Chapter 3: You Have A Meeting With An Accomplished DUI Lawyer, What Will It Be Like?

New clients are often nervous about their first meeting with a lawyer, especially when they have never needed a lawyer before. If you are coming to meet with an attorney at Barnes & Fersten there is no need to be nervous. You will be treated and spoken to with respect. You will find a relaxed but professional atmosphere that is designed, not to intimidate or impress you, but to make the process as easy as possible for you. At the end of the day, you are the client and we want to make sure that we relieve some of the stress that you have been having over your recent DUI charges.

Like a job interview, both you and the attorneys at Barnes & Fersten are considering whether a professional relationship would be beneficial to you. At the end of the day, we want to do everything that we can to help you because you, the client, is the one facing charges that could have a substantial impact on your life. As such, we want to help guide you towards a successful disposition of your case that will help you move forwards with as little consequences, if any, as possible.

During that first meeting, we will spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour together. You will be given an opportunity, at the very beginning of each meeting, to get your questions answered and all of your concerns addressed.

After that the attorneys at Barnes & Fersten will need to get as many details as possible about any prior arrests or convictions, the day leading up to your arrest, you’re driving before the police turned on their blue lights, your interactions with the police, your field sobriety tests, your blood or breath tests, your medical history, and other details that might relate specifically to your case.

By this point, we will have a good idea what some of our defenses and strategy will be and I will share them with you. Some lawyers will not discuss these potential defenses and strategies with you for fear that you will take his strategy and hire a cheaper lawyer to implement it.

However, the lawyers at Barnes & Fersten are skilled advocates that have the oral, research and writing skills to convey your legal defenses to the prosecutor and to the court in a way that not many lawyers can successfully.

In every meeting, we are asked some version of the question, “what are my odds of winning my case.” We cannot and will not make you any guarantees. If a lawyer does that, do not walk out, run. It is an empty promise that no lawyer should make or is even allowed to ethically make to you. But the lawyers at Barnes & Fersten will give you their best professional opinion on the possible outcomes of your case. If we do not believe that you have real defenses or if we do not

believe that we can help you, we will not accept your case. We have declined cases in the past and will continue to decline cases where we believe that we cannot accomplish the goals that someone wants and expects us to accomplish.

We, unlike many firms, do allow you to pay your case fee on a payment plan. A down payment is required to start work. The amount varies but is usually between one-third and one-half of the fee. We will work together on a payment plan that you can afford that will get your fee paid off before the case is concluded.

There is one exception to the above paragraph. Few DUI cases end up requiring a jury trial. For that reason, I charge separately for that service, since it usually consumes many, many hours of attorney preparation and court time. If your case ends up one of the few that requires a trial, you will know that well ahead of time and we will decide together on what trial fee makes sense, given what has already happened in your case.