For the most part I am a DUI attorney. The majority of my practice centers around helping people who have been charged with their first DUI. Because of that, there is often a lot of room for plea negotiations. No criminal history? Not terrible facts surrounding your case? Then it is usually possible to negotiate the charge down from DUI to something much less significant (with much lower penalties).
But trials are necessary to being a successful DUI attorney. And they are necessary for a couple of reasons. First of all, it is important to let the prosecutors know that you are serious when you are bargaining with them and if you don't receive an offer from them that is fair you'll make them prove it. And it's also important to let them know that sometimes if the offers aren't more than fair you'll make them prove it.
Second, it's important to all of your clients that you don't roll over like a sack of potatoes once the going gets rough. Have a stinker of a case with a terrible offer? Take it to trial. The worst that happens is you lose, your guy is convicted of DUI, and he is sentenced accordingly. The best is the prosecutor mucks up the case and he walks.
Which leads me to reason number three. You don't have anything to prove. The prosecutors, for the most part, aren't churning out trial after trial. After all, they are the one's making all the deals. Maybe someone doesn't show up that they need or they can't prove a fact, or they just forget to prove an element. It happens all the time. Prosecutors are human just like us.
So, the next time you are on the fence about whether or not to take a so so case to trial, put on your big boy pants, sack up, and push ahead. You may get beat, but that's part of life. You also might just go out there and steal one.
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