I just got a DUI in Portland

[Rampage]

Thanks for having the balls and maturity to write about your mistake and the consequences of your decision to drive after drinking. Maybe, just maybe, it will save someone else the embarrassment and expense of going through a similar situation. Maybe it will save them from being involved in a tragic accident and save their or someone else's life.

Thanks for taking ownership of your mistake. Respect to you, sir.

[DarrenDriven]

Today, just weeks from finishing the diversion program, I received a notice in the mail that I must appear in court the next week. The notice stated that I had not paid my diversion fees ($490) and if I did not go to court an arrest warrant would be issued. I was headed to NY for over a week and wouldn't be in town for the court date! You've got to be kidding me... I was aware that to complete diversion I had to pay the fine, so that was no surprise, but I had yet to receive any kind of notification of when to pay it. I assumed that I had to pay it when I completed the program since nobody had said a word. Well, luckily I found a friendly clerk in the Multnomah County collections department and she took my payment over the phone and walked the receipt down to the court office. It was that easy, no more court date and no threat of arrest. It seems to me that simply telling me when I should pay the fine would be a lot easier than assigning me a court date and threatening me... but that is our system.

Almost done with this crap.... just a couple weeks to go!

[wrohdejr]

Keep up the good work!

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by DarrenDriven

Almost done with this crap.... just a couple weeks to go!

Someone close to me was in a similar situation but missed the mailed warning. Lockdown's a bitch. Keep copies of those documents on your person in case The Man loses track of his. It is a very real possibility.

[brandonblt2]

Originally Posted by DarrenDriven

Today, just weeks from finishing the diversion program, I received a notice in the mail that I must appear in court the next week. The notice stated that I had not paid my diversion fees ($490) and if I did not go to court an arrest warrant would be issued. I was headed to NY for over a week and wouldn't be in town for the court date! You've got to be kidding me... I was aware that to complete diversion I had to pay the fine, so that was no surprise, but I had yet to receive any kind of notification of when to pay it. I assumed that I had to pay it when I completed the program since nobody had said a word. Well, luckily I found a friendly clerk in the Multnomah County collections department and she took my payment over the phone and walked the receipt down to the court office. It was that easy, no more court date and no threat of arrest. It seems to me that simply telling me when I should pay the fine would be a lot easier than assigning me a court date and threatening me... but that is our system.

Almost done with this crap.... just a couple weeks to go!

Man I feel your pain I was in a similar situation had 3 beers waited 2 hours and drove home. Was pulled over for speeding passed all the field sobriety but was still arrested. Ended up beating the case and accepting a plea deal changing my charge from careless driving and dui to a reckless driving charge. Still ended up with a suspended license for 30 days, 500 dollars in fines, a yearly surcharge of 30 bucks for 3 years, 4500 for a lawyer, and 450 to pay my brother to drive me to work for a month. I ended up spending close to what you spent all in all.

[aaabbbccc]

I am in the same situation and thinking about the cost of the lawyer (looking into the same lawyer actually). Would you be able to go a bit into what he was able to do that assisted with your case? and if you would use the same lawyer again, go with a cheaper lawyer, no lawyer etc.

Thanks!

[DarrenDriven]

It was a painful cost to bear, hiring a lawyer, but as someone who has been to traffic court many times in his life without a lawyer, I have personally witnessed the change in a judge's demeanor when a defendant brings a lawyer into the courtroom. Judges LISTEN to lawyers because they know they MUST abide to the letter of the law. I have made very sane arguments in traffic court only to have them swept aside and the conviction rubber stamped in seconds. I wasn't about to let something like that happen to me when much higher stakes were on the table.

Secondly, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to prioritize my defense, or even what to expect at all, and it was stressing me out big time. A stupid little mistake in what I said or did in court could unravel my life. For my sanity alone, having a lawyer allowed me to relax BIG time.

I would DEFINITELY go with Ben Eder again. He was friendly, knowledgeable and always just a quick email or text away when I had a question. Better yet? If he can't make it to court for some reason, HIS TWIN LAWYER BROTHER will go in his place. That's just cool.

My advice is that if you can afford a lawyer you should get one. It's possible that my outcome could have been exactly the same without a lawyer, but I'll never know. All I know is that I was able to smoothly make it through diversion and now this is all behind me. The cost of the lawyer was almost half of my total costs... which is painful to think about, but the alternative of screwing up in court could result in a $10,000 fine which would have been a much worse dimension to live in.