A short time after your arrest for a DUI, you will be asked to attend an arraignment in court in front of a judge. You will be formally charged with a DUI and asked to either plead guilty or not guilty. The court may set your bail amount and appoint a lawyer to represent you but at this stage, you should not really need an attorney. You will either plead guilty or not guilty at the arraignment but you can change your mind later if you think you made a mistake. You will usually be given a jury trial and you can insist on it in almost all states if you are not. If you change your mind about this later, you can request a trial by judge instead. If your's is a misdemeanor charge, meaning the circumstances of your arrest are not extremely serious and therefore a felony, you may be able to post bail and be released.
As soon as you are able to, your best move would be to get an experienced DUI lawyer and sit down with him to understand your options going forward. Usually, your only choices will be to ask for a trial by jury, ask for a trial by a judge, try and get your charge reduced to a less serious one or simply plead guilty. Which ones you choose will depend on your circumstances--the more serious your charge, the less leeway you will have. It's in your best interests to thoroughly review these options with a DUI-experienced lawyer. Here are some basic ideas on what you can expect:
Your recorded blood alcohol level is a big determinant of whether you should fight your conviction or plead guilty. You are considered legally impaired if your BAC was at or above 0.08% and nothing else matters. A lower BAC reading or one that is borderline will give you a much better chance of introducing reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury and proving in court that your BAC may in fact have been below the legal limit. A relatively high Breath Alcohol Concentration reading of say 0.11% or higher will dramatically reduce your lawyer's chances of success. You should consider pleading not guilty and fighting your charges if your BAC level was relatively low and you get some people who interacted with you just before your arrest to vouch for you. If this is the case, your best option will almost always be to insist on a trial by jury.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Fred_Guthrie As soon as you are able to, your best move would be to get an experienced DUI lawyer and sit down with him to understand your options going forward. Usually, your only choices will be to ask for a trial by jury, ask for a trial by a judge, try and get your charge reduced to a less serious one or simply plead guilty. Which ones you choose will depend on your circumstances--the more serious your charge, the less leeway you will have. It's in your best interests to thoroughly review these options with a DUI-experienced lawyer. Here are some basic ideas on what you can expect:
Your recorded blood alcohol level is a big determinant of whether you should fight your conviction or plead guilty. You are considered legally impaired if your BAC was at or above 0.08% and nothing else matters. A lower BAC reading or one that is borderline will give you a much better chance of introducing reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury and proving in court that your BAC may in fact have been below the legal limit. A relatively high Breath Alcohol Concentration reading of say 0.11% or higher will dramatically reduce your lawyer's chances of success. You should consider pleading not guilty and fighting your charges if your BAC level was relatively low and you get some people who interacted with you just before your arrest to vouch for you. If this is the case, your best option will almost always be to insist on a trial by jury.
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