Felony DUI Attorney in Maryland

In Maryland, a DUI becomes a felony when there is significant bodily injury or death so the DUI will then be charged as a vehicular assault or vehicular manslaughter case. Those are felonies are prosecuted severely.

Process of Felony DUI Cases

Ordinary DUIs are native to the district courts in Maryland. District courts handle misdemeanors, small crimes, and generally petty offenses. One has a right to a jury trial in any and most DUI cases, which will then cause the case to be transferred to the circuit court. Felony cases involving DUIs are going to be native to the circuit courts. That case will begin in the circuit court and it is never in the district courts. At that point, all the rules and procedures of the circuit court will apply as opposed to the rules and procedures at the district court.

Importance of Having Experienced Cousnel

The elements of the case are going to be extremely similar in felony or misdemeanor cases. The state is going to have to prove operating a motor vehicle and the state is going to have to prove impairment—either impairment per se based on a breathalyzer result or a blood test in the case of most felonies or impairment based on conduct and behavior in cases where there is no blood.

Having an attorney who knows how to suppress that kind of evidence and who knows how to make those kinds of challenges is extremely important in the felony case. Having an attorney who is familiar with the rules and procedures of the court that someone is prosecuted in is also going to be extremely important. Because it is a felony case, it carries a much more significant period of incarceration and an individual is much more likely to receive a period of significant incarceration if convicted of a felony. It is extremely important to have a confident legal counsel.

Felony DUI Defense Strategies

We build the defense in the exact same way for a felony that we would for a misdemeanor. The first thing that we do is we interview the client. We talk with them about exactly what happened that night and what his or her recollections are. We use that to begin to identify the potential weaknesses in the state’s case.

After that, we am going to conduct my own independent investigations. We may go to the scene of the accident and see if we can see some contributing factors that have nothing to do with the potential impairment to the accident. We am also going to review all of the state’s evidences. We am going to go through the police report and try to comb through it looking for anything that we can use to suppress any parts of the state’s case. We will interview witnesses. we will interview experts if necessary. We will do all of the things necessary to effectively prepare the defense for the case.