The Illinois General Assembly has passed a new law allowing for deferred prosecution for certain non violent, probationable felony offenses. This is a great new law for people charge with felonies such as retail theft, theft, burglary, and possession of a stolen motor vehicle, forgery, possession of cannabis, and possession of a controlled substance, among [...]
Read More Aggravated DUI, Burglary, Domestic Battery, felony, Forgery, Non violent felonies, possession of a controlled substance, Possession of a stolen motor vehicle, Possession of cannabis, Probation, retail theft, theftIt looks like the Illinois General Assembly will pass a bill to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. As an attorney who practices in the traffic courts throughout the Chicagoland area, all I can say is that it is about time. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to represent regular [...]
Read More Aggravated DUI, DUI, felony, misdemeanorThere are two categories of crimes in most jurisdictions, misdemeanors and felonies. Misdemeanors are crimes where jail is an allowable sentence, but the maximum sentence is 364 days in jail. Felonies are any crimes were the maximum sentence is greater than 1 year. While misdemeanors are serious and do carry consequences with them, a felony [...]
Read More Aggravated DUI, Blood Alcohol Concentration, court supervision, DUI, DUI conviction, felony, misdemeanor, Reckless DrivingThe Illinois General Assembly has created a statutory summary revocation of driving privileges Under 625 ILCS 5/1-197.6. This revocation is for a driver who refuses to submit to chemical tests after a DUI arrest involving an accident that causes personal injury or death to another. Before this law, if you refused tests, your license would [...]
Read More Aggravated DUI, Blood Alcohol Concentration, DUI, DUI blood draw, DUI conviction, field sobriety tests, Reckless Driving, statutory summary revocation, statutory summary suspensionProsecuting a DUI case based on drugs can be much more difficult for the State to prove than a DUI based on alcohol use if the driver refuses to take chemical tests. The law states that if a person has any amount of drugs in their system while driving they are guilty of dui. But [...]
Read More Aggravated DUI, cannabis, cocaine, drugs, DUI, DUI based on drugs, narcoticsEvery case is different, and it is often hard to negotiate a rescission even if the DUI case is weak. But what do you do if you have a DUI case that is winnable at trial and the prosecution offers to rescind the statutory summary suspension to induce you to plead guilty? Many people will [...]
Read More Aggravated DUI, Blood Alcohol Concentration, court supervision, DUI, plead guilty, statutory summary suspensionThere are many collateral consequences involved when someone is charged with a criminal offense that many people do not give appropriate consideration to when handling their case. What is a collateral consequence? It is any consequence of the criminal charge outside the court consequences, which I will call direct consequences. An example of a direct [...]
Read More Aggravated DUI, court supervision, defense attorney, deportation, Domestic Battery, domestic violence, driving on a supsended license, drugs, DUI, DUI blood draw, DUI conviction, misdemeanorThe answer is absolutely. That outstanding warrant is keeping you from getting your license. Many people worry that they are automatically going to go to jail because they fled the case a while back. However, each situation is different. If you are able to post whatever the bond is on the warrant, you may not [...]
Read More Aggravated DUI, bench warrant, bond, bond forfeiture, DUI, DUI convictionThere is a lot of misinformation out there concerning expungements in Illinois. I get many phone calls from people who assume they are eligible for expungement but they are not. Here, I will attempt to give a little more information about expungements. This is by no means a full explanation of expungements, just some common [...]
Read More Aggravated DUI, assualt, battery, court supervision, Domestic Battery, DUI, DUI conviction, Reckless Driving, retail theft, theftInteresting article in the Tribune today detailing how drug sniffing dogs are not always correct in alerting for drugs on a traffic stop. See http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-canine-officers-20110105,0,6649157,full.story This is certainly an alarming problem because the Supreme Court has stated that the police can have a drug sniffing dog sniff the outside of a car on a traffic [...]
Read More Aggravated DUI, drug sniffing dogs, drugs, DUI, Fourth Amendment, narcotics, racial profiling, traffic stop