NAVIGATING YOUR CASE THROUGH THE COURT SYSTEM

Getting out of jail.

Once you are arrested and taken to jail, your bond is normally set according to a schedule. A typical bond on a DUI case is $1,000. You must post additional bonds for each additional offense alleged by the officer (such as speeding or failure to maintain lane). If you give the sheriff’s department cash for your bond, your money will be returned to you once the case is resolved (minus nominal fees). If you hire a bonding company to post your bond, you will pay them 12% for their service (unless the bond it greater than $10.000 then they can legally charge you 15%). After the criminal charge is resolved, you will not receive your money back from the bonding company.

Investigating Your Case

There are hundreds of ways to achieve a good result to a DUI case. I begin every case by completing a thorough investigation. I utilize the open records laws and subpoena powers of the Court get full information regarding your case. Some of the information I might request in your case might include:

• the arresting officers’ training records and personnel/IA files;
• the criminal history on any witness that might testify against you;
• the police report, the DUI report, the narrative report, and any supplemental reports regarding your investigation and arrest;
• the video of your stop, arrest, and implied consent warning;
• the jail video from your booking process;
• your booking photo to rebut the officers testimony regarding your appearance;
• cellular phone records to set up a timeline of events;
• police dispatch records to rebut the officer’s testimony regarding timing issues;
• police vehicle inventory log to prove whether the officer could have videotaped your arrest;
• the medical intake form at the jail;
• vehicle location history to show where the officer was before and after your arrest; and
• pictures of the scene to impeach the officers testimony that the road surface was suitable for field sobriety evaluations.

Breathalyzer machine related information I will gather may include:

• the breathalyzer logs to show irregular patterns in intox results indicating that it was malfunctioning;
• quarterly inspections records regarding the breathalyzer machine that you blew into;
• quarterly breathalyzer inspection certificates; and
• the jail video of you blowing into the breathalyzer machine.
• the breathalyzer repair records.

Navigating the Criminal Case

Municipal Courts - Recorder’s Courts and City Courts

Most DUI cases start out in municipal, city, or recorders’ courts. Many cities have their own courts. For example, if you are arrested for DUI in the City of Lawrenceville, you must appear in the Municipal Court of Lawrenceville. If you were arrested by the Gwinnett County Police Department, your first court appearance will be in the Gwinnett County Recorders Court. These courts allow the municipality to keep more fine money in the City or County where you were arrested. You do not have a right to a jury trial in these courts. If you want a jury trial, we can send your case to a court where you can get one. If you plead not guilty you will receive a “Bench Trial” where a judge decides your guilt or innocence rather than a jury. Although these courts can conduct trials, they rarely do. When lawyers ask for trials in these courts, the prosecutors will usually “bind the case over” to the State Court of that particular county.

Recorder’s Courts, City Courts, and Municipal Courts are happy to accept your guilty plea and fine money, but they do not want to spend the resources required in conducting trials. The law allows them to send your case to State Court, and they usually do.

Municipal courts are often friendly courts in which to enter a guilty plea. Accordingly, we can often receive better treatment in municipal courts if you wish to enter a guilty plea to DUI.

If you wish to fight your case in the attempt to avoid a DUI conviction, your case will likely be bound over to the State Court. There, you have a right to a jury trial.

State Courts

We will likely begin fighting your case in State Court. The law allows you (or the prosecutor) to move your case from a municipal court to the State Court of the county in which you were arrested. You can choose between Jury trial or Bench trial in these courts.

State Court prosecutors must prosecute your case and conduct a jury trial, if necessary. As a result, they are generally more willing to acknowledge legal and factual deficiencies in their case than Municipal Court prosecution. Our first goal is always to investigate, discover, and reveal those deficiencies to the prosecutor in an attempt to negotiate a dismissal or reduction in your charges.

Court Appearances

1. Arraignment

Your first court appearance in State Court is an Arraignment. Most State Courts do not require your presence at your arraignment. We will send you a letter letting you know whether you have to appear for your arraignment. The arraignment is your opportunity to enter your “not guilty plea.” We usually do this in writing and your appearance is not necessary. Along with your written not guilty plea, I file our pretrial challenges to the State’s case. These are called Motions to Suppress and Motions in Limine.

2. Motions Hearings

Your case will likely be scheduled for a “Motions” hearing. At this hearing, I will argue my legal challenges to the State’s case. The State has the burden to show that my motions should not be granted. If the State fails to meet their burden, the entire case or certain evidence in your case will be dismissed. Some of the legal challenges I assert include:

• whether your stop and detention violates the Fourth Amendment;
• whether the officer had probable cause to place you under arrest;
• whether officer timely and properly advised you of your rights pursuant to Georgia’s Implied Consent Notice;
• whether the officer notified you that you have a right to an independent blood, breath, or urine test;
• whether he read you the proper card pertaining to your driver’s license and age;
• whether the officer had reasonable grounds to request a chemical test;
• whether the State laid a sufficient foundation for field sobriety tests
• whether the officer properly administered and scored the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) test;
• whether the officer properly administered the standardized physical field sobriety evaluations (One-Leg Stand and Walk & Turn tests); and
• whether the officer the State laid an adequate foundation for the breathalyzer test.

Every case is different, and this is not an exhaustive list of the technical challenges that we file and argue. We tailor our attack to each particular case.

In filing and arguing our pretrial motions we have three goals. Our first goal is to obtain a dismissal. For example, if the police conduct a “bad stop” and violate your Fourth Amendment rights in initially detaining you, all evidence gathered after the stop will be suppressed from evidence. This almost always results in a complete dismissal of your case.

Our second goal in arguing pretrial motions is to limit the evidence the State uses against you at trial. For example, a police officer has placed you under arrest when he places you in a position where a reasonable person would not have felt free to leave (even though you may not have been handcuffed). If the officer placed you under arrest prior to administering field sobriety evaluations, he must read your Miranda rights or the field sobriety results will be suppressed from evidence. At trial, the prosecutor will not be able to mention these tests to the jury. Additionally, the judge is more likely to rule that the officer did not have probable cause to arrest you since the field sobriety evaluations are excluded. Without field sobriety evidence, the prosecutor is more likely to dismiss your case, or offer a reduced charge such as reckless driving.

Our third goal in arguing pretrial motions is to reveal weaknesses in the State’s case. Although the judge may not dismiss the case or limit the State’s evidence, we can often show the prosecutor the weaknesses in their case through our thorough and sifting cross-examination. Our goal is to present their own witness and evidence in such a light that the prosecutor realizes that yours is not the kind of case they want to present to a jury. Again, the prosecutor may be more likely to dismiss or reduce your case to a lesser offense.

3. Calendar Call - “Ready for Trial”

After the motions hearing, your case will be scheduled for a Calendar Call. Although nothing legally significant occurs at calendar call, this is another opportunity for us to show the State that we are serious about challenging their evidence. Calendar call is usually scheduled a week or two before the judge’s trial week. At the calendar call, the judge inquires whether the parties are ready to go forward to trial, or whether they need additional time. By this time both parties should be prepared for trial. The judge will then schedule us for a particular date to appear for trial. Sometimes the judge will put us “on call.” This means that we could be called in any day during the trial week. In this case, we will call a recorded announcement line every evening during to trial week to find out if we are called in for trial the next morning.

4. Trial - Bench Trial or Jury Trial

You may elect to have a jury trial or a non-jury trial. In a non-jury trial, otherwise known as a bench trial, the judge will determine your guilt or innocence. You also have a right to a jury trial. Depending on the particular facts of your case, we will help you decide whether to choose a jury or non-jury trial. We will usually recommend a jury trial when you have factual defenses, and recommend a bench trial when you have legal or technical defenses. It is ultimately your decision whether to choose a jury or bench trial, however we will first educate you regarding this choice. Prior to making your choice, together we will analyze your defenses, your judge, your jury pool, and your chances of success with either a jury or bench trial.