No lawyer can guarantee an outcome. Avoid letters where the lawyer promises a result. And just because you pay more for a lawyer doesn’t mean you’ll get a better result.

But you should be careful about hiring a lawyer for $700 to handle your DWI. That’s because DWI cases are complicated cases. These are not regular traffic offenses. These are serious criminal offenses.

And a lawyer who charges $700 for a DWI has to take 3 or 4 DWI cases in order to earn as much money as higher priced lawyer.

DWI lawyers who make their money on volume may not be able to spend as much time on each DWI as a lawyer who can take fewer cases, but devote more personalized attention – and investigation and research – into each case.

Consider that when thinking about hiring the cheapest DWI lawyer…

In the “incorporated” areas – Phoenix, Tempe, Glendale, Scottsdale, Mesa and so on – police departments for each municipality generally enforce the law. But there are large unincorporated parts of the county where the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is the law enforcement agency.

A similar situation exists in Wake County, where the sheriff’s office conducts investigations and patrols in unincorporated parts of the county. For instance, Cary Police Department and Apex Police Department and the Raleigh Police Department handle their individual municipal areas. But the Wake County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) patrols the unincorporated portions of the county, in addition to running the jails and detention facilities and providing deputies to keep order in the Wake County Courthouse.

Fortunately we don’t have Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio has run the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office since the 1990s, and in that time has gotten a national profile by being tough on crime: for instance, he feeds them green bologna and makes them wear pink underwear. Ha ha, very funny.

Anyway, he’s also been accused of intimidating political opponents, intimidating judges, harassing journalists who write critical things of him. In sum, thuggish tactics.

Now the federal government is investigating Joe Arpaio on possible violations of federal law.

In State v. Battle, the North Carolina Court of Appeals wrote said that a reasonable articulable suspicion is a “brief investigatory stop,”

A police officer may conduct a brief investigatory stop of a vehicle, even though there is no probable cause for the stop, when justified by specific, articulable facts which would lead a police officer reasonably to conclude in light of his experience that criminal activity may be afoot… These facts and inferences must show a substantial possibility that criminal conduct has occurred, is occurring or is about to occur.

A reasonable articulable suspicion requires that the police officer have more than a hunch that something is going on. The facts upon which the officer makes his stop must be specific and he must be able to articulate those in a way that others can understand. For instance, he can’t just say “I just felt that the defendant was driving drunk” or “My gut told me that the defendant was driving drunk.” He must explain why he had the suspicion, and what gave rise to them.

In addition, these observations must be viewed in the context of the officer’s overall experience. An officer with 39 years experience is an officer who might be able to evaluate a situation much more easily than a rookie cop who can’t rely upon such extensive experience. As a consequence, a rookie cop will probably need to know many more articulable facts.

At this point you’re wondering how you’re going to get to work, pick your kids up from school, shop for dinner, or make sure you can drive to and from school (if you’re a student).

The answer is a Limited Driving Privilege. Most people are eligible for a limited driving privilege 10 days after the arrest, which lasts for the remaining 20 days of the revocation. After that period, the person gets his full license restored (at least until the DWI is finally resolved.)

A Limited Driving Privilege is something your Raleigh DWI lawyer can do for you. You won’t even need to appear in court.

You will need to supply a DL-123 form. Call your insurance company, tell them you need a DL-123 form, and have them fax it to your attorney. I do everything electronically, so I receive these faxes through my email, print them out, and go in and get the Limited Driving Privilege.

In addition to the DL-123 form, you’ll need to provide proof that you’ve completed an Alcohol Assessment. This involves going to a state-approved agency – the one my clients often go to is called Southlight. The assessment costs $100. You will pay that fee when you go. Have the agency fax the assessment to your attorney.

In addition, your attorney will be able to pull up your Driving History. Your attorney will form out the appropriate petition, submit that, the driving history, and the DL-123 form to the clerk’s office.

The clerk will set a hearing for the next day in Courtroom 1A. Again, you don’t need to attend. Your attorney can do this for you.

At the hearing, the judge will generally grant limited driving privileges for weekdays from 6 am to 8 pm, and issue your lawyer the order. Your lawyer can pay the $100 fee to the clerk on your behalf, and send you the limited driving privileges.

Those limited driving privileges are valid from 10 days after your arrest until the thirty day period expires. At that point, you can get your full license privileges back.

If you’ve got any questions on Limited Driving Privileges, or how to handle them, call me at (919) 352-9411. I’m available weekdays, evenings, weekends or Holidays.

And naturally they don’t really know how the conversation will go.  First, I try to set clients at ease.  A criminal accusation is not the end of the world – even a serious accusation is something that people can and do face and live through the experience.  Talking to a criminal defense lawyer, whether in Raleigh, Apex, or Cary, is never something want to do.

Next, I explain the most severe consequences the client could face if they are convicted of the crime.  I do this not to scare them.  But I do this so that they know what is the worse case scenario.  In part this is because worse case scenarios sometimes do occur. But mostly this is to prepare them.

Next, I will generally ask about the circumstances that led to the arrest or accusation.  I lead people through a series of questions designed to quickly, but carefully, assess the strengths or weaknesses of their position.

For instance, if the accusation involves a sexual offense, I’ll want to know who the accuser is, the circumstances surrounding the accusation, whether the accuser has made accusations about other people in the past.  In addition, I’ll want to know who else may have been around at the time the events allegedly took place.

If the accusation involves a DWI, I’ll want to know who else was in the car, what reason the police gave for stopping the car, how much, if anything, the client had to drink, how the client was driving at the time of the incident.

I’ll also want to know whether the client has a past criminal or traffic record.  I don’t want the client to have to “relive” those past experience, or try to shame them.  But a past criminal record or traffic record may expose the client to a greater liability. North Carolina has a structured sentencing grid that relies not only on the seriousness of the current offense, but determines sentencing based on the defendant’s “prior record level.”

I’ll also ask about work or family history.  I do this not to pry, but to find out what is important to the client.  If the client has been accused of a marijuana possession charge, and works at a place where such a conviction would not be tolerated, I need to know that in order to know how a conviction might affect the client’s livelihood.

My goal in all of this is to get as complete a picture as possible in a 45 minute conversation so that I can give some appropriate advice. 

Finally, I will always clearly state the fees that I charge at the end of the conversation.  This gives the potential client enough information about what they will have to pay if the choose to hire me, and also sets expectations. 

My first conversation is free, and I’m happy to give good advice during that conversation. If you’d like to talk to me about a pending charge or accusation – whether it’s a DWI, a serious drug charge, a sex offense accusation or a violent felony – give me a call at (919) 352-9411 weekdays, evenings, weekends or Holidays.

As you can see, many people – even sons and daughters of famous people – have been arrested on Driving While Impaired. While Driving While Impaired (DWI) is a criminal offense, it is one of the most common criminal offenses in the country.

People come to my Raleigh office ashamed of having allegedly committed a crime. But what I tell them is that while no one should drive drunk, people should understand that this is a relatively common occurrence.

It’s important, however, that if you are arrested in Raleigh, Cary, or Apex or any other part of Wake County on a Driving While Impaired (DWI) charge, you should understand that North Carolina and the Wake County District Attorney treat these incidents harshly.

It’s therefore in your best interest to hire an attorney who is going to work diligently and carefully on your case, and who is ready and willing to go to trial – including Superior Court Trial – in order to defend your rights.

As I’ve written elsewhere, there are a lot of defenses to DUI/DWI charges in Wake County and North Carolina. It’s in your best interest to defend against the charges with an attorney who will defend them properly.

In addition, in most cases, you are eligible for the restoration of limited driving privileges within the first 30 days of your arrest. And you are usually eligible for limited driving privileges even following conviction.

Call (919) 352-9411 anytime – weekdays, evenings, weekends or Holidays – for information on how I can help you defend against a DWI charge.