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I recently finished a trial in Bellingham Municipal Court. The charge was Disorderly Conduct. The situation was this: my client was out with some friends in Bellingham. They were out in the street getting ready to head home at the end of the night when three young men began hassling them, harassing them, and calling [...]

Question: I am 20 years old and recently got a DUI. My license is suspended for one year. Will I be able to go to the bar when I turn 21? Answer: The first thing to consider is whether you are allowed to enter a bar at all based …

For some people, it makes sense to enter into a deferred prosecution after getting charged with a DUI in Washington. To qualify for a deferred prosecution, chemical addiction or alcoholism must play a significant part in why you broke the law. After acknowledging this, you must commit to a significant program of chemical dependency treatment. [...]

If you have been arrested for a DUI in Whatcom County or the City of Bellingham it’s likely that you have been placed on pretrial supervision. This means that you are reporting to a probation officer while your case is pending …

Officers who have special training to detect whether a DUI driver is impaired by drugs are known as “DRE” or “Drug Recognition Experts.” Washington State has a growing number of officers who have received this training and DUI officers in Seattle and King County are emphasizing the detection and arrest of …

Businesswire.com recently reported that a company is developing technology that detects a person’s alcohol level by measuring having the subject place a finger on a device known as the TruTouch 2000.  The device was announced as being aimed at industry and at law enforcement such as Washington state DUI squads for use in DUI trials. There, accurate measurement [...]

The Washington State Senate has just passed a bill requiring law enforcement officers to be honest in the discharge of their duties. The language of the bill can be found at the following URL: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?year=2010&bill=6590. Unfortunately, law enforcement officers are not always honest. Sometimes they exagerate the truth but sometimes they tell …

Recently I represented a client who was charged with DUI in the Seattle area after a detention and arrest by a local police officer. A review of the police report led me to believe that this could be a difficult case. All the “signs” police are trained to look for were in this report: Weaving, speeding, [...]

Many of my clients come to my office convinced that they want to pursue a DUI deferred prosecution. Most of them have heard about this option from friends or family. Some have even been steered in that direction from the arresting officer. Almost none of them, however, have any idea what this program actually entails. [...]

Whenever you see a DUI arrest documented on one of the police television police shows, there is always a videotape of the driving, the field sobriety tests, and other parts of the processing.  Sometimes, the video also includes the actual breath test.  People expect that DUI arrests will be recorded.Most people are shocked, however,  to [...]