Orange County DUI Lawyer

What to Expect After a DUI Arrest in Orange County 

A typical DUI case involves the following stages:

• Arrest. If a law enforcement officer suspects that you are driving under the influence, they pull you over and ask you to perform a set of field sobriety tests. Based on their observations, they may release you or arrest you for a DUI offense. If you are arrested, you will be taken to a local police station, jail, or hospital to undergo chemical BAC testing that determines your level of intoxication.
• Booking. If the test shows you were driving with a BAC over the legal limit, the police will book you, file a report of the alleged crime, and submit it to the local prosecutor for review. The officer will inform you that your driver’s license will be suspended for 30 days, confiscate your license, and provide a temporary license that remains valid until the suspension goes into effect. Most people are released within a few hours after their arrest, particularly for first offenses. If bail is recommended, it will be set with the understanding that you will appear at all future court proceedings.
• DMV hearing. You must schedule an administrative hearing with the DMV within 10 days after your arrest. This is your chance to challenge the automatic suspension of your driver’s license, which takes place before you make your initial court appearance. The DMV will examine the officer’s report and your BAC test results to determine whether to suspend your license. If they suspend your license, they will set a suspension period based on your prior criminal record for DUI convictions and whether you refused or failed to complete BAC testing.
• Arraignment. Regardless of whether you win or lose the DMV hearing, your case will proceed in the state criminal justice system. The arraignment is the first stage of this process and will be your first appearance in court. At the arraignment, you plead guilty, not guilty, or no contest to the charges filed against you. If you plead guilty, you enter the sentencing stage. If you plead not guilty, your case enters the pre-trial stage.
• Pre-trial. During the pre-trial stage, your Orange County DUI attorney will investigate the details of your case to determine how to proceed. If they uncover substantial evidence in your favor, they can request the prosecutors to reduce or dismiss your charges. This typically involves filing pre-trial motions or plea bargaining.
  • Pre-trial motions may include a probable cause motion to contest the validity of the traffic stop and/or arrest, a motion to suppress evidence that was illegally obtained, or a Pitchess motion to gather information about the arresting officer’s history with the goal of discrediting their report.
  • Plea bargaining refers to negotiating with the prosecutors to resolve the case without going to trial, such as reducing the charges. 
    Many cases are settled at this point, but if your attorney cannot obtain a satisfactory resolution, the case moves to trial.
• Trial. You appear before a judge or jury at trial, during which the prosecutor presents evidence against you, and your attorney presents evidence in your favor. To convict you, the judge or jury must be convinced of your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If you are found guilty or were convicted by a plea bargain, your case moves onto sentencing. From there, your punishment is determined.

Police Need Probable Cause to Stop You

When you work with The Law Offices of Jacqueline Goodman, we take a detail-oriented approach to investigating your DUI case, starting with examining the initial stop that led to your arrest. To pull you over, the arresting officer must have probable cause that you were intoxicated from observing your driving or receiving reports from other individuals. If it can be established that your initial stop was unlawful, your whole case can be dismissed.

Police officers may be able to stop you if they observe any of the following behavior:

• Wide turns
• Failure to maintain a single lane
• Speeding
• Careless or reckless driving
• Accidents
• Running a red light or stop sign
• Driving too slow
• Weaving, drifting, or swerving
• Causing an accident

A police officer can frisk you or pat you down only if two conditions are met. The first being they stopped you lawfully and can articulate to you why they did so, and the second being that the officer suspects you are armed and dangerous. If drugs are found on you but the officer did not have probable cause to pull you over, this evidence against you may be inadmissible in court. The same goes for being stopped on suspicion of DUI. The officer needs to have probable cause that you were intoxicated from observing your driving or receiving reports from other individuals.

DUI Charges & Penalties in Orange County

Under California Vehicle Code, it is illegal to drive under the influence of alcohol and to drive with a BAC of 0.08% or greater. DUI offenses are “priorable,” meaning the court considers any prior DUI convictions on your criminal record within the past ten years to determine sentencing for the current offense. The penalties become harsher with every conviction.

Many DUI offenses are charged as misdemeanors, but a DUI can be charged as a felony. This could be the case if the current offense is your fourth or more conviction within this period, if you have previously been charged with a felony DUI, or if your actions injured someone else.

1st Offense DUI – Misdemeanor

• 48 hours to six months in county jail
• Fines up to $1,000 plus court fees and penalty assessments
• License suspension for four to 10 months
• Potential interlock ignition device (IID) installation for six months
• Informal probation for three to five years
• Court-approved DUI education program for three or nine months

2nd Offense DUI – Misdemeanor

• 96 hours to one year in county jail
• Fines up to $1,000 plus court fees and penalty assessments
• License suspension fortwo years
• Mandatory IID installation for one year
• Informal probation for three to five years
• Court-approved DUI education program for 18 or 30 months

3rd Offense DUI – Misdemeanor

• 120 days to one year in county jail
• Fines up to $1,000 plus court fees and penalty assessments
• License suspension for three years
• Mandatory IID installation for two years
• Informal probation for three to five years
• Court-approved DUI education program for 30 months
• Designation as a “habitual traffic offender” by the DMV

4th Offense DUI – Felony

• 16 months to three years in state prison
• Fines up to $18,000 plus court fees and penalty assessments
• License suspension for four years or permanent suspension
• Mandatory IID installation for three years if eligible for restricted license
• Court-approved DUI education program for three, 18 or 30 months
• Designation as a “habitual traffic offender” by the DMV

Misdemeanor DUI With Injury

• Five days to one year in county jail
• Fines up to $5,000 plus court fees and penalty assessments
• License suspension for one year
• Mandatory IID installation for six months
• Informal probation for three to five years
• Court-approved DUI education program for three, 18, or 30 months
• Restitution to all injured parties

Felony DUI With Injury

• 16 months to four years in state prison
• Restitution to all injured parties
• Fines up to $5,000 plus court fees and penalty assessments
• License suspension for five years
• Mandatory IID installation for up to three years
• Court-approved DUI education program for 18 or 30 months
• Designation as a “habitual traffic offender” for three years
• Additional and consecutive one to six years in state prison, depending on how many people were injured and the extent of their injuries

Aggravating Factors for DUI Charges

Certain facts and circumstances in your case can increase your sentence in county jail or state prison, regardless of whether this is your first, second, third, or subsequent charge. These aggravating factors include:

• BAC of 0.15% or higher
• Refusing to submit to a chemical BAC test
• Reckless driving
• Excessively speeding
• Being under 21 years old
• Driving drunk with a child under the age of 14 years old in the vehicle
• Causing an accident in which another person is injured or killed
• Resisting arrest

How We Fight DUI Charges in Orange County

In the wake of an arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence – DUI – do you know what steps to take next? Is it possible to avoid a conviction if the arrest was already made? What can you do to help your case?

These concerns are so common, in fact, that our legal team has devised a number of strategies for handling them. While there is always room for change given the nature and particularities of any given case, defendants can look to these general steps of application to better secure their chances of avoiding an ultimate conviction.

• Review the methods of legal defense that might be applicable to your case: Believe it or not, there are several ways to combat a DUI charge, especially with the right defense attorney on your side. From involuntary intoxication to false arrests, to duress, any number of lines of defense can be drawn upon to defend a case in court.
• Challenge the officer’s intent for stopping you: Law enforcement officers must have a legitimate reason for pulling over an individual on suspicion of DUI; it’s the law. If a reasonable basis for the traffic stop cannot be proven, then there is no substantial claim to the arrest that was made. For example, if an officer cannot confirm that you were stopped due to signs of intoxicated driving, such as weaving, there is no basis for the arrest that was made and the case will need to be dropped.
• Question the reliability of field sobriety tests: Although it’s not widely advertised by the law enforcement officers who execute them, field sobriety tests are far from reliable when it comes to producing an accurate reading of a person’s level of intoxication. As such, an arrest that was made based upon any one of the three field sobriety tests was enforced should rightfully be questioned for the validity of the results that were yielded.
• Contest the results of a breathalyzer test: While breathalyzer tests are knowingly more reliable than the field sobriety tests that are conducted to measure a person’s sobriety, these machines are not without their own faults. In fact, unless they are utilized correctly and calibrated accurately, breathalyzers can yield inaccurate results as well. Expert testimony has confirmed that the breathalyzer test is both unreliable and unstable.
• Fight the blood test results: In order to be considered an accurate reflection of an individual’s blood-alcohol level, blood tests must be performed according to a very specific set of rules. If the procedures of a blood test were not followed to a tee, their results could be considered inadmissible in court. The same is true of results for a person who was taking prescription medication that contains alcohol, as well as individuals who’ve been using rubbing alcohol on their skin.
• Enact a plea bargain: When a plea bargain is made, it effectively acts as an agreement between the defendant and the prosecutor in which the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge and the prosecutor agrees to forego trial. The sentence that is ultimately issued will reflect the terms that both parties have agreed to.

Any one of the steps mentioned above could mean the difference between being convicted or not. Accordingly, the most important thing that you can do for your case at this time is to secure a reputable criminal defense attorney for your representation. Working with an Orange County DUI lawyer from our firm could immensely enhance your ability at obtaining a lesser sentence, reduced charges, or a dropped case.