Provided that the assessment is encouraging and an appeal hearing has been requested, it is important to discuss witnesses who can attend the hearing to testify regarding your sobriety, as well as those individuals who can provide written documentation substantiating your sobriety. However, the most important and compelling witness at this hearing is you. That’s right. You can make or break the hearing. This isn’t said to induce stress, but you are the individual seeking reinstatement of your driving privileges. You carry the burden in convincing the hearing officer that you are ready to drive again.

Embrace Sobriety

We always recommend that our clients attend AA for an extended period of time before petitioning for restoration of their license. AA is an outstanding organization founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. Its “primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety.” You are encouraged to refer to the attached original Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. more You should be also be able to recite the Serenity Prayer adopted by AA, which is:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

AA offers meetings virtually twenty-four (24) hours a day in thousands of locations throughout Michigan and the United States. You can’t convince someone that you simply couldn’t find a meeting to attend, even if you have transportation issues as a result of losing your license.

At your hearing, expect to be asked the Twelve Steps and/or the Serenity Prayer. You may be asked to recite the fifth step or the eighth step. That’s why it is important to know the steps, and to live by the steps. Hearing officers conduct thousands of hearings every year. They know when the steps are merely recited by a petitioner, and they know when the petitioner knows the steps because he or she lives by the steps. Be genuine during the hearing.

Another indication that you are embracing sobriety is to have a sponsor, someone who mentors, encourages and guides you through your quest to stay sober. It takes some time and some continuity in attending meetings to find a sponsor. A sponsor is someone you can call on when you have the urge to drink, and you need to be talked out of drinking. A hearing officer wants to not only know that sobriety has been maintained, but he also wants to know that you are equipped and supported to make different life decisions that returning to drinking. He wants to know how things are going to be done differently now than they were done before. Your Michigan DUI attorney will prepare you for some anticipated questions. This should make the hearing less stressful and should enable you to focus.

Contact the experienced Michigan DUI lawyers at SMDA to schedule an appointment. As always, the initial consultation is free. SMDA will help you in the process or having your license restored and getting your life back on track.

The first thing that your Michigan DUI lawyer should do when interviewing you or when reading a police report is to determine the basis for the stop by the police in the first place. The way SMDA attorneys explain this to clients is to determine from the interview whether there was an independent reason for the stop, other than suspicion that the driver was drinking and driving. In other words, would there have been a stop but for this suspicion? If not, this may form the basis for a motion to quash blood alcohol evidence based on fruit of the poisonous tree.

Specifically, was there a reasonable basis for the stop? Of course, the basis for the stop can be substantiated in a variety of different ways, including the in-car video running before, during and after the stop. Be careful in requesting the in-car video, though. It can be a double-edged sword. Most jurisdictions in Michigan cycle through in-car videos in thirty (30) days or less. In order to preserve this evidence, it is necessary to either contact the police directly through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request or through the prosecutor, as part of a demand for discovery. There are circumstances where the in-car video can be very helpful to your client in that it can demonstrate sober driving when the police report indicates impaired driving, or it can reiterate and amplify impaired driving. The prosecution may have otherwise overlooked the in-car video, but when the request is made by a Michigan DUI lawyer, it can also draw curiosity and can and will be used by the prosecution during an evidentiary hearing or trial.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the five most common bases for police stops in drinking and driving cases are:

1. Turning with a wide radius
2. Straddling center of lane marker
3. “Appearing to be drunk”
4. Almost striking object or vehicle
5. Weaving

Moreover, the vast majority of Michigan DUI arrests occur at night and on weekends. It is noteworthy that speeding is absent from this list. Notwithstanding, prosecutors will commonly argue that speeding is “risk taking” behavior indicating diminished judgment spurred by the consumption of alcohol. Conversely, based on the facts and circumstances, an argument can be made by the defense that the ability to speed and safely maneuver a vehicle while weaving in and out of traffic are indicative of highly sober driving demonstrating a high level of responsiveness which would be presumably absent with an intoxicated or impaired driver. more A Michigan DUI practitioner takes his clients and the facts of the case as they come. While, in hindsight, an attorney would have liked to have advised his client against speaking to the police officer when stopped for suspicion of drinking and driving, as an attorney, we were not present for the stop. So, while the articulable basis for the stop is necessary to analyze for potential defenses, statements made by you may inadvertently erode these defenses. This is why a successful DUI defense is very fact intensive. Asking the right questions comes from experience…the type of experience possessed by SMDA attorneys. If you find yourself stopped by the police, despite your level of intoxication and/or anxiety, don’t volunteer any information to the police. Then, contact an SMDA attorney to ensure that your rights are protected.