What Happens

The first thing that happens in the prosecution of a motorist for DUI is that the arresting agency forwards its police report to the district attorney's office, where a deputy reviews it to make a charging decision. This deputy can decide to file charges, to reject the case or to refer it back to the arresting agency for further investigation.

Settlement Before Charges Filed

There is a brief window of time after the charging deputy receives the police report and before she makes her charging decision where a skilled attorney can negotiate a favorable disposition of the case.

The opportunity exists because prior to filing DUI charges, the prosecutor is not bound by the official rules governing DUI cases, as no DUI case has yet been filed.

Charges Filed

The D.A. "files charges" by drafting a document called a "complaint" and filing it with the court. The typical DUI complaint has two counts, one for each of the ways they can convict someone of DUI. The D.A. will usually add another count for each additional violation reported by the arresting officer, e.g., open container, lack of insurance or registration, driving on a suspended license, etc.

View a real complaint here.

First Court Date

Your first court date is written on the citation you signed promising to appear in court or on the bail form provided by the bonds company that posted bail.

On the first court date you must appear in court personally or, for misdemeanor cases, hire an attorney to appear for you.

If you appear in person, the commissioner presiding will ask you if you understand the nature of the charges and if you want an attorney. You do.

Under no circumstances should you attempt to represent yourself in a DUI matter. The commissioner will let you plead guilty at the first court date. Don't do it. At least speak to a public defender before pleading guilty.

If you want time to speak to a private attorney, the commissioner will "continue" your court date to another day, usually one week later.

Arraignment

The arraignment is the court proceeding where the charges are formally read to you and you state whether you plead guilty or not guilty. Usually the formal reading of the complaint is waived because it is a form complaint that merely recites the statutes alleged to have been violated.

The arraignment can proceed (and often does) at the first court date if the defendant or her attorney is prepared.

Once the "not guilty" plea is entered, the commissioner will assign the case to a superior court judge and set a pretrial hearing in two to four weeks.

Discovery

The first task a good attorney will undertake is the collecting of information necessary for the defense of the case. In our practice, we send a lengthy list of demanded items to the prosecutor, requiring him or her to provide us such information as the calibration documents for the breath test machine and the field sobriety test training manuals for the arresting officer. In the appropriate case we also obtain bar tabs and credit card receipts, cellular phone records and surveillance videotapes. In short, anything that would prove our client's stated drinking history and lack of intoxication is fair game, and we will get it.

Law & Motion

There are two motions we file frequently in DUI cases. The first is a motion to suppress evidence based on an illegal search and seizure. A DUI arrest is presumed unconstitutional because it is made without a warrant. If your attorney files a motion to suppress, the burden is on the prosecution to show that the arrest was supported by probable cause. If the prosecution fails to meet that burden, all evidence obtained by the arresting officer (chemical test results, field sobriety test results, admissions by the motorist, etc.) will be thrown out.

A second motion we often file is a motion to compel discovery. We rarely receive everything from the prosecutor that we're entitled to. The way we get it is to file a motion and ask the judge to order the prosecutor to provide it.

These motions are aggressive techniques for misdemeanor cases, and rarely done on DUI cases except by the most dedicated attorneys. They are also how DUI cases are won.

Pretrial

In the typical case, there will be one or more "pretrial conferences," also called "readiness and settlement" conferences, where the prosecutor and the defense attorney appear before the judge to apprise him or her of the status of the case. If the case is not yet ready to be settled, but settlement is still possible, the judge will usually schedule another pretrial conference in the hope that the case will settle the next time.

Plea Bargain & Probation

In most cases the prosecutor and the defense attorney can work out a plea bargain that is acceptable to the motorist accused of DUI.

The usual plea bargain has the prosecutor agreeing not to seek a usual DUI punishment in exchange for the motorist agreeing to certain conditions over a term of probation (3 years for a first offense). If the motorist successfully completes probation, he is never sentenced for the DUI. If he violates probation, he must go back to court and face the consequences, which could include the maximum punishment he could have received for the DUI in the first place.

For typical Santa Barbara plea bargain conditions, see punishment.

Trial

If the motorist is unable to come to an agreement with the prosecutor as to an acceptable plea bargain, the judge will set the case for trial.

At trial, a jury of twelve people will be asked to determine whether or not the motorist is guilty of the charges made in the complaint. In the typical case, these are the two DUI counts provided by Vehicle Code section 23152(a) and 23152(b): that the motorist was driving while impaired by alcohol and/or drugs, or that the motorist was driving with a BAC of 0.08 or greater.

DUI trials in Santa Barbara County usually take between one and three days, depending on the number of witnesses.