If you are convicted of DWI and placed on probation, a requirement will be that you must attend a DWI Education Course.
The course is 12 hours long, and according to the State, " is designed to help DWI offenders increase their knowledge about alcohol and drugs as these substances relate to driving skills, to identify their own individual drinking/drug use and driving patterns, and to assist them in developing plans which will reduce the probability of future DWI behavior."
Congrats to Troy Burleson of Plano, TX on the start of his new blog, the Plano DWI Lawyer Blog. Guess I’m no longer the only local guy blogging on DWI issues in the Collin County.
Troy has started off with a bang with such topics as:
Troy is a fierce advocate for his clients, and handles DWI, Toll Tag Violations, Expunctions & Non-Disclosures, Drug Possession, Theft/Shoplifting & Assault, Youthful Offenders, Traffic Tickets, Parole & Probation Violations.
I occasionally handle criminal appeals. DWI criminal appeals are usually pretty rare, and even more rarely successful.
Handling an appeal is a little like Monday morning quarterbacking… A lot of "why didn’t they say XXX or XXX?" is running through my head. The appeal I am reading now has an attorney making a challenge for cause improperly, and because he does so improperly, I cannot raise that point of error on my appeal.
Instead of complaining, I thought I would blog here on the correct way to challenge a juror for cause. This would be in case you you are in trial, and end up wanting or needing to appeal a case. Truth is, you never know until after the case is over if you need or want to appeal your case. Therefore, it is good practice to preserve all possible points of appeal during your case.
A recent article in the Dallas Morning News is talking about a new law passed by Texas to help nab more uninsured motorists.
The topic of this post is not whether or not it is a good law, waste of time, etc., but rather who helped champion the law…. Yup, MADD.
In the article, it tells us that:
Yesterday I was told by a prosecutor (after setting a case for Jury Trial), "I hear you are a much different person in trial."
I questioned what that meant … but the prosecutor started back-peddling, saying, "I don’t know," and "I don’t remember where I heard that from."
So, what does that mean??
Texas Transportation Code
§ 724.013. PROHIBITION ON TAKING SPECIMEN IF PERSON REFUSES; EXCEPTION.
Except as provided by Section 724.012(b), a
specimen may not be taken if a person refuses to submit to the
taking of a specimen designated by a peace officer.
What part of this does the State not understand?
Austin, TX DWI Lawyer Jamie Spencer recently posted about whether or not someone should "call out" of those arrested for DWI or other crimes on blogs.
He explains:
I don’t blog about so-and-so got arrested for such-and-such. It’s
-Not my style
-Seems like making fun of people in the same situation as my clients
-Not usually relevant to my ‘niche’
-Overdone by the cut-and-paste bloggers
-Not a case I think I know anything about, since all my info about it comes from the media
-There’s about a hundred more reasons I don’t ‘do’ that type of blogging.
I’d agree with him for the most part. This was in response to my previous post, and others who constantly tell him "hey, you should blog about ________ being arrested!"
I don’t normally report on people getting arrested. I haven’t once mentioned Lindsay, Brittany, Nicole, etc. I felt this one was different for a few reasons.
Thanks to Georgia DUI attorney Rob Leonard for showing us this video. Interesting stuff…
The Dallas Morning News has reported that the legislator that helped pass the surcharge for DWI drivers was arrested and charged with DWI himself.
Naturally, "He refused a Breathalyzer and blood test, according to the affidavit." according to the Austin-American Statesman.
Anyone out there surprised he refused to give a sample of his breath? I reported about judges and cops knowing about how to refuse tests in the past here and here.
One night a police officer was staking out a particularly rowdy bar for possible DWI violations. At closing time, he saw a fellow stumble out of the bar, trip on the curb and try his keys on five different cars before he found his. The man sat in the front seat fumbling around with his keys for several minutes.
Meanwhile, all the other patrons left the bar and drove off. Finally he started his engine and began to pull away. The police officer was waiting for him. As soon as he pulled onto the street, the officer stopped him, read him his rights and administered the breathalyzer test to determine his blood-alcohol content.
The results showed a reading of 0.0.
Frisco DWI Lawyer & Attorney Blog