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Roseville DWI Lawyers

1. Patrick Oden: Across the nation, and specifically here in Minnesota, there is a push to crack down on DWI (also informally called DUI). Police have been given larger budgets to boost DWI enforcement. Driving under the influence of a mind-altering substance is never a good idea. But people make mistakes. Heightened enforcement coupled with much stricter laws has meant that people with no past criminal records are being swept into the DWI enforcement net in record numbers. Hiring a Minnesota DWI attorney as soon as possible may be the single most important action you can take. An arrest on the suspicion of driving under the influence initiates two legal processes. The first is administrative: to remove the arrestee's driving privileges. The second is criminal: to determine whether or not the arrestee has committed a crime. A person can navigate the process alone, but the prudent person will hire a criminal defense lawyer. Criminal charges, including DWI charges, cannot be taken lightly. An attorney will protect your right, ensure the law is followed, and force the prosecution to prove its case against you. Administrative Hearing: License Suspension If the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (opens in a new window) has not already taken your driver's license, then contacting an attorney should be on the top of your list. The DPS has the authority, and is statutorily required, to suspend or revoke the driver's license of any person who has been arrested for drunk driving. The commissioner cannot suspend driving privileges in most cases until after the DPS notifies you by mail that it intends to suspend your driver's license. During that notification period, you may request an administrative hearing to challenge the license suspension. You should have hired an attorney by this point. If your license has already been revoked, you may appeal the administrative decision to district court. At this point, you should contact an attorney to help you file the appeal and to represent you in court. This appeal will be a court proceeding before a judge. You can represent yourself. You probably should not. Hire a criminal defense attorney. Criminal Proceedings: Plea Bargain or Trial Criminal proceedings will be initiated by the county prosecutor in district court separately from, and potentially concurrently with, the administrative hearing for license suspension. The two proceedings in a legal sense have nothing to do with one another. The administrative hearing cannot be used as evidence in the court proceedings and vice versa. The criminal process is not complex on a large scale. Basic criminal procedure is not difficult for non-lawyers to understand. In fact, first-year law students are taught criminal procedure, so anyone must be able to learn it. But you hire a criminal defense attorney not to understand the big picture but to represent you and protect you from the minutiae. You can represent yourself, but are you sure that you will get the best deal? Can you be sure that you will know when to object at trial? Can you be sure that you will know when you have to file documents, how to scrutinize police reports, or examine the arresting police officer on the witness stand? You should hire a lawyer because the potential penalties you face are severe. As the proceedings move through the procedural phases, you will come to a point where the prosecutor will offer you a plea bargain. The prosecutor will offer you a specific penalty in exchange for your guilty plea. The decision to plead is yours alone; a lawyer cannot make that decision for you. If you do not accept a plea bargain, you will enter a plea of not guilty at a pretrial hearing, and the judge and his or her clerk will set a date for trial. Plea bargains serve two functions. Pleas reduce the strain on the court system by producing fewer trials that require judicial time and resources. Pleas also allow defendants who are prepared to admit guilt and take responsibility to accept a sentence that will almost assuredly be less than would come from a guilty verdict at trial. Despite the utility of plea bargaining in the judicial system, taking a deal is not the defendant's best option in every case. Some cases should be defended at trial. Police and prosecutors can make errors. Mistakes and civil rights violations can be grounds for courts to dismiss cases outright.
2. Ramsay, Charles: Many people feel that if a person is pulled over for DUI or DWI and tests positive for alcohol in the blood, a conviction is assured. This is even easier to believe for those actually pulled over, tested, shamed by police officers and jailed overnight. The fact is, there is more than a "possibility" that you can beat your DWI or DUI charges.
3. Twin City Attorneys: Being charged with a criminal offense is frightening and can have consequences far into the future. Anyone arrested for a DWI or for something as serious as murder needs an experienced criminal defense attorney. There are many issues to sort through. What is the defendantŐs explanation for what happened? What evidence does the prosecution have? What do witnesses say? Were there mitigating circumstances?
4. M. E. Ludt: Proving your innocence -- There is nothing more important when the State of Minnesota wrongly claims that you committed a crime. Even if there is some guilt, too quickly will the prosecutors and judges stick you with a punitive sentence for a petty mistake. Whether it is defending your innocence or negotiating a sentence to fit the crime, you need an experienced aggressive criminal defense attorney. The State of Minnesota does not make it easy on you. Court is intimidating, forms are confusing, the law can be unintelligible, and the odds quickly seem to stack against you. Dont let the system take the best of you. Your freedom from jail, your financial freedom, your drivers license, and your reputation are on the line you need an experienced trial attorney to defend yourself against the charges.
5. Ramsey, DeVore & Olson:
   Your recent arrest for an alcohol offense has put you at risk under the law.
   You risk the following:
   1. Lengthy driver's license revocation.
   2. License plate forfeiture.
   3. Vehicle forfeiture (not just impounded -- but seized and sold!).
   4. Two years in jail.
   5. Four Thousand Dollar Fines.
   6. Increased insurance costs
   You can protect your future by fighting these charges.