Should I Get A Lawyer In My DUI Case?

The laws in Pennsylvania on DUI cases have gotten progressively harsher over the years. Once upon a time when a police officer pulled over someone suspected of being under the influence, the officer might just lock up the car and drive the person home for the night to sleep it off. But no more. 

Police officer activity is more tracked, favoritism is looked down upon, and like it or not, the criminal court system has come to rely upon significant court costs and fines imposed in DUI cases, funds which are mostly siphoned to Harrisburg. 

In short, DUI cases are a bonus to Harrisburg and have created an incentive for more DUI cases, not less. The cruel irony here is easy to recognize: we need more drunks, more addicts to drive and get caught so that they have to pay up and support an ever-bloated criminal court system.

Meanwhile, persons who are caught are then told to engage in the treatment, paying more fees, to show they can maintain sobriety. When they can’t pay up on their cases, they spiral downwards into depression, more likely than ever to get drunk or high and then drive. It’s like the parking authority on steroids.  

There are many reasons to disagree with the DUI laws in general, or how DUI cases are handled by individual prosecutors. In the end, if you have a DUI case and you fundamentally see these ironies and what is coming toward you, the reality is that you still have to deal with your own individual case. 

It’s hard to fight the structure of the entire system in one individual case. And so, people don’t. They just hope for the best outcome for themselves and figure someone else will “fight the big fight.” 

The mistake many people make is that they don’t get an attorney. In most counties, DUI cases are streamlined so that people can resolve their cases without getting an attorney.  So people often simply feel that the outcome is fixed and that they just need to “get through it.”  This is patently untrue. 

I frequently have DUI cases where there are multiple legal challenges in the case. It is actually not very difficult for an experienced criminal defense attorney to identify potential legal challenges in a DUI case. 

The larger, more important question is always “OK, I’ve identified a legal challenge I COULD make, now SHOULD I raise it? Will I actually WIN my legal challenge?” And that is something that only a very experienced criminal defense attorney who regularly practices in that particular county can advise their client. And it should be a lengthy conversation.