Have you ever watched a police procedural? While they make for good television, they often exaggerate for the sake of drama. Even a simple DUI arrest can turn into an hour of legal machinations and two high-powered lawyers duking it out in a courtroom. Reality is rarely as dramatic or exciting as TV, though.
Don’t Expect an Interrogation at the Police Station
If you are arrested for a DUI, it usually means the arresting officer believes they have sufficient evidence to support the charges. Maybe you failed a breath test, or they could smell alcohol on your breath the moment you lowered your window. The point is that the arresting officer doesn’t need to interrogate you to get more information.
Furthermore, they probably don’t want to spend time interrogating you. It is much more efficient just to process your arrest quickly and get back into the field.
You Aren’t Entitled to a Lawyer Until You Are Arrested
While you can refuse to answer questions without a lawyer present, you can’t demand a lawyer before you are arrested. This means you can’t wait for a lawyer before presenting the police officer with your license or deciding whether to submit to a breath test.
That latter can be challenging. The penalties for refusing a breath test are significant. However, the penalties for being convicted of a DUI are also quite severe. Deciding whether to submit to a breath test is a difficult choice that your lawyer can’t help you with.
You Are Unlikely to Have a Trial
The biggest difference between real life and television is that you are extremely unlikely to have a trial in real life. Almost every DUI case ends with some type of plea deal or with charges being dropped if the prosecutor lacks sufficient evidence.
If you are facing a first-time DUI charge in New Jersey and nobody was hurt due to your actions, the prosecution will probably be willing to negotiate for lesser charges or reduced penalties. Trials are costly for the state. It is much more efficient to negotiate a plea deal and end the case long before it goes to trial.
This also saves you a lot of money. Criminal defense attorneys typically charge by the hour. If your case goes to trial, that could represent hundreds of hours of legal work. However, if you negotiate a plea deal, your legal fees will be much lower.
Sadly, this means you won’t get to watch your attorney pull off a legal win in the courtroom. But it is the results that matter. And avoiding jail time or massive fines makes up for a less interesting legal process.
Cases Are Not Typically Unpredictable
One of the most common tropes in legal procedurals is that one side or the other finds some unexpected evidence or the case turns out unpredictably. That rarely happens in real life.
Your attorney and the prosecutor are both highly experienced lawyers. They can look at the evidence and determine the likely outcome if the case goes to trial. That means they have a baseline for negotiations, and they will typically agree to roughly the same results.
Furthermore, neither side has a lot of reason to perform a massive investigation. Even if you are a repeat DUI offender, the district attorney’s office has little reason to devote significant resources to prosecuting your case.
Similarly, unless you are facing years of prison time, you are unlikely to want to pay the legal fees that would be involved in the type of investigation that could meaningfully change the results of the case, assuming that some type of surprise is even possible. In most DUI cases, the evidence is simple, and nothing would lead to unexpected results.
Appeals Are Unlikely
First, you can only appeal a case if it goes to trial. As noted, your case is unlikely to go to trial. However, even if it does, don’t expect your lawyer to appeal. You need to have a legitimate claim for an appeal, and attorneys won’t pursue an inappropriate appeal.
Contact the Law Office of Steven Ellman After a DUI Charge in NJ
While television dramas may make you think that you want a flashy and aggressive lawyer to protect your rights after you are arrested, in reality, you want an experienced attorney who knows the law.
Our firm has almost 40 years of experience defending clients from DUI charges. Contact the Law Office of Steven Ellman to find out how we may be able to help you.
