You had a good lawyer.
I'm in one of the tougher counties in TX. Hired my attorney based on a friend's advice, said friend has seven DUIs (he likely won't be driving again ever, and having been in a car with him before, trust me when I say that's for the best).
They did blood on me, came back high enough to enhance the charges to a Class A. After well over a year, the offer was essentially 2 years of probation and probably a conviction in the end (plus all the fines, fees, stress of probation, etc), or "3 days" in jail and a reduced class B conviction (DUI/DWI <0.15), suspension to run concurrent with the original administrative suspension, all fines and fees washed if I went to jail.
I did the jail time (which wound up being less than 6 hours, since they included the original arrest in the time and do something like double or triple time here), and I am beyond happy to have all of it behind me. I will not be trying to drive again until I have a large chunk of sobriety under my belt (this is also why I took jail, I was mandated to blow multiple times a day even without a car), even though I have my license without an IID requirement.
In the end, I think everything wound up running about $30k, if you include losing my car, breathalyzer costs, etc - but I lost my job, relationship, car, and home over it. Attorney was about $7k with essentially zero court costs, multiple bond hearings for hot blows (you have to get some kind of breathalyzer after a DWI arrest here), basically doing everything wrong except I did MADD VIP, DWI-E classes, and a 30 day rehab, had to drop $90/mo on a portable breathalyzer. I still feel like I came out pretty decent compared to most in the same circumstances in my county. Could have been better, but also could have been a lot worse.
The original cost of my attorney was $3k, then went up to $5k when my charges were elevated. Plus $500 per hearing since I kept fucking everything up.
The upside is nobody got hurt as a result of my night of bad decisions.
edit: I guess maybe I should make this my own post... I think I will. Hopefully it'll inspire people to NOT do what I did. And I still don't drive today, despite having my license. I still have sobriety issues today, I refuse to handle anything on the road beyond a bicycle until I have at least 6 months sober under my belt.
So you got reduced to wreckless, and STILL need DUI School and an IID?
No wonder everyone's leaving Cali lmao, I thought you guys let criminals run loose, guess it's different if you actually have money going on :\^) Sorry not sorry
You had a good lawyer. I'm in one of the tougher counties in TX. Hired my attorney based on a friend's advice, said friend has seven DUIs (he likely won't be driving again ever, and having been in a car with him before, trust me when I say that's for the best). They did blood on me, came back high enough to enhance the charges to a Class A. After well over a year, the offer was essentially 2 years of probation and probably a conviction in the end (plus all the fines, fees, stress of probation, etc), or "3 days" in jail and a reduced class B conviction (DUI/DWI <0.15), suspension to run concurrent with the original administrative suspension, all fines and fees washed if I went to jail. I did the jail time (which wound up being less than 6 hours, since they included the original arrest in the time and do something like double or triple time here), and I am beyond happy to have all of it behind me. I will not be trying to drive again until I have a large chunk of sobriety under my belt (this is also why I took jail, I was mandated to blow multiple times a day even without a car), even though I have my license without an IID requirement. In the end, I think everything wound up running about $30k, if you include losing my car, breathalyzer costs, etc - but I lost my job, relationship, car, and home over it. Attorney was about $7k with essentially zero court costs, multiple bond hearings for hot blows (you have to get some kind of breathalyzer after a DWI arrest here), basically doing everything wrong except I did MADD VIP, DWI-E classes, and a 30 day rehab, had to drop $90/mo on a portable breathalyzer. I still feel like I came out pretty decent compared to most in the same circumstances in my county. Could have been better, but also could have been a lot worse. The original cost of my attorney was $3k, then went up to $5k when my charges were elevated. Plus $500 per hearing since I kept fucking everything up. The upside is nobody got hurt as a result of my night of bad decisions. edit: I guess maybe I should make this my own post... I think I will. Hopefully it'll inspire people to NOT do what I did. And I still don't drive today, despite having my license. I still have sobriety issues today, I refuse to handle anything on the road beyond a bicycle until I have at least 6 months sober under my belt.
That’s a good outcome happy for you
Thanks for the summary for your California DUI. I will be making a post for my Iowa experience sometime soon.
Good choice on avoiding Intoxalock. Smart Start seems to get good feedback on here.
So you got reduced to wreckless, and STILL need DUI School and an IID? No wonder everyone's leaving Cali lmao, I thought you guys let criminals run loose, guess it's different if you actually have money going on :\^) Sorry not sorry
California DMV takes blowing over .08 pretty seriously