Elmhurst is ranked second among DuPage County municipalities for DUI arrests. If you've been arrested by the City of Elmhurst and charged with DUI finding the right Elmhurst DUI defense lawyer is a critical step to achieving the best possible result in your case and putting the entire incident behind you.
DUI defense law is a complicated area of the law. Unlike general criminal defense the most effective DUI defense practitioners must be extremely knowledgeable about the arcane science of breath and blood alcohol testing along with myriad other facets of this complex legal arena.
Unfortunately, the Illinois Supreme Court does not recognize a specialization in DUI defense. Therefore, anyone with an Illinois law license is able to represent DUI defendants. DUI defense practice is difficult to do well and very easy to do badly. With more than 40,000 Illinois DUI cases per year, many lawyers who have difficulty making ends meet and have scant experience doing criminal defense work much less, DUI defense work, "branch out" to increase income and take on cases in the DUI defense field.
Beware of the "Former Prosecutor" Claim
Every year a number of prosecutors are fired, forced out,, or resign
from
the State's Attorney's Office, only to quickly pivot and make the claim
of being highly ranked
DUI defense lawyers. They are easy to find
because they invariably tout their
experience as "former prosecutors" every
chance they get. This is a tried and
true marketing gimmick used
by many lawyers who lack true Elmhurst DUI Defense experience
and talent in order to
sign up unsuspecting DUI clients. The reason this ploy is so
prevelant
is because of what is suggested by it - usually implicitly and
sometimes explicitly - that
the lawyer's status as an
ex-prosecutor will help their clients "get the best deal."
This is not
to say that all ex-prosecutors are incapable of doing solid legal
work. Indeed, there are many former prosecutors who become good
overall lawyers and
some who become decent defense lawyers. The
trap to avoid is to put too much
stock into the
notion that experience as a prosecutor translates into expertise
in
the much different arena of dedicated DUI defense practice. If you
remain aware of
the logical fallacies inherent in "Former Prosecutor" trap
you can make a much more
informed decision about which lawyer you want to
entrust your DUI defense to.
Former Prosecutor Fallacy No.
1
"I can get you the best deal because I have
connections"
This logic fallacy is by far the one most
frequently employed in order to sign up
unsuspecting clients. A closer
look at the logic behind such an assumption
demonstrates just how dangerous
it can be to your receiving the best possible
DUI defense. If a
lawyer makes a claim to "know the right people" in
order to negotiate
a "great deal" for you he needs you to believe that he
works
out "great deals" with the current prosecutor frequently for many
different clients.
But if the lawyer does work with the current
prosecutor this much, wouldn't you think
there would be a limit to the
"favors" the current prosecutor would do for his old buddy the
former
prosecutor? Of course there is. No State's Attorney is going to
risk
his job or law license to repeatedly do "an old friend" any
favors. The key
to spotting this type of lawyer is too pay close
attention to how much he
talks about his prior experience as a prosecutor,
how well he knows the current
prosecutor and how little he lets you tell
him all the facts connected with
your arrest. Despite what the lawyer
may imply, the best negotiated settlements
with prosecutors come when the
Defense lawyer negotiates from a position of
strength. Negotiating
strength comes ONLY through careful creative preparation of a defense
case
based on the facts and law. If you believe the best results come from
having
a lawyer who claims or implies he "has connections" you are setting
yourself up
to make the bad situation of a DUI much worse and much more
costly.
Former Prosecutor Fallacy No. 2
"My trial
experience as a prosecutor translates to defense
expertise"
The lawyer who makes this claim wants to have his
cake and eat it too.
On the one hand he wants you to believe that he was a
great prosecution
trial lawyer who won most, if not all of his cases as
a prosecutor.
At the same time and on the other hand, he needs
you to believe his experience
prosecuting cases gave him an opportuniy
to learn winning defense techniques
and tricks that he'll use for
you. Of course both cannot be true. If this
lawyer was so
good at being a prosecutor there were few if any defense lawyers
who ever got
the best of him. So if he always beat the other lawyer how was
he able
to learn those defense techniques? None of them must have
worked
so what were the winning techniques that this former prosecutor
learned?
It is easy to see how quickly the illusion of prosecution
experience being a
bonus unravels with some critical thought.
Unfortuanately, many people who
have been just charged with a DUI are so
drained emotionally that they let their
guard down and hear what the
want to hear and believe what they want to believe.
When shopping for the
best DUI defense attorney always keep in mind that
all lawyers are not
created equal and that some will say just about anything in
order to
collect a fee.
The Skill Set of Successful
Defense Law is Different than the Skill Set for Prosecutors
When evaluating the relative worth of a lawyer's
claimed experience as a former prosecutor it is
helpful to
compare Professional DUI Defense Law with Professional football.
Like lawyers, pro
Football players are both highly trained and have
natural talents. It is the combination of the
two that separate
the pros from the amateurs. You don't have to know a lot about Pro
Football
to understand that different positions on a team require an
entirely different set of natural talents
and abilities. In Pro
Football, a great running back has an entirely different set of
talents than a
great defensive tackle and vice versa. Each could of
course learn and understand the techniques
of the other position but the
innate talent it takes to play either position at a professional level
cannot
simply be learned. Either you have that innate skill set or you
don't.
The same can be said of lawyers. The mindset and
talents it takes to make a professional prosecutor
are different than
the mindset and talents it takes to be a professional defense lawyer.
Going from
being a prosecutor to being a defense lawyer is NOT like a
pro football player being traded from one team
team to
another. Rather, the switch from prosecution to defense
law is more like a natural running back
trying to switch positions
and play at defensive tackle. The God-given talent it takes
to be
great at one position is rarely bestowed on anyone to be great at another
position.
The most important natural talent that great defense
lawyers have over great prosecutors is a creative
mindset.
The ability to think outside the box to craft defense strategies is seldom
in the wheelhouse
of lawyers who spent years as prosecutors. So when hiring a lawyer for an Elmhurst DUI, be aware that prosecution experience does not necessarily translate into defense expertise.
