Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Chicago DUI Attorney Comments on the High Price of Having a Car Towed

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here about the cost of towing.  Just last week she found herself in a tow truck.  Thankfully, it wasn’t for any illegal parking just a stubborn vehicle that felt like sleeping on the job.

Still, did you know how many different scenarios there are that involve getting your vehicle towed?

 
There used to be four offenses in Elgin that would cost you $500 on top of the cost of the actual tow and impounding of your vehicle. The city council will vote Wednesday on adding eight to the list.
A new Illinois law that went into effect Jan. 1 outlines the violations for which municipalities could assign administrative towing fees. Elgin no longer can tow a vehicle for a loud music violation — but it still plans to impose a $500 fine — and it cannot tow when a driver’s license is suspended for unpaid citations or failure to comply with emissions testing.
This is driven more by the state making its change,” Theriault said. “Legal is adapting to it, and we’re next in line to adapt to the new ordinance.”
The noise violation was the first to come with an administrative towing fee in Elgin. It started at $250 but was doubled in October 2009 when three new offenses were added: driving without a license, driving with a suspended or revoked license and driving under the influence.
Theriault said there are still a lot of what-ifs in deciding how to enforce DUI. For example, if a police officer saw someone driving a car and then stopped him after he left the vehicle for something like possession of marijuana, should the car be towed? What if it is a passenger of the vehicle holding drugs during a traffic stop?
Mayor David Kaptain, a supporter of such expansion for years, said the state law will give cities a unified approach in implementing administrative tows and could provide consistency from one place to another — if municipalities expand their own ordinances like Elgin.

Do you think other municipalities will help Elgin’s desired unified approach to towing?

Monday, January 30, 2012

Chicago DUI Attorney Wonders, " What If You Aren't Guilty?"

This Chicago DUI Attorney has posted here and here about being wrongly accused.


There are horror stories every day about crimes committed.  Still we
all tend to ignore the stories of the falsely accused.

Every time someone hears what I do for a living, I'm asked how I can
defend people who are guilty.  I always respond that I often defend
folks who are not guilty but wrongly charged.  Inevitably the asker of
the question looks at me as if I'm a Martian.

Justice delayed is still Justice denied.

From msnbc.com


A man arrested for driving while intoxicated and then forced into
solitary confinement for two years tried to get help by writing to the
jail's nurse, but the only response he got was a dose of sedatives,
his lawyer said.
Stephen Slevin, 57, was arrested in August 2005 in New Mexico’s Dona
Ana County, charged with aggravated driving while under the influence
and possession of a stolen vehicle, although Slevin maintains the car
was lent to him by a friend. On Tuesday, a federal jury in Sante Fe
awarded him $22 million in damages for enduring inhumane conditions in
the Dona Ana County jail, which he emerged from "hollow," Matt Coyte,
his lawyer, told msnbc.com on Wednesday.

Would you feel differently about his treatment if he was found guilty?

Friday, January 20, 2012

Chicago DUI Attorney Reminds You That Roadblocks Continue in 2012



This Chicago DUI attorney hopes you are safely off the roads this evening. The roads are difficult to maneuver and while the snow plows are running full force, they seem to be running behind the snow. If you are out, you should know that a roadblock is scheduled to begin shortly at 53rd and Ashland. That means with the significantly decreased road traffic tonight, you should be particularly heightened to safe driving measures.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Chicago DUI Attorney Comments on a Chicago Police Officer's Guilty DUI Verdict



This Chicago DUI attorney posted here and here about the veteran Chicago Police Officer who was accused of leaving the scene involving a boy and a bicycle.  The boy died.

The jury rendered their decision in this matter and found Officer Richard Bolling guilty of Reckless Homicide and DUI.


From suntimes.com:


A Cook County jury Wednesday found a Chicago cop who ran over a 13-year-old cyclist guilty of reckless homicide and drunken driving.

After deliberating for nine hours, a jury found Richard Bolling, 42, guilty of reckless homicide, aggravated DUI and leaving the scene of an accident.

Anyone else wondering what the jury was deliberating about?

Monday, January 16, 2012

Chicago DUI Attorney Comments on the Police Being Wrong

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here and here about video recording DUI's, still she was surprised when the prosecutor said she was wrong.

  "It's okay.  I f*#ked up." 
 No I didn't say that.  That's what the cop said in the courtroom.  It was right after the judge did the right thing.  The cop wasn't mad.  The prosecutor was livid.  My client was free to go.

So what happened?

The judge agreed with me.  Believing that if the cops have a videotape purportedly saying my client was drunk, then my client better be on that video.  If not, then no, respectfully no, officer you are not going to sit here under oath and testify that my client failed all of the Field Sobriety Tests when the video doesn't ever show my client.

Don't you think it would be an awful  lot easier for the police and the accused if there was video?  Then the he said, she said goes away.  After all a picture is worth a thousand words.