Virginia DUI Lawyers

Virginia DUI Client Story

Disclaimer: In efforts to protect the identity of our client, we have changed the names and details of this story.

Rebecca was a college student at the time of her life-altering arrest. She was doing pretty well in her classes. Next semester she was hoping to travel abroad if she could save up enough money.

Rebecca lived on campus with two roommates, Shannon and Leanne.

When Rebecca stepped into the house late on a Friday night, Shannon and Leanne were buzzing around the kitchen with a bottle of wine already mostly drunk.

“Becky!” Leanne exclaimed, “What are you up to tonight, and please just say that you’re going out with us.”

Rebecca considered for a moment the book she had on her nightstand waiting to be finished. She sighed at her warm bed and shrugged.

“Alright. Why not?” she replied.

Shannon and Leanne were excited. Rebecca did not go out with them very often.

Rebecca had ulcerative colitis so drinking did not agree with her. The most she could handle was a light pour of gin and tonic.

Because tomorrow she had a shift at the campus dining hall swiping cards early in the morning, she agreed to drive them all to the bar.

It was about a ten minute drive from their house on campus to the bar near them.

When they walked in, they immediately ran into a group of friends.

A few guys from Leanne’s lit class offered to buy the first round. Since it was still early in the night, Rebecca agreed to have a drink.

She had not had a gin and tonic in a few months. They poured it pretty heavy tonight.

After a few rounds of darts with the boys, she was handed another drink from Shannon who had missed her turn twice to go talk to the bartender.

“It’s from that guy at the bar. He said you’re in his history class,” she said.

She looked over and sure enough it was her friend Andy. She took the drink from Shannon and asked, “Did you get this right from the bartender?”

“Yes, of course,” she said.

Rebecca nodded and promised to find her once she said hi to Andy.

They talked for a while, chatting about their professor who was always late to their classes.

After a little while, Shannon and Leanne joined them. They were accompanied by their guy friends.

There was a call for shots. Rebecca was feeling alright and decided to go for it and have the shot.

At this point she could tell she was not sober, but she still felt alright.

They all stayed at the bar for a few more hours as she continued to sip on her drink. She checked her phone and it was already almost 2 am. She showed the time to Leanne and Shannon and told them she was ready to head out soon.

She did not want to oversleep and miss her shift at the dining hall. She could hardly afford tuition with a job. She didn’t want to think about what it would mean for her to lose this job.

They said their goodbyes to their friends. Rebecca gave her cell number to Andy from history and they headed to the car.

Rebecca figured they had been there for about four hours and she only had three drinks. She should be fine to drive.

As they pulled away from the curb, Leanne and Shannon were drunkenly debating about which of the boys liked who better. They were between the one with the baseball cap and the one with the swoopy hair. Rebecca chuckled to herself as she came to a stop sign.

She turned right to the main street by the bar and her heart dropped into her stomach when she saw that there were police lights in her rear view. She was even more afraid to hear the whoop of the siren.

“Guys, quiet!” she snipped at her friends.

She pulled over and put her hands at ten and two on the steering wheel.

The officer tapped on her window and she rolled it down. Her heart was hammering.

She handed over her license and registration to the officer as he peered into the car.

He asked, “Have you been drinking tonight?”

Rebecca didn’t know if she should lie to the officer. She finally said, “Yes, officer. But I promise I would never get behind the wheel if I was drunk.”

“I’m going to ask you to step out of the vehicle,” he said.

She turned to her friends, eyes wide, and then opened her door to get out.

She performed the field tests with the officer when he determined that she was driving while intoxicated. It did not help her that she smelled of alcohol from people sloshing their drinks on her. It also did not help her that her mascara was smudging under her eyes because she was sweating in the bar.

She was booked for DUI that night.

She was horrified with what happened to her.

Visions of her graduation faded away. She pictured her parent’s basement. That’s where she was going to end up after she went to jail.

The very first thing she did after she was released on bail was call our office to set up a consultation.

When Rebecca met with us, she wanted to know answers to these three questions:

1. What would happen if I’m convicted?
2. Can we get this expunged?
3. How can we defend her?

Continue to read until the end to learn what Rebecca did during her first consultation with our Virginia DUI lawyers.

What would happen if I’m convicted?

For Rebecca, because this was a first charge, if she was convicted her penalties would be a year of jail with a minimum of $250 but up to $2,500 in fines.

We assured her that we would be fighting to keep her from the harshest of penalties of this misdemeanor.

She was in a better position than some of our other clients who were looking at multiple convictions of DUI.

Can we get this expunged?

Rebecca did not want this to haunt her forever. She was worried that she would have to tell every future employer and landlord about a DUI conviction.

We told her that, we could potentially have this off of her record forever. But expungement in Virginia is very difficult to get. It would make more sense for us to avoid this conviction altogether.

Rebecca was terrified of this ruining her future. She was a good kid. We could tell that from meeting her. She made an honest mistake and we would fight with everything we had to protect her.

How can we defend me?

When Rebecca asked how we were going to be able to defend her, you could tell she was just about ready to give up on herself. She did not see a way out of this. It felt hopeless.

We reassured her that she was not the first person to end up in this position. She was also not the first person that we have helped out of this situation.

We promised her we would thoroughly investigate the stop from the officer.

We later found out that he made an illegitimate stop. He did not have a sufficient reason to pull her over. We were able to successfully get the DUI charges dropped against her because of the mistake from the officer.

We are able to help a lot of clients out of these messes because of mistakes made by officers.

DUI Case Mistakes to Avoid Making

When you have been charged with DUI, you need to be aware of some of the mistakes that you can avoid making if you would like to protect yourself from the harshest of outcomes for your case.

Do Not Refuse the BAC Tests

When you are pulled over for DUI, you are going to be asked to perform a field sobriety test, or a BAC test either through blood or your breath.

You might wonder if it is better to refuse to take the tests to avoid testing above the legal limit.

There is absolutely no reason why you should refuse the test. In fact, if you refuse to take the test, you can get hit with more penalties.

The penalties for refusing to take a breath or blood test are a year of a suspended license if this is your first offense. You will also not be allowed to get a restricted license if you refused the tests.

There are defenses we can still make for you even if you are above the legal limit on these tests. You should never assume that you are done for if you test over the legal limit.

You may be able to argue that your BAC increased over time and was inaccurate by the time they performed the blood test on you.

Do Not Argue with the Officers

It is incredibly important that you do not put up a fight with the officers. Let’s say you become belligerent and yell at them because you are afraid of getting arrested. They can interpret this behavior as dangerous and you could end up with a separate charge of resisting arrest. The officer may take note of your behavior and use it as reason to believe you are under the influence.

The way you act around the officers is important. The more cooperative you are, the easier it will be.

We do not want you to end up having to face even more penalties because you were resisting arrest or being belligerent with the arresting officer.

When you are looking for a way to have your truth heard, you can rely on our lawyers to be a voice for you. We can handle proving your innocence in the right place, at the right time.

Trying to tell the officer that you are not drunk while they are trying to get a BAC from you is not the right time or place for you to be putting up a fight.

Stay Off of Social Media

We advise anyone who has been arrested to avoid social media especially regarding their case.

You not only want to be private about this charge, but it will be important for you not to say anything incriminating online.

Whenever you post online, you can assume that it will be there forever. Even if you delete something two minutes after posting it, you never know if someone took a screenshot of it.

Let’s say you posted photos from the night of the arrest and you had a plastic cup in your hand. That cup could be full of water, but to the prosecution, it could be filled to the brim with vodka. They can and have in the past used peoples’ social media posts to try and prove their case.

Do not give them any reason to have a stronger case against you.

Additionally, if you are worried about your reputation, you should not be posting about your arrest. Some employers and landlords do check social media when looking for hires and even if it is years in the past, seeing something about your arrest might deter them from hiring or housing you.

Do Not Wait to Call a Lawyer

The first thing you should do is call a lawyer to help represent you. There are many mistakes that you could be making following your arrest that a lawyer can protect you from.

Also, you can bet that the case against you is being built without delay.

If you are serious about avoiding fines and jail time, you should be urgently looking for someone to help you with your case. This is not something to take lightly even if it is a misdemeanor.

If you ended up with a conviction from this because you went unrepresented, then the next time you get into a situation like this, it is going to be even worse.

You do not want to risk your future and your livelihood. Call our office right away for a consultation. 

Pick the Right Lawyer for Your Case

Few things are more important to the outcome of your case than the person you choose to represent you.

The lawyer you bring onto your case is going to make or break your case results.

There are a few things you need to consider when you are looking for the right lawyer to handle your case.

First, make sure that when you are looking for a lawyer, you are looking for a criminal lawyer who handles DUI cases all the time. This is going to be very important when you are looking to avoid facing the harshest of penalties.

You would not want to hire the lawyer who handled your friend’s divorce. Even if they are an incredible lawyer in another field of law, that does not mean they are going to be the right person to represent you in your DUI case.

Make sure the lawyer you have on your defense is someone who has handled many DUI cases successfully before.

You do not want to pay the consequences of a conviction and wonder if you could have found someone better suited to have helped you out of this mess.

Call Our Virginia DUI Lawyers

Getting charged with DUI can be scary whether this is the first time this has happened to you or you are facing multiple convictions. We hope that you reach out to our Virginia DUI lawyers right away if you get caught up in a situation where your future is on the line. Give us a call today to set up your first consultation.