DUI Lawyer in Salt Lake City

If you have been charged with a DUI, it is not unlikely that you are feeling considerably stressed - criminal charges are nothing to take lightly and without the assistance of a knowledgeable Salt Lake City criminal defense attorney, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. At Rocky Mountain Defenders, PC, we recognize how daunting it may be to have a brush in with the law and we want you to know that we are here to help defend your rights. When your stakes are this high, you cannot afford to be flippant and you certainly cannot afford to leave your future up to chance - you need someone knowledgeable about the process you are facing, someone who will be able to guide you through it as effectively as possible.

What can you expect in the DUI process?

Following an arrest, the first thing that you must understand is that a DUI process is going to be more complex than almost any other criminal case - and that is exactly because it won't just be the criminal case that you will be facing. In fact, the DUI process will split into two different paths which will proceed independently of one another : the case that will be tried through a criminal court and the administrative case that will be tried through the Driver License Division (DLD).

For the criminal case, the very first step will be what is called your arraignment; during this you and the lawyer representing you will go before the judge in the criminal court to formally hear the charges that are being pressed against you. It is during this time that you will be able to formally enter your plea; most likely, you will be pleading "not guilty" and you will have the trial set. If you choose to plead "guilty" then a sentence will be imposed and the criminal case will be over.

Assuming that you pled not guilty, the next step will be enter into pre-trial conferences with the prosecutor - during this, plea agreements will be argued over. Should you and your attorney come to a reasonable agreement with the prosecutor, it will be formally recorded and the case will be over. If not, the case will move onto the next step of the motion hearings and the pretrial litigation. Any motions that your attorney believes will help your case will be filed at this time in an attempt to keep a case from formally entering into a trial. Motion hearings will allow for testimony and cross-examinations.

Should the motion hearing be unsuccessful, the actual trial will begin. During this time, no matter whether you are proceeding into a bench or a jury trial, your attorney will use the evidence at their disposal to fight for the best possible option - no matter whether that is for a full dismissal of charges or whether this refers to getting penalties reduced. If during this trial, you are able to achieve a full dismissal, the case will be over. If not, a sentencing hearing will be scheduled.

Brief Overview of the DMV Hearing

It is important to remember that the administrative case will be a completely independent procedure; it will not affect your criminal case and the results of the criminal case will not have any effect on the administrative case. Following a DUI arrest, it is important that you request the hearing with the DLD within ten days; if you do not, you will be forfeiting your ability to fight against a driver's license suspension. Without requesting a hearing, you will immediately have your driver's license suspended for 120 days and will be legally considered an Alcohol Restricted Driver. Essentially what that means is that if you are caught driving with any amount of alcohol in your system, you will have your license suspended for a single year. By requesting the hearing, however, you will get the chance to fight before the DLD to save your license. This hearing will not deal with the question of your guilt; rather, it will determine whether the arresting officer had reason to believe that you were impaired. It doesn't matter whether you were actually drunk or not - if they reasonably believed so, you could lose your license.

Salt Lake City DUI Lawyer

Who you choose to represent you in this case can have a serious impact on how your case unfolds. It is for this reason that we encourage you to contact a lawyer from Rocky Mountain Defenders, PC as soon as possible. We have proven that we are hard-hitting advocates; you can be confident knowing that should you choose to work with our firm that we will do everything that we can to help defend you.

To learn more about the DUI process, do not hesitate to contact a Salt Lake City DUI attorney from our legal team as soon as possible.