What Is The 10-Year Step-Down Rule In New Jersey?
The 10-year step-down rule means that if there was a period of 10 years between the second and third offense that it will be considered a second offense for all purposes. That is actually better than the lark, post-conviction relief because, with the lark, you are still looking at a 10-year license law. With the 10-year step-down, you are looking at a 10-year license law, but you are not going to jail.
Many people will say, “I’d really rather not go to jail for six months than deal with not having a car.” Our public transit system is called Uber. I was stuck at an automotive dealership while my car was being fixed a few months ago and I called Uber and got home from that. Actually on the way home, it turned out that the driver had some legal matters so it turned it into a profitable encounter.
Advice For Clients Facing A Third-Time DUI Offense
They are all worth going to battle for because the repercussions are so serious. I have a couple of requirements for the third offense case. The first requirement is that they are going to need to make sure I have access to every expert I could possibly use to defend the case. We will use a state trooper to defend the DWI portion of the case. We will use a state trooper to defend the DWI portion. We will use a GAIT specialist who specializes in determining the defendant’s ability to perform the standardized field sobriety tests.
They will give testimony that this person may not have been a candidate for the field sobriety tests because of their past injury issues. We will retain, in some cases, a crash reconstruction specialist to show that the person could not have been going at the speed the officer said he was. It will give us a second-by-second explanation of what is going on and why the officer could not have made that evaluation. We will bring in a computer forensic specialist to help us take down the admissibility of the breath test. So we require our clients to open the checkbook and make sure that we have every resource available. That is not something we are going to do on the first or most second offense cases and clients are not going to do it, but when it is jail time and a 10-year loss of license, they have to do whatever they can to get out of this offense.
We need all of the resources we need or could possibly need to work this case out. We are going to go back and look at their prior offenses and look for issues in the sentencing that will permit us to take that conviction off the table. Finally, we are going to do a thorough and unrelenting series of motion practices to cripple the state’s case. We litigate third-offense cases like they are serious criminal matters, which really is what they are even though they call it a traffic offense. It is going to cost more to do a third-offense case as well, which people have to take into account.
That is why we specialize in this type, and this is a case that keeps attorneys up at night; are they doing everything they possibly can, and that is why many attorneys do not like to take these cases. They would rather go in and they will say, “At the end of the day, my client is going to lose his license for a couple of months,” no. These cases are the cases where you really have to be somebody’s hero and save them from the end of their ability to live a proper life.
Does Voluntary Rehabilitation Have A Positive Impact On A Third-Time DWI?
The action that is taken is good for them. If you are involved in a third-offense DWI, you should be getting some help. You clearly have a problem even if we get you out of this; it is going to be a very stressful time in your life. My position is this; I will not take a third-offense case unless the client gets into treatment. They can go to an in-patient program that accounts toward the time and it is an approved program, that is possibly something that can be worked into the ultimate resolution, but we really do not try to plea third-offense DWI cases; we try to win them.
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