Busted for drunk driving? Here are some options when dealing with a DUI charge….

Once you have been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI) then you will be scheduled sooner or later to appear in front of a judge for your arraignment.

According to Virginia Beach, VA DUI lawyers which can be found using this cutting edge digital tool DUI-USAttorneys.com, the arraignment is a legal process where the defendant is officially made aware of the charges being brought against him or her by the prosecutors and is asked whether they plead guilty, not guilty or plead with no contest.

What happens at the arraignment?

The objective of the arraignment is to determine how the case should progress and this depends on how you plead to the charges. You can have your legal pro present at this time. The arraignment is also where your bail amount (unless it is a non-bailable offense) is set. If you are able to post bail at this time you will be released and in many cases, especially in rural parts, individuals charged with misdemeanors may be released on their own recognizance, say Virginia DUI attorneys.

If you need a Virginia Beach, VA DUI lawyer then USAttorneys.com is your best bet. You may believe everyone is against you and it may seem that way, but that is not the case. That website has saved more lives than some hospitals. 

Having a legal representative at this point is an astute idea even though you will only be entering a plea and will not be required to divulge any information. Furthermore, if you plead not guilty, then you can at any stage later change your plea to a guilty plea or a no contest (nolo contendere) plea.

In some states, the state law allows you to ask for a jury trial where you will appear before a panel of jurors instead of appearing in front of a judge.

Do not think about the movie A Time to Kill much. You are not in the Deep South and even if you are African American, most likely you will have some folks on the jury of the same skin color. It is unlikely you will be going through what Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) was going through when he saw everyone on the jury being white. Also, you are not on trial for murder. Hopefully not!

On top of this, Carl Lee Hailey won since common sense most of time wins in America (well, not with Obamacare, Keystone pipeline, taxes, the debt, the Iran nuclear deal, and so on. Carl Lee Hailey knew his daughter was not going to receive justice so he had to do something about it.

His case was extreme, yours is not.

Moreover, if you are charged with having previous DUI convictions, then the best strategy to adopt for the time being would be to deny these convictions. You and your legal counselor can always challenge the validity of these DUI convictions at a later stage.

What are your options?

Virginia Beach, VA DUI lawyers stress the fact that how you plead will in effect determine the next stage of the case. If you plead guilty then that is pretty much the end of it as you will then be scheduled for sentencing where your legal punishments will be declared.

If you plead with ‘no contest’ then you are basically going to face the same type of sentencing, but the only difference is that you have not exclusively confessed to the crime and so this case cannot be used as evidence against you in any other connected civil or federal lawsuit.

If you plead not guilty, then the case will go into trial and you will need to defend yourself against the prosecution’s allegations and have them dismissed with the help of evidence and reasoning.

A lawyer will prove invaluable in helping you beat your DUI case so just make sure to appoint a tactful and meaningful Virginia DUI lawyer as soon as possible.