The state of Florida has very stiff penalties for driving under the influence. Anyone convicted of DUI is subject to fines of up to $1000, up to 10 days in jail, and suspension of drivers license privileges for up to 30 days. In order to avoid these penalties, finding a good Florida DUI attorney is important.
There are several ways to go about finding a good DUI attorney in the state of Florida. Probably, the most common choice is personal recommendations from friends or family. However, these are not always available, so a person must resort to other means. Fortunately, there are a couple of other options.
One way to find a DUI attorney is to look in the yellow pages. One can usually find a long list of attorneys specializing in different branches of the law. Because of the nature of the offense, it is of extreme importance to find an attorney who specializes in DUI cases. This information should be included in their yellow pages ad.
The next option is to search the Internet. Unless you have personal knowledge of an attorney, this is probably going to be your best bet. The process is fairly simple. All one has to do is enter the keywords Florida DUI attorney on any search engine to receive a list of attorneys specializing in this type of case.
Once this list is attained, one should probably limit the options to attorneys practicing within a certain radius. This should produce a short list of viable attorneys that one can check more extensively to make choosing the best one available easier.
Now one should take each attorney on the short list and examine public records to determine their success rate in cases similar to yours. You will probably find a vast difference in the effectiveness of attorneys.
Another item to look at would be the rates charged by each attorney for defending DUI cases. One should compare what one will be expected to pay versus the success rate of each attorney to determine which one is both affordable and has the best chance of successfully defending the case. After all, there may be times when one simply cannot afford the very best attorney, but one can afford a good attorney.
Armed with these statistics, the next thing one should do is contact the attorney chosen as first option. It will be necessary to make sure this attorney is available to be in court on the date of one’s summons in order to determine whether or not to hire this individual. If he or she is not available, one will have to move to the second attorney on the list and repeat the process.
Because of the stiff penalties associated with DUI offenses in the state of Florida, finding a good Florida DUI attorney is important whenever one receives a ticket. There’s several different options for finding a good attorney, but one should definitely do research into an attorney’s success and failure rate before choosing to hire this person in order to assure getting the best possible defense for the money.
