a conviction is never right.

To see where the prosecutors are heading, check out this publication and its one-sided views.

Related articles

Drugged driving & Atlanta Courts

Atlanta DUI Lawyers Clark & Towne

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