Now I do believe that people make some adjustments for days like St. Paddys Day, Memorial and Labor Day weekends, etc.  But if we look at the numbers, those days just don’t add that many DUI arrests.  It is not as if the weekend before Memorial Day there are 12 DUIs and Memorial Day Weekend there are 200, the numbers are more like there are 12 DUIs the weekend before, and there are 20 on Memorial Day weekend.  And actually there are usually double the arrests on the first warm weekend (which I predict will be this weekend), but nobody in law enforcement has figured that out yet.  Also another big DUI weekend is first snowfall with freezing rain.

I maintain that the numbers of DUI arrests are related to the econonmy, gas prices and the “no smoking” in bar rules.  We saw a huge drop in DUI arrests over the last two years when gas went to $4 and the no smoking in bars rule was adopted.

I believe that the number of DUIs is due to drop as soon as they stop the SET teams (mostly due to budget cutbacks). So 2010 will turn out to be a low number DUI year.  The reason that I say this, is that the legislature has tried to stop DUI by increasing the penalties for DUI for over 35 years, and each year the DUI arrest statistics increased by about 5 percent.  So that’s how good “more legislation” is.

I look forward to a time when we will look to statistics and scientific evidence to create laws rather than emotion and special interest.

BTW, what exactly does MADD do with all that money they get every year?

Ray Flavin

The ability of judges and prosecutors to weigh these ancient charges has been taken away by the legislature.  Once you have been sentenced in the past for DUI you can NEVER receive a sentence of supervision.

Now, why am I so perplexed by this?  It’s because I think that 42 years ago it is possible that you were a different person, with different values, different goals and a different perspective.  I just believe that considering an offense during a persons youth which occurred a long time ago is counterproductive.  When we do this we don’t allow people to move on.  We tatoo them with a scarlett letter “D.”  I think that if you thought about it for just a moment that you would see that keeping DUI records forever is of very little use.

My suggestion would be that DUI, traffic … etc. records expire after 20 years.  But this suggestion will be hard to implement in a time of “computer records” for everything.  Those records will bring surprizing results for someone who doesn’t remember that the sound track from “South Pacific” was all the rage.

And why would we want the law to be tricky?

Ray Flavin

I have been practicing law about 18 years now and most of that has been in traffic and criminal courts, and well most of that has been defending drivers accused of being impaired.  While most attorneys or judges would not give you their opinion of the law, I feel unconstrained. 

DUI law is a scam.  Why you ask?  Well I will tell you.  First, let me give you a little background on myself.  In 1985 my father was killed by an impaired driver.  And paradoxically, I am a DUI defense attorney.  Why would that be so?  Because DUI law won’t bring back my father, and DUI law doesn’t decrease the number of impaired drivers.  Tougher laws are not the way to get society to change its behavior.  But tougher laws are easy for legislatures to pass so that they can SAY they are doing something about this “problem.”

You should have figured out already that DUI law is whacked.  DUI laws have their own commercials.  A crime that has a marketing campaign budget?   Hmmmm, nothing going on there.

If you took the time to look up sentencing in the Illinois Compiled Statutes (trust me don’t bother) you would find that DUI’s have there own special sentencing section.  DUI law is mentioned before murder.  Last year we had 6 amendments to DUI that were pending and active law, all at once.

The actual crime of DUI is defined this way: “any amount of alcohol that impairs a person’s ability to think or act with ordinary care.”  So arguably, a swallow of beer, if it caused any impairment to think or act with ordinary care would be enough.  Now that seems like a reasonable rule until the jury is in its third hour deliberating because one holdout wants to argue that the presence of an odor of alcohol and any small mistake on a field sobriety test is enough to find someone guilty.

I think where we are at is the same place they were at back at the Salem Witch trials.  If you remember, the evidence against someone there was a girl who had a vision that someone might have done a witchly thing.  Or in otherwords, really no evidence at all.  All who were accused of being a witch were found guilty, and all of those were put to death.  At least the prosecutor had a perfect record, so there’s that.

Anyway I apologize for not blogging much lately, and once again, thank you to all who read.

Ray Flavin

In the case of a DUI, it would be reasonable for the police to search for evidence of drinking while driving, or transportation of open alcohol.  However, it is not reasonable for police to rummage through your car–because they wouldn’t find more evidence of Driving While License Suspended.

With the Supreme Court we have now, we should consider ourselves lucky to get any protection of a person’s privacy, and right to keep the police out.

Here’s how it works.  A DUI supervision is not a conviction, but because there are limitations on how many supervisions a person can get in a lifetime (one), they keep track of DUI supervisions.  First question … how long do they keep track?  Answer: forever.

So what to do.  It turns out that the only way an employer can detect a DUI supervision is to send someone to the courthouse to check the case file.  Once there, public records will show an arrest and a DUI supervision disposition.  So the potential employer must send a person to the county at which the person received the DUI charge, or they won’t find it.  But if they do go to the courthouse they will find it.

In recent years more than 50,000 DUIs have been written in our state, so a lot more people have DUI supervsions than ever before, and as a result a DUI charge does not carry the stigma it once did.  When I advise clients about what to put on a job application, I use the George Bush v. Richard Nixon example.  Richard Nixon had to resign because he was caught in a lie, not because he caused the Democratic National Committee headquarters to be bugged.  George Bush didn’t have to resign because he told us all that he bugged all of our phones because that was his right as a president during the “war on terror”.  Essentially the same behavior but the second guy didn’t lie.  He was arrogant, stupid and not willing to admit mistakes, but he wasn’t a liar.

In the same way, a person can list the DUI, point out that there was no conviction, that they successfully completed counseling, and learned something from the mistake … and hopefully turn a negative into something positive.  Of course some employers will not hire based on the report, but one avoids the “I hope they never figure out I lied on my application” dread.

Ray Flavin

A friend of mine likes to create “BAID Horror Stories” for example.

A battered wife escapes the drunken rage of her husband.  Because he is a drunk the family vehicle has a BAID device in it.  One night, in an evening filled with a lot of beer and a lot of yelling, the drunk husband begins to attack his wife with a shovel.  She makes it out the front door, and she makes it to the car, as he approached with the shovel … she tries to start the car.  Of course she can’t because she’s been drinking and the BAID device prevents the car from starting, sothe drunk husband finishes the shovel execution. 

or.

After a day of ice fishing and drinking a group of guys are heading to the shore.  Turns out Billy drove all of the guys out to the lake, and he has a BAID device in his car because of a recent DUI.  Billy while walking on the ice falls through (the only guy who didn’t drink that day).  Joe hops in the car to start it.  Because Joe has been drinking the BAID  device prevents the car from starting …. Billy dies of hypothermia.

Go ahead … make up your own BAID horror stories.

Ray Flavin

So here’s the inside scoop.  If you had to pick jurisdictions to avoid, you would avoid Algonquin, Lake in the Hills and Huntley.  Also, anywhere the McHenry County Sheriff might patrol would not be ideal locations to get a DUI as far as the automatic suspension is concerned.

Secondly, If you want to guess if you are over the limit, generally if you consume one drink an hour and you don’t have a liver problem, you should be safe to drive.  Of course, it depends on the size of the drink and your size, but chances are you won’t blow over in those situations.

Ray Flavin

RECESSION and GAS PRICES

If we only could have told the legislature that it was wasting its time creating new and improved DUI laws.  Oh, Wait … I did tell them.

Ray Flavin

Is it fair that someone who is operating a motorized skateboard could be charged with DUI.  How about a person mowing his lawn?  The Ilinois Legislature in it’s attempt to “close loopholes” has decided that both of those should be DUI’s. 

Add to that, DUI law is written and intrepreted differently that any other law (INCLUDING MURDER).  DUI law even has it’s own penalties section …. DIFFERENT THAT ANY OTHER LAW.

Well, that’s not honest. 

Ray Flavin