Ocean City First Offense DUI Lawyer
It is important that if you are accused of driving under the influence for the first time you understand how these cases are treated and what to expect before you ever step foot in court. With this in mind, below an Ocean City DUI lawyer discusses the prosecutors and courts treatment of DUI cases and what the various possibilities are for your case. For more specific information call and schedule a consultation today.
How Do Ocean City Prosecutors Handle DUI Charges?
The State Attorney’s approach to DUIs in Ocean City is very aggressive. Even if it is only a first-time DUI charge, the prosecutors officer does not offer any diversionary programs. Additionally, they do not typically consider reducing the charge down from something other than a DUI and they expect to get a conviction on either DUI or DWI charges.
With these things in mind, the defendant needs to be prepared to accept that a plea deal is not likely to be offered. The question really becomes what are the defendant’s best options? Should the defendant prepare for a trial? What are the defenses available at the trial? Would it be better for the defendant to negotiate some sort of plea offer and try to get the best result at sentencing? These are the questions an attorney can assist with to minimize the harm of your DUI offense.
How Do Courts Treat First Time DUI Charges?
The most leniency that you can ever expect to get from the court is for a first time DUI, where the judges in many cases will offer the defendant something called probation before judgement, which is a sentencing mechanism the court can offer that allows the defendant to try keep their record free of convictions.
Probation Before Judgment means that the guilty verdict is removed from the defendant’s record, and so long as the defendant successfully completes the probation they will not have a conviction on their record. With that said, the Probation Before Judgment always stays on the individual’s driving record, and a prosecutor’s office and law enforcement officers can see it, but it is not a conviction. There are huge advantages to that for a defendant, such as are no points being assessed to their driving record and as far as their insurance rates are concerned, they will not see an increase in their insurance rates or get dropped by their insurance company.Probation before judgment is the court’s way to grant some leniency to try to help the defendant keep their record clean.
However, there are times when the judge will not offer probation before judgment to a defendant. An example of this is in Ocean City is where the DUI also involved some sort of auto accident. If anybody was injured in an accident as a result of the DUI or there was a great deal of property damage, it is possible that the defendant will not be offered Probation Before Judgment. .