That would be the type of attorney that I would run away from. The Arizona State Bar says ethically an attorney cannot guarantee a result. So if there is an attorney that is guaranteeing a result, you would then be presented with a contract that would state clearly that no results will be guaranteed. Basically the attorney is flat out lying to the person hoping they will sign a contract and later on when that guarantee fails, the person starts complaining that there was a guarantee. The attorney then would show a copy of the contract signed by the client indicating that there are no guarantees. So yes it is possible that an attorney might say that. I never say that because I can’t guarantee anything and ethically we can’t say that we can guarantee anything. An attorney that says so is one that is basically trying to trick someone into signing a contract right away and put pressure on the person in order to do so.
Is It Advisable to Hire An Attorney If I’ve Already Gone Through the DUI Process Before?
When we are talking about a second time DUI, which can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony, there are certain minimum requirements under Arizona a Law. In nearly every case, a DUI is going to have a sentencing range and it is not simply a matter of I am charged with a second time regular DUI as a class 1 misdemeanor. I know what I am a going to get but the person doesn’t know what they are going to get. Attorneys know the different provisions in the law, how to maybe set it up so that there is less jail time or home detention time or a big chunk of time is deleted. A private attorney would be able to see if there are any good legal or factual issues in the case to be able to negotiate a second time offense down to a first time offense, or maybe a second time super extreme DUI offense down to a second time regular DUI offense.
It is possible that the attorney can see such severely factual issues in the case that the entire case gets dismissed. We recently had a client who was charged with a felony. An aggravated DUI and the prosecutor was wrong in the way that they charged it that the person should have never been charged with a felony. Had that person gone in there and said well I am charged with a felony, might as well just take responsibility, I want to save money and not hire an attorney, that person would have a class 4 aggravated DUI on the record forever and spend more than $4,500 in fines and fees as well as having their license revoked for a year with a 2 year ignition interlock device. Had they not hired my associate from the Arizona DUI team, they would have dealt with something that would have been life changing. But because they contacted my associate from the Arizona DUI team, they were able to show the prosecutor the error of their ways and get the charge dropped down from a felony to a class one misdemeanor.
If I Have Friends That Have Gone Through this Before and They Were Successful, so If I Do the Same Things, Will I Get the Same Result?
Every case is different, it is not about the person it is about the facts of the case and the law, and that is where experience comes into play. Hiring an attorney that knows what they are doing, that focuses on DUI, that has followed the way these cases and the latest case law on the subject. Not everyone is going to be treated the same, not everyone is going to get the same plea agreement and not everyone’s case is going to be handled the same way. There are only a certain number of outcomes because Arizona does require minimum sentences. The laws that have to do with the facts of the person’s police report, what their blood alcohol content was. A big factor is what court the person is in and what prosecutor is on the case so there are a lot of different factors but there is only certain amount of outcomes because of the way the Arizona law is written.
