A friend of mine got a DUI about a decade ago. As he described it, the legal process was a sort of "choose your own adventure" where every outcome resulted in about the same restrictions and dollar amount spent by the accused.
If you did nothing and just pled guilty, you'd pay about a $10k fine, they'd yank your license for a time, and you have some restrictions on your license once you got it back.
If you retained a lawyer, the DA filed all sorts of motions to ensure that the total fines + legal fees ended up being about $10k. Maybe the lawyer was able to negotiate down the duration of restrictions or get one or two minor ones knocked down (eg. being able to drive to/from work instead of a blanket license yank).
At the end of it he wondered why he even got the lawyer in the first place, but it was one of those things where once you go down a path you can't turn around and try the other one instead.
A friend of mine got a DUI about a decade ago. As he described it, the legal process was a sort of "choose your own adventure" where every outcome resulted in about the same restrictions and dollar amount spent by the accused.
If you did nothing and just pled guilty, you'd pay about a $10k fine, they'd yank your license for a time, and you have some restrictions on your license once you got it back.
If you retained a lawyer, the DA filed all sorts of motions to ensure that the total fines + legal fees ended up being about $10k. Maybe the lawyer was able to negotiate down the duration of restrictions or get one or two minor ones knocked down (eg. being able to drive to/from work instead of a blanket license yank).
At the end of it he wondered why he even got the lawyer in the first place, but it was one of those things where once you go down a path you can't turn around and try the other one instead.