DUI in Oakland County

If you’ve been charged with a DUI in any of the following Oakland County Michigan District Courts: Berkley, Bloomfield Hills, Clarkston, Farmington Hills, Ferndale, Hazel Park, Madison Heights, Novi, Oak Park, Plymouth, Pontiac, Rochester Hills, Royal Oak, Southfield, Troy or Waterford, you need a Lawyer who goes there regularly. More than anything else, I know how to keep you out of Jail, and how to minimize the negative consequences of a DUI charge because I do Practice in these Courts regularly. I know how they do things, and that means I know how to make things better for you. As your attorney I know how to “work” a DUI case in each of these Michigan Courts because I know, from consistent prior experience, how each of the Judges in them handles a DUI case.

It’s no secret that Oakland County is generally perceived as the toughest of the 3 Metro-Detroit Counties, and that perception is, by and large, correct. It would be a gross oversimplification, however, to just characterize Oakland as being “tough” or “tougher” on DUI cases. Because I limit my DUI Practice to JUST the Courts of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne Counties, instead of spending a little time amongst a lot of Courts throughout the state, I spend a lot of time amongst a comparatively little group of Courts in the Tri-County area. This means as your lawyer, I am in a particularly good position to compare and contrast how DUI cases are handled differently between the various Michigan courts.

Oakland County has always been at the forefront of progress in every respect, including its Court system. Nationally, there has been a long time trend of getting “tougher” on DUI cases. The reader has to remember that 20 years ago (when I was a newer, “rookie” Lawyer), DUI penalties were, by and large, thought of as a “slap on the wrist.” In the intervening years, the Courts have taken a more “intervening” approach, and Oakland County has almost always been the first to introduce something. For example, the whole concept of “testing” for alcohol while the case is pending began in Oakland County, and has now drifted across County lines.

The same holds true for “Sobriety Courts.” Sobriety Courts generally allow 2nd (and subsequent) DUI Offenders to enroll in an intensively supervised, rehabilitation-oriented Probation program in exchange for staying out of Jail and avoiding a complete loss of the Driver’s License. Oakland County has more Sobriety Courts than Macomb and Wayne Counties combined. This means that beyond just being “tougher,” the Courts in Oakland County are far more progressive in the way they approach DUI cases.

At the end of the day, no one facing a DUI really cares about how much tougher any one Court is over another, nor do they care about things like “progressive” or “innovative.” What anyone with a pulse and a thought really cares about is what is going to happen to them. Does anyone care how many awards their Judge has won, if they get locked up? The bottom line is that what happens to you is the most important part of a DUI case.

In that regard, the evidence in a DUI case, no matter where it is pending, must be carefully examined. Most of the time, the process by which a DUI Lawyer obtains all of the evidence is rather streamlined (albeit sometimes slow) in Oakland County, Michigan. In terms of making a legal challenge to things like the Traffic Stop, the Field Sobriety Tests or the Breath or Blood Test Evidence, the Courts are models of efficiency. This makes my job as an Oakland County DUI Lawyer much easier.

When all is said and done, a DUI in Oakland County doesn’t have to be a nightmare. A person can be kept out of Jail, even if they’ve already had a prior DUI. The key to bringing about a successful result is hiring a Detroit DUI and DWI attorney who knows exactly how to “work” things, and with more than 2 decades of experience in these same Courts, I certainly do just that.