DUI Attorney: Two Parts Aggressive Attorney, One Part Bread-Breaker
There are local Trial Attorneys who advertise themselves as “THE Aggressive Attorneys”. Implying, of course, that their aggressiveness distinguishes them from other Trial Attorneys. Truthfully all Trial Attorneys are, or should be, Aggressive Attorneys. Trial work, both civil and criminal law, is by its very nature an adversarial process. One side squares up against the other side, they duke it out in front of a Judge or Referee, and the Jury watching the show is called upon to decide the truth. Our justice system requires the two advocates to hit hard and not pull any punches. The antonym of aggressive is peaceful. If the two sides in the jury peacefully dealt with each other, they would arguably be committing ineffective assistance of counsel.
As trial attorneys, we love the aggressive nature of our work. However, if we played the part of aggressive attorney all the time, we would be doing our client a disservice. Sometimes the lawyer needs to drop his armor at the door, sit down with the prosecutor, and break bread.
Not every client has the factual situation that makes trial an appropriate play. Some clients are too risk adverse to consider trial as an option. In many cases, after consulting with us our clients will decide that seeking a plea bargain would be preferable to advancing towards trial. When this is the case, we turn our attention to getting the best plea deal we can get. Oftentimes in DUI cases, that would be seeking a reduction of the charge, or keeping the client out of jail. To accomplish this, sometimes we play aggressively, exposing weaknesses in the case to the State. However, other times the best course of conduct is to sit down with the prosecutor and hammer out a deal. You have to be willing to break bread with the other side. Even the best aggressive attorneys know the importance of keeping up good relations with the prosecutors.
