If you are arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) in California, the current law requires you to submit to breath or blood test to measure your blood alcohol content (BAC).  If you are over the .08 legal limit, and the test was conducted within 3 hours of the time of driving, it is presum...

The answer to this question is NO.  It is not illegal to drink alcoholic beverages and then drive a motor vehicle.  However, it is illegal if your ability to drive is impaired because of drinking alcoholic beverages.  

If you have been arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) criminal charges will likely be filed against you.  You have the right to a jury trial if you are facing criminal charges.  However, most criminal cases do not proceed to trial.  Rather, they are settled before trial in what is calle...

Restitution is defined as an act of making good, or giving the equivalent for, any loss, damage or injury.  Restitution is frequently ordered by the courts in DUI cases involving injury or property damage.  Criminal courts will order payment of restitution by the defendant to the victim as a cond...

The Burbank Courthouse is located at 300 East Olive Avenue in the city of Burbank.  Berglund Law Office, P.C. has represented many individuals arrested for DUI in the city of Burbank.  A good Burbank DUI lawyer is a must if DUI charges have been filed against you.  The Burbank Courthouse handles ...

LAPD regularly conducts DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols throughout the city.  As we have discussed on our DUI blog, in both part 1 and part 2, DUI checkpoints, also known as sobriety checkpoints, are locations where law enforcement officers are stationed to check drivers for signs of intox...

If you are convicted of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) you're California driver's license will be suspended.  The length of suspension will be determined by a number of factors, including the number of prior offenses you have, whether or not the DUI involved injury, how high your blood alcohol...

If you are convicted of reckless driving involving alcohol ("wet reckless"), DUI, or DUI with injury, the Court will read you the following admonition during sentencing:  "You are hereby advised that being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or both, impairs your ability to safely operate a...

The short answer is yes, you may go to jail if convicted for DUI.  How long you may go to jail depends on several factors, including 1) whether you have any prior offenses; 2) whether another person was injured or killed as a result of your conduct; and 3) whether you refused to submit to a breat...

Many people facing Driving Under the Influence charges wonder if they will be required to attend classes if they are convicted of DUI.  The answer is yes.  Not only will classes be required by the court but, in most instances, will also be required by the California Department of Motor Vehicles b...

The California Vehicle Code sets out "per se" blood alcohol content amounts that create a rebuttable presumption that a person's ability to drive is impaired and is DUI.  The legal limits are .08 percent for all drivers and .04 percent for commercial vehicle drivers.  If you were arrested for Alc...

Many Driving Under the Influence (DUI) cases are filed at the Airport Courthouse.  This is due to the Airport Courts jurisdiction encompassing a large geographical area.  DUI arrests which occur in Westchester, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Century City, Brentwood, Venice, Mar Vista, Marina del R...

There are a number of ways that a law enforcement officer can come into contact with a driver, including a traffic stop, following an accident, and at a DUI checkpoint.  Our previous blog post "What Leads To a DUI Investigation?" discussed this issue.  Let's assume that the initial encounter betw...

Many people that are arrested for DUI are often confused, overwhelmed, and, sometimes, scared.  What happens next? and What should I do now? are two questions that we are frequently asked.  To make matters worse, there is frequently a substantial amount of time that may pass from the date of ...

Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST) are used by law enforcement officers as an investigative tool to determine whether a driver is drunk or impaired in some manner.  SFST's are usually requested by the officer if the officer smells alcohol or observes some objective symptoms that the driver ...

California DUI penalties in criminal cases depend on how many prior offenses a person has and whether there were any aggravating factors in the case.  Aggravating factors can best be described as "any fact or circumstance that increases the severity or culpability of a criminal act."  In DUI case...

A person convicted of 3rd offense DUI faces 120 days minimum in county jail.  A person convicted of a felony DUI could be sentenced to years in prison.  A good DUI Lawyer will discuss alternative sentencing options with the prosecutor and Judge.  One such option may be for the client to serve his...

If you are arrested for DUI the officers are required by California law to serve a notice of driving privilege suspension/revocation order if the arrested driver does any of the following: 1) submits to a breath test with the results showing .08 or higher ...

Technology is beginning to play an important part in DUI investigations.  Many law enforcement officers have dashcam videos in their patrol vehicles.  The California Highway Patrol calls them MVARS, short for Mobile Video Audio Recording System.  The Los Angeles Police Department refers to them...

A commercial drivers license is required to operate commercial or heavy vehicles. A commercial vehicle is any type of motor vehicle used for transporting goods or paid paid passengers.  California DUI laws for commercial drivers are strict.  The legal limit for a driver operating a commercial ve...

As we have discussed previously on our blog, law enforcement officers need reasonable suspicion to initiate a traffic stop upon a vehicle.  A driver who was speeding, weaving between lanes, rolling through a stop light or sign, driving with expired registration, talking on a cell phone, or textin...

The Metropolitan Courthouse, commonly known around Los Angeles as simply Metro, located at 1945 S. Hill Street in Los Angeles, is where the Los Angeles City Attorney prosecutes misdemeanor DUI cases where the arrests occurred in Central Los Angeles, including downtown Los Angeles, Chinatown, Ec...

In our last blog post, we provided an introduction to DUI sobriety checkpoints and the Ingersoll guidelines that govern their implementation.  To recap, the following guidelines should be followed for a valid DUI checkpoint: 1.  Decision making by supervising officers; 2.  Limits on the discret...

DUI checkpoints, also known as sobriety checkpoints or DUI sobriety checkpoints, are locations where law enforcement officers are stationed to check drivers for signs of intoxication or impairment.  Law enforcement agencies use DUI checkpoints as part of their campaigns to deter drunk driving.  T...

If you are convicted of Driving Under the Influence you will will likely be placed on probation.  If it is a misdemeanor offense it will be informal, or summary probation.  This means that you do not have to report to a probation officer or the Los Angeles County Probation Department.  If you wer...