DUI Articles

Choosing a California DUI Lawyer

Written Sept 8, 2008 Last Modified Apr 15, 2009

This Article Prepared by the Staff of Kapsack and Bair, LLP

If you have been arrested for a DUI in California, you face the difficult task of choosing a qualified DUI lawyer. Generally, it is a good idea to make a short-list of about three California DUI lawyers and have a consultation with each of them. From those consultations, you should choose the DUI lawyer that you feel will provide you with the best DUI defense while fitting within your budget.

How, though, should you go about choosing which DUI lawyers to include on your short-list? Some factors are obvious: Does their website look professional? Do they respond to emails and phone calls promptly? Do they handle many cases in the county in which you were arrested?

More important than the obvious factors is getting some type of third-party, independent verification of the lawyer's skills and experience in handling California DUI defense cases. Below, in order of priority, we list five places on the Internet where you can quickly obtain information about California DUI lawyers.

	The State Bar of California The California State Bar website provides basic information about all California lawyers through their attorney search. First and foremost, you should check the lawyer's current status and make sure it is "active," meaning they are legally allowed to practice law within California. Some DUI lawyers might not be active; they might plan on having an associate handle your case or even referring it on to another law firm. Next, check the lawyer's profile. Make sure under "Sections," they are listed as practicing criminal law. Getting a family or business lawyer to handle your DUI case might not be such a good idea. You should also check on the lawyer's bar profile the section called "Actions Affecting Eligibility to Practice Law." There are two sub-sections that might have affected the lawyer's bar status in the past. If they have had administrative actions like failing to pay their dues on time, it is probably not too big of a deal. However, if the lawyer has past Disciplinary Actions, you might want to investigate further.
	Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings The Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory has been used by lawyers for over a century to help them find other lawyers when they need to refer a case. As part of the guide, Martindale-Hubbell includes a peer review rating system that allows lawyers to evaluate the ethical standards and abilities of fellow lawyers and law firms. Thanks to the Internet Age now everyone can avail themselves of this valuable information. Search for a particular lawyer or law firm using their Lawyer Locator. The absense of a Martindale-Hubbell rating does not mean the lawyer is no good — plenty of great lawyers are not rated. However, obtaining a rating does indicate that the lawyer has been vetted by the people who know the most — other lawyers. The top Martindale-Hubbell rating a lawyer can obtain is an AV Rating which translates into very high ethical standards (V) and Very High to Preeminent legal ability (A). Given the difficulty in obtaining any rating, BV and CV ratings also provide some assurance of the lawyer's skills.
	National College for DUI Defense (NCDD) The NCDD is the nation's premier organization dedicated to improving DUI Defense through creating standards and providing education and training. The NCDD website currently lists 112 affiliated California DUI Lawyers who are committed to improving their capabilities in DUI Defense. While membership within NCDD might be considered to be the bare minimum to call oneself a DUI lawyer, there are finer points to consider. Even among NCDD member attorneys, very few are Board Certified in DUI Defense Law. Board certification is an approved specialty by the American Bar Association, and it provides the strongest assurance that a lawyer has the legal and technical knowledge particular to DUI cases.
	California DUI Lawyers Association The California DUI Lawyers Association provides it members with the opportunity for regular training sessions, updates on changes in California DUI law, and other items relevant to California DUI defense. By selecting a lawyer who is a member of the California DUI Lawyers association, you can have some assurance that he or she is up-to-date on the issues affecting your case.
	Internet Review Sites Internet websites like Yelp, Yahoo Local, and MerchantCircle allow anybody to leave anonymous business reviews. While these sites seem to work fairly well for restaurants, we do not feel they are quite ready for professional reviews. While hundreds of people might eat at a restaurant in a single day, only the largest DUI law firms handle that many cases in an entire year. As a result, there are almost always too few reviews to help you make an informed decision. When there are reviews, they have to be taken with quite a large grain of salt. Most people only are familiar with a single DUI lawyer, so they have no comparison. It is not exactly the same thing as telling you a particular pizzeria is the best out of the twenty or so they've eaten at over the past year. By all means good reviews are better than bad ones on these sites; however, you should probably not take any of them too seriously.

Terms: California DUI Lawyer; DUI Attorney in California; National College for DUI Defense; NCDD; California DUI Lawyers Association