For the second year in a row McHenry County DUI arrests are down.  Now the Sheriff suggests that the visiting Illinois State Police SET (Seatbelt, Speeding) enforcement team are the reason, but wouldn’t the presence of such a team increase the number of arrests.  (Unless everyone out there knew this team existed and took preventitive [...]

How far back should we look back when sentencing a person for DUI?  The Illinois legislature has answered that question …. since creation.  If a person is 60 and he received a DUI when he was 18 (42 years ago): that was 1958, we had no seatbelts in cars, children routinely rode on the speaker [...]

I know I have not posted in awhile, I have been busy.  Please note that the “comments” are turned off, mostly due to spam, but I would like to take a moment to thank all of you who come by every once in a while to see what’s new.
I have been practicing law about 18 [...]

The Supreme Court has now stated that searching a car for evidence of contraband is not allowed without a warrant, unless the search is for evidence of the crime for which the person was arrested for.  It used to be that the police may search a vehicle that a person was driving in.  It was [...]

Seems like a lot of my friends are losing their jobs these days.  And many clients call me up to ask what DUI “supervision” looks like on a record (so they can figure out how to answer questions about criminal charges on their job application).
Here’s how it works.  A DUI supervision is not a conviction, but [...]

Since the beginning of the year, the State of Illinois has followed several other states (like the lemmings they are) into the requirement of BAID devices (breathalyzer to start your car).  Seemed like a great idea, unless you thought about it for about two seconds.
A friend of mine likes to create “BAID Horror Stories” for [...]

The DUI situation has changed in McHenry County.  Now those driving with court ordered BAID devices who are not driving a car equipped with a BAID device will be charged with a FELONY.  These are “first offenders” many not likely to repeat offend, and they are facing FELONY treatment.  We have entered a new age [...]

In McHenry County the penalties for getting a DUI can vary.  We have twenty seven different prosecuting authorites in McHenry County.  While many of them are represented by two or three law firms, there are a lot of different prosecuting styles.  In some jurisdictions the suspension of a driver’s license can be dealt with easily, [...]

Until today, McHenry County and its surrounding cities has written 1160 DUI tickets.  Last year:1325.  As I have said before:  I don’t believe this is because of a lack of enforcement, or the state of DUI law.  It comes from two simple things:
RECESSION and GAS PRICES
If we only could have told the legislature that it [...]

Is it unfair for DUI law to be so one-sided.  Is it fair for it to be so stacked against drivers?  You might answer this question:  Yes it should be tough, we need to protect the roads.  But, I am going to argue with that.
Is it fair that someone who is operating a motorized skateboard [...]