Yeah, so here’s one I had. I don’t handle that many DUIs, especially when I was younger. Overall, I’ve done thousands of them, but it’s not my main focus. I probably handle a few a year. There are people who specialize in DUIs—that’s their entire practice—and they’re very good. Sometimes, I refer cases to them. I mostly take on bigger cases.

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However, I had a really interesting one this year. A guy was in a park, sleeping in his car after drinking. His car was off, and he was asleep, but the park was closed. The police pulled in, blared at him through the loudspeaker to leave, and flashed their lights. Eventually, he woke up, got out of the back seat, and, not knowing what was going on, saw the flashing lights and heard the speaker yelling at him. Realizing it was the police, he got into his car, started driving—poorly and slowly—and was pulled over for a DUI.

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The defense was that he was acting under public authority to drive. He wasn’t planning to drive; he was going to sleep there, which is also against the law, but that’s more of a trespassing issue. We raised that argument but ended up losing. I’m still fighting the case on appeal because, in that situation, what was he supposed to do? If you’re ordered to leave by the police at 1:30 in the morning, refusing or arguing isn’t the right move—it’s not what we’re taught to do, especially these days, when it can be dangerous. He did what they told him to do, and then he got a DUI. I think that was wrong.