Essential Things You Must Do For Your DUI Defense In Houston Part II

6 Simple Steps To Help Your Texas DUI Defense Case Part II

4. Ensure That You Have Money Available To Cover The Costs For Your Criminal Defense

If you are arrested for a DUI-DWI, you will be faced with significant costs throughout this process. In most cases, the fee payments along with associated expenses will add up as the case progresses, which can take as long as a year, sometimes longer.

These costs could include cash for a bond to get you “out of jail”, hiring the best DWI-DUI specialist lawyer that you are able to afford, hiring different experts, accident reconstructionists, investigators, couriers, forensic experts and/or field-sobriety experts, process servers, to prove flaws that may have occurred with your blood or breath testing procedures.

Other costs that you may become liable for can include having to attend one of the DUI-DWI schools that your attorney recommends and to clean your driving record up or for conducting community service tasks. Private drug or alcohol treatments or evaluation is another cost that you may need to factor in.

5. Maintain A Flexible Schedule For Court Proceedings (Save All Your Vacation Days)

Perhaps the most difficult problem that most clients are faced with is recognizing that their attorney has very little control when it comes to scheduling court dates and court matters.

You have no control over deciding when you have to appear in court when it comes to different parts of these legal proceedings. It will be the judge along with their assistants and clerks that set the schedule of the court.

These legal processes entail a number of steps that will mean you need to make yourself available. Certain times will include appointments when meeting with an investigator or your lawyer or even expert witnesses.

You will most likely need to revisit the scene where you were arrested for different reasons. Typically, these are the matters that you can schedule at a time that suits your schedule and the expert witnesses scheduled. In other cases, you have to free up your schedule to accommodate the schedule of the court.

These practices will vary from one state to the next. In certain states, you have to appear every time your case goes to court. In other states, a written “waiver” (signed by you) or a power of attorney can mean that you do not have to attend some of the court matters. If you have used a bond to get you “out of jail”, then no preliminary hearings are required for your case.

6. Community Service Is One Of The Best Things You Can Do While Waiting For Your Trial

Most of the DWI-DUI statutes will require community service tasks that form a part of the mandatory punishment schemes. These are statutes that require a certain “number of hours”, which depend on if your offense is a 1st, 2nd, or a subsequent offense that falls within a prescribed “look back” period.

If your DWI-DUI lawyer suggests that you start participating in community service, you should go with this advice. Getting these hours completed at a non-profit organization or charity can give your lawyer the bargaining tool that they need when negotiating with a prosecutor.

Your early and prompt commitment to participate in community services can be to your advantage if your case ends up going to trial or when you lose your case.

Talk to us today or contact us for more information on what to do in your case. Missed the first issue of this article? Click here!