Missing Video Evidence

Many police department vehicles, especially in the greater Portland area, are equipped with video and audio recording equipment. Some departments, notably the Oregon State Police, equip their officers with lapel microphones to record conversations that occur on the side of the road, away from the car. Often DUII cases come down to officers opinions about the presence of signs of...

Coerced Into Consent

Oregon has a very odd law known as Implied Consent. Through it, the law says that a person who drives impliedly consents to give the police evidence of their blood alcohol content should that person be arrested for DUII. When one first hears that, it’s easy to think, yeah, ok, what is wrong with that? The problem with the Implied Consent law lies in the Fourth Amendment to the United...

Jail as Rehab?

Just over a week ago, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals released a decision in US v Grant that may have wide sweeping implications on many drug and alcohol cases in the future. I have long said, and will continue to do so, that jails make terrible treatment programs. Incarceration is a very effective societal tool and shouldn’t be discounted, but it very often is not the right way to...

Oregon Diversion for Out-of-State Reside...

If you are not a resident of Oregon but were recently arrested for DUII in Oregon, there are several things you need to know and do before heading back to your home state. The very first thing you need to do is find a Portland DUII attorney who can begin advocating on your behalf. The decisions you make in the moments following your arrest can have a great impact on your life and...

Prizes for Sobriety!

The University of Connecticut has begun studies of the effects of prizes on encouraging sobriety in subjects who are already in inpatient or outpatient programs for substance abuse. The study is based on people who are in 2-4 week intensive programs and the study monitors them for a 12-week period following treatment. The emphasis of the approach is to put the focus on the positive and...

Ignition Interlock Devices: Love Them or...

Oregon gets stricter and stricter about punishing intoxicated drivers. It seems every law that is passed in Oregon is stricter than the one before. Well, the most recent addition to this lineage, the requirement of Ignition Interlock Devices (IID), is no exception. In order to receive a hardship permit (often called a work permit) during the pendency of a DUII based suspension, you will...

I Got a DUII, What’s Going to Happen Whe...

In most cases, your very first court appearance will be an arraignment. An arraignment is almost always a merely informational appearance. What I mean by this is, at most arraignments, all you will do is learn information about your case and no decisions are actually made that greatly affect the eventual outcome of your case. When you were stopped and arrested by the police for DUII,...

How to Deal with Cops

I ran across this great article by Neill Franklin, a 33-year veteran of the Maryland State Police and Baltimore Police Departments. If anyone would know about the interactions between citizens and the police, it’s him. So, he decided to lay it out there in 10 easy steps. I must say, I don’t disagree with a single one. Let’s go through them. 1.  Always be Calm and Cool Under this...

Should I Take the Breath Test?

After explaining the events that led to their arrest for DUII, nearly every person who steps into my office asks, “So, what do you think, was I wrong to agree to the breath test” (if they did) or “was I wrong to refuse to take the breath test” (if they did not provide a sample). There is no simple answer to this question, as the laws in Oregon on this point are very strange. The...

Attempted DUII?

DUII is what is known as a strict liability crime. In a strict liability crime, it only matters that you did the action alleged, not that you meant to or purposefully did the action. In other words, it does not matter what your mental state was at the time of the alleged offense, it only matters that you did the thing alleged. This means you cannot attempt to commit DUII, you either do...