Justin Summary, Missouri DUI Attorney (Interview Transcript):

 

Rich Jacobs of myDUIAttorney.org sits down with Justin Summary, Missouri DUI attorney and asks him about how he handles DUI cases, the number of cases he's handled, his methods for defending clients, and more. A must-read for anyone facing a DUI charge within the State of Missouri, or in the United States.

 

RJ: How many DUI cases have you handled and in what time period?

 

JS: I’d say that in the last five years somewhere around 500 cases.

 

RJ: OK, quite a bit. And what would you say is your typical DUI circumstance, are there more men than women? More first time offenders than repeat offenders?

 

JS: There’s probably mostly first time offenders, but it varies.

 

RJ: And you don’t see more men than women?

 

JS: It’s pretty equal, although there may be slightly more men than women.

 

RJ: What would be your best tip when someone has been pulled over, what should they do and what shouldn’t they do?

 

JS: Well I’d say that before you even get in the car you need to make sure that you have your driver’s license on you, that you have your registration and proof of insurance, and keep that someplace easily accessible to you. That way the officer isn’t waiting at the window while you are fumbling around trying to find these documents and then giving the officer the opportunity to stick his head in your window trying to smell for alcohol, and waving his flashlight around looking for any reason to hold you.

 

Another tip I have is to refuse any sort of search, refuse field sobriety tests (the one legged stand, walk-and-turn, and the horizontal gaze nystagmus test). They can’t make you take them, it doesn’t besmirch you to refuse them, and I can’t remember a single case where an officer said that my client passed all these tests.

 

Another tip is, that if you do get arrested and they ask you take a breathalyzer, you get 20 minutes to contact an attorney and you should take advantage of that but you only get it if you ask for it.

 

The final tip would be not to waive your Miranda rights, the officer will normally give you a questionnaire asking things like “When was your last drink?,” “How long ago were you under the influence?” “Are you under the influence”, things like that, I would not answer those questions in line with your Miranda rights.

 

RJ: So regarding the questions, would they ask you to right them down or would the officer just ask them to you?

 

JS: Normally they give you a sheet with checkboxes, or fill in the blanks as far as the amount you’ve been drinking, and things like that.

 

RJ: OK, so you can say “I’m sorry, I feel like this violates my rights, I can’t answer these questions?”

 

JS: Right, they normally give you a Miranda waiver form before they give you that sheet and they’ll ask you to sign that, waiving your right to remain silent and then they’ll give you the sheet.

 

RJ: I see, so answering those questions can only hurt you. Another important thing you mentioned is that if you request an attorney, you have 20 minutes to take the breathalyzer?

 

JS: In Missouri, if you were questioned prior to taking the breathalyzer, they have to allow you 20 minutes to contact an attorney, so yeah you would use that.

 

RJ: I can see why that could result in a slightly lower blood alcohol level (BAC) and could even mean the difference between a Missouri DWI and not.

 

JS: Right it could affect the reading but most importantly you need to know whether you even need to take it or not. There are plenty of factors that play into whether you should even blow into the breathalyzer or not, and you need to talk to an attorney to decide that, as it could affect your license suspension, not to mention jail time.

 

RJ: Is there any chance that you can get a DWI in Missouri removed from your record altogether, I believe it’s called “expungement”?

 

JS: Yes, Missouri has its DUI Expungement Statute, but it’s not easy to get. You’ve got to wait ten years. It can only be one DUI that you can expunge, the first one, you cannot have any alcohol-related incidents in those ten years that you’re waiting to get it expunged, and you can’t have a commercial driver’s license.

 

RJ: So what kinds of things have you been able to do for your clients in terms of reducing their sentence, reducing jail time, and so on?

 

JS: It varies widely depending on the circumstance of each particular set of facts, the ability to get some of these charges commended to something else is becoming harder to do. DWI law in Missouri is making it harder to get things like that done, but it all depends on the strength of the charges against you. If they have a weak case, it’s going to be a lot more easy to get the charges worked around. If they have a strong case, it’s obviously going to be a tough sell to get them to amend these charges.

 

RJ: Through all the cases you’ve handled, what have you learned about people’s behavior, and their reaction to being arrested and prosecuted for a DUI, what insights have you gained through into this whole process?

 

JS: Well generally the number one emotion I see is that people are scared. They are scared that their going to lose their driver’s license and their ability to pick up their kids from school, go get groceries, go get medicines, and it also affects your ability to get to work and put food on the table for your family. But then there’s also fear about the criminal side as well, people are scared about going to jail – that’s a number one concern.

 

RJ: Do you feel that the current DUI law is too harsh or too lax, and why do you feel like that?

 

JS: I would say for the most part, the criminal side of the DWI laws are fair. My main problem is the administrative side of DUI. To take someone’s license away for a year for refusing a breath-test may be OK for someone like me who lives and works in St Louis and has access to public transportation, but most of Missouri’s rural areas where public transportation is essentially non-existent means that you are essentially taking away someone’s life for a year and their ability to make money and put food on the table for their family is too harsh and needs to be looked at.

 

RJ: What do you see as the future of DWI law in terms of the punishments and how many offenders there are going to be?

 

JS: Well I would like to think that we will see the number of offenders go down. New DWI tends to tilt a little bit toward more treatment as opposed to just punishment which I think should help as far as the number of repeat offenders. I would like to think that particularly people with high blood alcohol content levels or repeat offenders, you know just throwing them into jail and then letting them go without giving them the treatment that they need doesn’t stop the cycle. So we’re starting to see more treatment-focused laws come into place.

 

RJ: What would you say makes your firm unique in providing DUI defense, amongst all others?

 

JS: One thing would be our availability. I tell my clients, I will normally get back to you within 24 hours, whenever you need to reach me. Another thing is that I keep my rates reasonable but try to avoid having too many clients. I had that issue come up when I worked at the Public Defenders office, and now I keep my clients spread out so I don’t have too many on my plate at once, and I devote the necessary time to each client. A happy client is your best advertising, and I try to keep that in mind when I’m taking on more. Another thing would be my willingness to try cases, I didn’t have my nose in a law book for three years to look at your file and plead you out. I did it to gain a knowledge on how to defend these types of cases, and defend your rights, and how to do it well. And that’s what you’ll get from me.

 

RJ: Good to hear, I’ve never heard of any attorneys that deliberately limit their number of cases to ensure they can pay enough attention to the cases they do take on.

 

JS: Right, there are a lot of attorneys that treat handling these cases like a mass-production facility. They just run them through.

 

RJ: You may have mentioned this already, but do you have a personal statement to make to all future potential clients that may be considering hiring you?

 

JS: Sure, generally there are two types of the cases. There’s the one that comes in that has gotten a DWI charge over the weekend. They failed all the field sobriety tests, and failed a breathalyzer, and shouldn’t have been driving, but want to know if there’s anything I can do for them. For those people I tell them, you still need a voice, you need someone to try to get sympathy from the prosecutor, from the judge for you, you want to try to avoid a conviction whenever necessary. Again, a conviction is not a temporary punishment, it is something that can follow you around for the rest of your life. And again, then there’s the administrative side, losing your license is bigger than just you, it’s about getting yourself to work and your kids to school.

 

For the other type of client, they come in here and tell me they got a DWI, but I was not drunk and I was not driving while intoxicated. And for those where there was no breathalyzer, it was only the officer’s opinion that the case is built around, and how well you did on these tests, so you need to have someone to make sure that they did these tests correctly. And for those who did not refuse the breath sample, you need someone with experience around these breathalyzers, who knows how they work, knows how they operate, and make sure they are functioning correctly, and that they are not reading a higher level than what they should have been.

 

Finally, I would tell them that I offer a free initial consultation. So sit down and talk about the strengths and weaknesses of your case, and what I can do for you and I will give you a price, and there’s not going to be any pressure involved. So there’s no reason not to.

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To hire Justin Summary, go to STLcriminalattorney *dot* com, or call 314.361.7100.

 

Also, You Can Watch Justin Summary's Interview HERE >>