Seattle City Court Drunk Driving Rules Explained from a Driving Under the Influence Lawyer within Seattle
If you are in Seattle and are pulled over for drunk driving, you might potentially end up in one of two courts, frequently dependent on who stops you. This article is meant to speak to the instance when you are seized for a Seattle DUI by the city cops (versus the state police, highway patrol, or sheriff’s office). An seizure by the Seattle, or municipal police force, results in a legal action in Seattle municipal court that is handled in some ways very differently than if you were charged of drunk driving in King County District Court. Before we go on, though, I want to point out that before taking any action based on the content of this piece you ought to call a Seattle drunk driving attorney to converse your particular circumstances. This commentary is not meant to represent legal advice, and you are relying on it at your own peril.
When you have been arrested and charged with driving under the influence, the process starts with your initial court appearance. In nearly all courts, this is described as arraignment, and is the point that the charges are officially read to you and you are requested to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. If you do not have an lawyer at this instance and cannot afford one, it is also frequently the time that a attorney will be appointed to you (and the arraignment continued). In Seattle Municipal Court, this is referred to as the intake hearing.
The intake hearing by and large takes place within 72 hours of your seizure and is treated the same way as an arraignment. They are ordinarily held in the Seattle Justice Center, 600 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA, but on the weekends they may be held in the King County Jail, which has a courtroom on the first floor. If you enter a plea or have an lawyer appointed the court will ordinarily next set a pretrial hearing date (commonly about 30 days following the intake hearing) and let you go, after setting conditions of discharge.
Unlike many other courts in the Seattle vicinity and the State of Washington, Seattle municipal courts frequently set additional circumstances of discharge from custody from the regular conditions (no driving without a license, don’t commit any other crimes, and take a breath test if asked to). Seattle municipal prosecutors frequently ask for additional conditions, even for first point in time offenders. These can include: not driving without an interlock ignition device; having an in home breath test; and remaining under house arrest. It is because of this that if at all feasible you should meet with a Seattle driving under the influence lawyer ahead of the intake hearing.
Approximately 30 days following the intake hearing, a pretrial hearing will take place. Unlike many other courts, this is the occasion that your attorney will have the opportunity to converse a potential plea with the prosecutor, if one is feasible. If an agreement cannot be reached that day, or supplementary investigation or fulfillment with requirements is needed, the court can and will continue the hearing. If no arrangement can be reached, either a guilty or no contest plea is entered, or the situation is set for jury trial.
If your circumstances is set for trial, a week or two prior to the trial date a readiness hearing is held. This hearing is particular to Seattle municipal court, as most other courts don’t have something like this. At the readiness hearing, as the name indicates, the lawyers for both parties denote to the court whether they are prepared for trial or not. Seattle municipal court doesn’t ordinarily command the defendant to be there. This is not the case with other courts. If either side is not ready, the court will continue it to a new date (typically).
An additional region where Seattle municipal drunk driving cases differ from other courts and jurisdictions is pretrial motions hearings. Many courts hear the motions ahead of the date of trial, so that if any evidence is suppressed the sides can settle on whether or not to go ahead. This isn’t the case in Seattle Municipal Court, where the hearing is normally held on the date of trial.
When your trial date comes, get ready for it to go on about two to three days, and don’t anticipate to get started really rapidly. In municipal court, it is often the circumstances that quite a few trials are scheduled for the same date and time (since in reality very few make it to trial). If yours does go to trial it will by and large be assigned to a courtroom and a jury pool will be called in. From that point forward, it progresses as a conventional DUI jury trial would, with opening statements, questioning of witnesses, and closing statements.
If you are accused with driving under the influence in Seattle, don’t wait until the last minute to get a DUI lawyer in Seattle. Not only can it make a modification in your conditions of release, but they can make sure you don’t do anything wrong while you are waiting to resolve your issues. A high-quality driving under the influence lawyer in Seattle can make all the change.