Bay Area Criminal Defense Blog

When a driver is arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, they quickly learn that their adversary in the courtroom is the county prosecutor. It is the job of the prosecutor in Contra Costa or Alameda to present the state's evidence against the driver charged with a DUI. Ho...

For most people who are arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) in the East Bay, the penalties are enough to keep them from ever drinking and driving again. The penalties have a serious deterrent effect, with all the fines, fees, DUI school, ignition interlock device requirement, and suspe...

A DUI can happen at any time, day or night, 365 days a year. However, there are certain times of the year when DUIs are more common. This usually involves holiday celebrations such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Each year, law enforcement and the California Highway Patrol (CHP) compare...

Anyone who sees the lights and hears the siren of a police car behind them automatically feels nervous. If they have been drinking, they may worry that the police will arrest them for a DUI, even if they are not technically over the limit. A DUI traffic stop could result in jail time, fines, fees...

Many of us don't give a second thought to the pictures and message we post on social media. Before posting something online, it may be a good idea to consider whether your message could lead to trouble down the road. A 14-word post on a social media account led to the arrest and felony charges fo...

Parents may discipline their children to teach them a lesson about what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes, that discipline can go the other way as well. A 9-year-old Canadian boy recently used his cell phone to call the police to report that his mother was driving their vehicle while intoxica...

Americans are doing more and more of their Christmas shopping online. Shopping online used to be for ordering specialty items, or things that were tougher to get in a local store. Now, even daily necessities are coming from website-based marketplaces like Amazon. However, with the increased deliv...

We may hate it when other drivers do it, but we may also fall prey to the morbid curiosity that is rubbernecking. Gawking or looking to see what happened in a roadside traffic accident can make traffic worse as drivers slow down to get a good look at the crash. It can also lead to other accidents...

For anyone charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, a DUI conviction can be a life-changing event. Not only will they have to deal with the high cost of a DUI, adding up all the fines, fees, higher insurance rates and paying for an IID or DUI school, they may also face jail t...

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Thanksgiving is traditionally a peak time for DUIs in California, as we wrote about last month. In past years, more than 500 people were killed in alcohol related accidents over the four-day period. With the latest numbers i...

California transportation workers face serious injury, or even death on a daily basis. Construction crews working to pave or repair our roadways, may have cars and trucks speeding by at 70 miles per hour or more, only inches away from where they are working. While the state tries to maintain a hi...

Until whistleblowers like Edward Snowden came out with information about massive government surveillance programs, many people were unaware of the many ways the government was watching their own citizens. Surveillance does not only happen at the federal level, even state and local agencies are us...

Drunk driving arrests are heavily demonized by the public, who often see it as people making a selfish choice that puts others in danger. However, people who deal with DUIs every day understand that often times, a DUI is a substance abuse issue, and should be treated differently than other crimin...

Dressing up in costumes and taking to the streets is a Halloween tradition. Now that Halloween has passed, parents may be worried that their children are consuming too much candy. However, other people were consuming too much alcohol on Halloween night, and unfortunately for them, they got behind...

Are you one of the 4.73 million Californians who had your license suspended because you were unable to pay mounting traffic fines? You may find relief in California's state amnesty program for unpaid traffic tickets. Once you pay off the reduced traffic fines, you may be able to have your license...

Thanksgiving is a time for family and friends to get together around the dinner table, feasting on turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. As part of the celebration, people enjoy wine with dinner, or having beer while watching football. It may also be a time when people return to the town where t...

Halloween night sees East Bay families going door-to-door, with kids dressed as ghosts and vampires looking for candy. Adults and college students also like to join in the fun, getting dressed up in outrageous costumes and going out to parties and local bars. But Halloween can also bring a bump i...

Meghan Zato was a first-year law student at UC Hastings College of Law in the fall of 2013. On October 4th, she'd gone out on the town to take part in Oakland's First Friday art festivities. She ended up at a bar, and later behind the wheel of her car. Now she is in court where she faces four fel...

The latest from the Fast and Furious franchise, “Furious 7,” has made over $350 million in the U.S. and over $1 billion in the foreign film market. With so many fans of the popular film series that has brought street racing to the big screen, drivers may be looking for the thrill that comes with ...

Most car accidents involving alcohol occur when one vehicle hits another vehicle. Other times, a vehicle will hit a pedestrian or cyclist, which can be deadly because there is no steel cage protecting people walking down the street. In rarer cases, a vehicle will go off the road, and crash into a...

While drunk driving laws across the country have changed over the years, they are getting more and more similar as each state adopts more standardized DUI laws. Beginning in the 1970s, with pressure from groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), states began adopting a threshold level of ...

Over the past few decades, there has been a decreasing trend in the number of drivers under the influence of alcohol. One study reported 7.8% of drivers in 1973 were over the current legal limit, and by 2007 that number dropped to 2.2%. This is due in part to stricter enforcement, as the laws wer...

Anyone who has been convicted of driving under the influence in Alameda County understands how tough the penalties can be. One of the probationary requirements after a DUI includes a mandatory ignition interlock device (IID) installed in order to get back your driving privileges. Even a first-tim...

Local TV news anchors keep us up to date on the events taking place where we live. They may report on animal adoptions, apartment fires, or even DUI arrests in the area. However, they may not expect to become be the subject of a news report themselves, especially when it comes to charges of drivi...

Cities such as Fremont, Hayward and Concord regularly make use of sobriety checkpoints to catch intoxicated drivers, and deter others from drinking and driving. Sobriety checkpoints can be inconvenient for drivers just trying to get where they are going, but they have been deemed legal by the U.S...