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Arrested For DWI? You Need a Strong Defense Lawyer

We take DWI defense very seriously at the Law Firm of Naiburg, Obedin and Weissman and if you’ve been arrested for driving while intoxicated you need to take it very seriously as well.

DWI has become what I would say is the crime d’ jour. This is what we see when we look at the paper. We pick up the paper on the driveway in the morning, you’re going to find something about somebody getting arrested for driving while intoxicated. And lately what we’ve seen is a rash of wrong way accidents where people are crossing over and hitting people head on. I mention that because it has become, it’s not only a criminal justice issue, but it has become largely a political issue so that especially in Nassau and Suffolk Counties where everybody has to drive and everybody’s concerned about the roadways.

Kathleen Rice in Nassau and Tom Spoda in Suffolk have made it a focus of their job to make sure that these cases are handled seriously, that they are prosecuted seriously. Everybody knows that the legislature has passed new laws that increase the penalties for driving while intoxicated, that increase the requirements if somebody has been convicted, that they have to install an ignition interlock in their car so that they have to blow into their car to make sure that they aren’t drinking so that the car will start.

Driving while intoxicated has become the focus of these district attorneys’ offices and it requires a vigorous defense. It is no longer the day where somebody can get charged with a driving while intoxicated offense and just go to court by themselves and not have a problem. It seems that every case requires a vigorous defense, requires an attorney who is up on the law and who is not afraid to go to trial on these cases.

In the beginning of my career, it just so happened that it was a large part of what I did. I have tried I can’t even count how many jury trials involving driving while intoxicated and in some cases bench trials where I waived a jury where I felt that the judge that I was in front of was sympathetic to what our in large part very weak cases for the district attorney’s office, especially when there aren’t readings, where the defendant has refused to submit to a chemical test, a breath test, these aren’t very strong cases for the people, yet they don’t plea bargain, and they don’t plea bargain them for political issues, because they want to come across to the public that they are strong on these charges.

So they’ve taken a stance that even though we have a relatively weaker case to prosecute, we don’t care. Beat us at trial. And so if you’ve been arrested for driving while intoxicated, you need a criminal defense attorney who is experienced in trying those cases. Not the criminal defense attorney who is going to walk in and take whatever plea that the D.A. is offering. You need somebody who the D.A. knows will try that case. And that’s going to benefit you in the long run.