Posted on July 07, 2010 in DUI

If you were arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence over the Fourth of July weekend you are not alone.  The California Highway Patrol reports that it arrested 128 drivers in the Bay Area for this alleged offense over the weekend, and that figure does not include arrests made by deputy sheriffs and city police officers.

If you desire legal representation to navigate and defend you through the DMV and Court systems, please give my office a call or send me an e-mail message.  It is unwise to try and handle these situations yourself.  I have been a San Francisco DUI lawyer for over 25 years and if I cannot get you off, I can at least mitigate things for you as much as possible.

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 Posted on July 02, 2010 in DUI

Have you been charged with a DUI San Francisco, DUI Marin, DUI Sonoma or DUI Napa? My name is Paul Burglin and I am a San Francisco Bay area drunk driving attorney who for over 25 years has specialized in drunk driving defense in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa and surrounding communities. I am also the co-author of "California Drunk Driving Law".

New DUI laws go into effect on July 1, 2010, pertaining to restricted license eligibility for multiple offenders. 

Summary Of New Restricted License Laws For Multiple Offenders- SB 598 and 895 (effective July 1, 2010)

New IID Restricted License Laws - SB 598 and 895 (effective July 1, 2010)

CVC § 13352(a)(3) = IID restricted license available to second-time offenders convicted of 23152(a) or (b) after 90 days, unless defendant was found by Court to be under the influence of a drug.  Credit given for APS suspension time.

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 Posted on June 29, 2010 in DUI

Have you been charged with a DUI San Francisco, DUI Marin, DUI Sonoma or DUI Napa? My name is Paul Burglin and I am a San Francisco Bay area drunk driving attorney who for over 25 years has specialized in drunk driving defense in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa and surrounding communities. I am also the co-author of "California Drunk Driving Law".

In this series of blog postings I am going to discuss search and seizure issues related to drunk driving cases. However, the totality of search and seizure law is perhaps as voluminous and complicated as drunk driving (DUI) law.

Today's Post: DETENTION AND ARREST | Seizure of a Person | Entry of Dwelling Without a Warrant |Consent

The warrantless entry into a home to arrest someone is an unreasonable seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution absent probable cause and an exigent circumstance. Payton v. New York (1980) 445 U.S. 573, 589-590. Thus, absent some exception to the warrant requirement, if there is time for the constable to obtain a warrant then it must be obtained. The following discussion concerns various exceptions to the warrant requirement.

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 Posted on June 16, 2010 in DUI

Have you been charged with a DUI San Francisco, DUI Marin, DUI Sonoma or DUI Napa? My name is Paul Burglin and I am a San Francisco Bay area drunk driving attorney who for over 25 years has specialized in drunk driving defense in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa and surrounding communities. I am also the co-author of "California Drunk Driving Law".

In this series of blog postings I am going to discuss search and seizure issues related to drunk driving cases. However, the totality of search and seizure law is perhaps as voluminous and complicated as drunk driving (DUI) law.

Today's Post: DETENTION AND ARREST | Seizure of a Person | Entry of Dwelling Without a Warrant

The warrantless entry into a home to arrest someone is an unreasonable seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution absent probable cause and an exigent circumstance. Payton v. New York (1980) 445 U.S. 573, 589-590. Thus, absent some exception to the warrant requirement, if there is time for the constable to obtain a warrant then it must be obtained. Furthermore, curtilage around a dwelling is given the same protection. People v. Strider (2009) 177 Cal.App.4th 1393 affirmed that locations where the general public is not permitted to walk without challenge, such as a fenced-in yard, are protected. The following discussion concerns various exceptions to the warrant requirement.

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 Posted on June 11, 2010 in DUI

Have you been charged with a DUI San Francisco, DUI Marin, DUI Sonoma or DUI Napa? My name is Paul Burglin and I am a San Francisco Bay area drunk driving attorney who for over 25 years has specialized in drunk driving defense in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa and surrounding communities. I am also the co-author of "California Drunk Driving Law".

SCRAM bracelets - They can be helpful for both defendant and the public

The latest brouhaha over Lindsay Lohan's alleged probation violation is generating favorable publicity for Alcohol Monitoring Systems, Inc., and its state of the art ankle bracelets for alcohol detection. Not only do the devices trigger an immediate report of alcohol use, but they provide sufficiently detailed information to purportedly distinguish mere alcohol "alerts" from actual "drinking events" - the former may be caused by something as innocuous as hairspray containing alcohol, whereas the latter involves actual consumption of an alcoholic beverage.

The helpful thing about these devices for DUI defendants is that defense counsel can more persuasively argue that pre-trial release presents no real risk to the public because alcohol use will be immediately reported to the Court. The public benefits because county jails remain less crowded and defendants pay for their own bracelet.

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 Posted on June 08, 2010 in DUI

Have you been charged with a DUI San Francisco, DUI Marin, DUI Sonoma or DUI Napa? My name is Paul Burglin and I am a San Francisco Bay area drunk driving attorney who for over 25 years has specialized in drunk driving defense in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa and surrounding communities. I am also the co-author of "California Drunk Driving Law".

In this series of blog postings I am going to discuss search and seizure issues related to drunk driving cases. However, the totality of search and seizure law is perhaps as voluminous and complicated as drunk driving (DUI) law.  

Today's Post: DETENTION AND ARREST | Seizure of a Person | Prolonged Detention Waiting for DUI Expert Cop

Occasionally, the defendant will be detained without probable cause for an arrest while a special drunk driving expert is called to administer field sobriety tests. For instance, some sheriff's deputies routinely summon and await the arrival of a CHP officer for this purpose. If the delay until the expert arrives is too long, the extended detention without probable cause violates the Fourth Amendment.

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 Posted on May 27, 2010 in DUI

More problems are surfacing with the San Francisco district attorney's office for not disclosing the background of a prosecution witness who testified in drunk driving cases.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a supervising toxicologist vouched for the reliability of alcohol detection equipment in blood test results in DUI cases for two years in a Washington State lab. She signed off on the cases even though she had not tested the equipment herself. 

Hundreds of criminal convictions in San Francisco are already at risk because prosecutors withheld police officers' criminal histories or misconduct records from defense attorneys.  

My position on this is that it underscores now more than ever that defense counsel is needed for San Francisco DUI cases, as the District Attorney is now fighting pressure to dismiss cases following exposure of the crime lab problems!

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 Posted on May 24, 2010 in DUI

Have you been charged with a DUI San Francisco, DUI Marin, DUI Sonoma or DUI Napa? My name is Paul Burglin and I am a San Francisco Bay area drunk driving attorney who for over 25 years has specialized in drunk driving defense in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa and surrounding communities. I am also the co-author of "California Drunk Driving Law".

In this series of blog postings I am going to discuss search and seizure issues related to drunk driving cases. However, the totality of search and seizure law is perhaps as voluminous and complicated as drunk driving (DUI) law.

DETENTION AND ARREST | Seizure of a Person | Prolonged Detention

In 1979, the California Supreme Court held that when a police officer has (a) stopped a motorist for a traffic violation for which the latter cannot be taken into custody and (b) has already detained the motorist for the time necessary to perform his functions arising from the alleged violation, he cannot thereafter lawfully detain him for an additional period of time solely for the purpose of conducting a warrant check. People v. McGaughran (1979) 25 Cal.3d 577.

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 Posted on May 22, 2010 in DUI

Have you been charged with a DUI San Francisco, DUI Marin, DUI Sonoma or DUI Napa? My name is Paul Burglin and I am a San Francisco Bay area drunk driving attorney who for over 25 years has specialized in drunk driving defense in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa and surrounding communities.

In this series of blog postings I am going to discuss search and seizure issues related to drunk driving cases. However, the totality of search and seizure law is perhaps as voluminous and complicated as drunk driving (DUI) law.

DETENTION AND ARREST | Seizure of a Person | Detention vs. Consensual Contact

In People v. Jones (1991) 228 Cal.App.3d 519, the court summarized that the law related to a determination of whether or not any particular encounter between a person and cop is a detention versus a consensual contact. The court said:
Law enforcement officers do not violate the Fourth Amendment by merely approaching an individual on the street or in another public place, and asking him if he is willing to answer some questions. (Florida v. Royer (1983) 460 U.S. 491, 497.) A person has been seized within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment only if, in view of all the circumstances surrounding the incident, a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave. (United States v. Mendenhall (1980) 446 U.S. 544, 554; see also INS v. Delgado (1984) 466 U.S. 210, 215.) As the Supreme Court has noted, "The test is necessarily imprecise, because it is designed to assess the coercive effect of police conduct, taken as a whole, rather than to focus on particular details of that conduct in isolation. Moreover, what constitutes a restraint on liberty prompting a person to conclude that he is not free to ‘leave' will vary, not only with the particular police conduct at issue, but also with the setting in which the conduct occurs." (Michigan v. Chesternut (1988) 486 U.S. 567, 573.)

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 Posted on May 21, 2010 in DUI

Have you been charged with a DUI San Francisco, DUI Marin, DUI Sonoma or DUI Napa? My name is Paul Burglin and I am a San Francisco Bay area drunk driving attorney who for over 25 years has specialized in drunk driving defense in San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa and surrounding communities. I am also the co-author of "California Drunk Driving Law".

In this series of blog postings I am going to discuss search and seizure issues related to drunk driving cases. However, the totality of search and seizure law is perhaps as voluminous and complicated as drunk driving (DUI) law.

DETENTION AND ARREST | Seizure of a Person | Arrest vs. Detention, and Constitutional Requirements

"The Fourth Amendment prohibits ‘unreasonable searches and seizures' by the Government, and its protections extend to brief investigatory stops of persons or vehicles that fall short of traditional arrest." United States v. Arvizu (2002) 534 U.S. 266, 273, citing United States v. Cortez (1981) 449 U.S. 411, 417; Terry v. Ohio (1968) 392 U.S. 1, 9.

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