Recent Legal Posts

According to a recent editorial (5/27/10) in the Los Angeles Daily News by Sarah Longwell, managing director of the American Beverage Institute in Washington, D.C. it may be time to rethink the usage of DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints. Ms. Longwell states that “it is not unusual for an all-night checkpoint to stop 1,000 drivers [...]

It has been reported the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office failed to disclose to the defense the criminal histories of 80 police officers who may have testified in criminal cases including DUI / Drunk Driving cases. Apparently, any prior convictions of testifying police officers were not brought to the attention of the District Attorney’s Office. [...]

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris announced she is creating an independant crime lab seperate from the police department as a result of the recent problems surrounding the San Francisco crime lab. As you may recall, one of the crime lab technicians was alleged to have drug problems and used inventoried drugs personally while working [...]

Britian’s new DUI / Drunk Driving laws are changing to lower the “legal limit” to the equivilent of .05% alcohol level in a driver’s blood or breath. Once an average man drinks 3 beers, he could most likely be a .05% or greater. An average women would need to drink even less to be at [...]

Recently, I wrote about problems encountered by the San Francisco Crime lab which caused it to close down. Apparently, there are thousands of pages of documents sought by defense attorneys. In addition, the court inquired into how the District Attorney’s Office looks into criminal and/or misconduct committed by law enforcement employees. The District Attorney’s Office [...]

I was recently trying a DUI / Drunk Driving case in Torrance, California. During one of the breaks, I was speaking with one of the arresting officers. He indicated that in this bad economy, it seems more people are driving with expired license plates because they don’t have the money to keep them current. Driving [...]

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 180 narcotic cases have been dropped by San Francisco prosecutors since a San Francisco Police Department crime lab scandal recently became public. The crime lab has been closed since March 9th. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has stated that more cases will be dismissed unless and until the [...]

According to the Orange County Register, a study done for the year 2009 by Investigative Reporting Program at University of California-Berkely with California Watch found that more cars are seized than DUI / Drunk Driving arrests are made. Impounding of cars generated approximately $40,000,000 in towing fees and police fines. This revenue is divided by [...]

A Maryland State Delegate will introduce a bill in the Maryland General Assembly that will require 3rd time DUI / Drunk Driving offenders to install an identifying yellow license plate on their vehicles for 5 years. This concept repeatedly surfaces in many states over the years, including California, but rarely gets passed into law. While [...]

A several months ago, a woman from Neilsville, Wisconsin, called 911 and reported herself as a DUI / Drunk Driver. The driver followed the dispatcher’s direction to pull over to the side of the road and turn on her flashers. When the police officers arrived, the woman was investigated and arrested for DUI / Drunk [...]