Beverly Hills DUI Defense Attorney

June 27, 2012

Beverly Hills DUI Lessons: How (Not) to Party!

Partying too hard is a great way to earn yourself a citation for driving under the influence in Beverly Hills. But what if you try to party “the safe way” – i.e. by renting a party to tool around Rodeo Drive or zip up to the Hollywood Hills for a night of safe debauchery and ridiculousness?

Apparently, even then, you can run into problems.

Witness last week’s disaster on Illinois’ Eisenhower Expressway: an SUV driver whammed a “party bus” and flipped it over, injuring 19 people. Fortunately, everyone involved in the accident survived. The most serious injury appears to be “just” a broken leg. But it’s easy to see how the situation could have turned a lot more ugly.

Here are details, accordingly to local news sources.

Per NBC Chicago: 20-year-old Andy Taylor apparently hit the “party bus” from behind, causing it to wipe out on the expressway and rollover near the Ashland Avenue exit. 15 people onboard the bus suffered injuries, and four people in Taylor’s SUV also got hurt. Interestingly, the driver of the party bus, Ammar Wachaa, was not playing by the rules. He had overloaded the bus, and he was driving without valid insurance on a suspended registration.

Sadly, the people on the bus were not just out for a good time – they were celebrating the birthday of a loved one/friend who recently had passed away.

Lessons for Beverly Hills DUI Defendants from the Illinois Party Bus Debacle
1. Even if you take maximum precautions, you can never be sure what’s “out there” on the roads.

The people who rented that party bus obviously thought that they would enjoy a safe and easy ride around town. They almost surely did not know that the bus driver had “overloaded” the vehicle; and they could never have anticipated that the SUV would have hit them. The reality is that, no matter how well we protect ourselves against disaster, the world is chaotic, and random “stuff” can happen to us. What we can do is to understand our risks in a sober and somewhat scientific fashion and do our best to “outthink” our risks.

2. Tiny mistakes or lapses of reason can redound to huge and potentially horrific effect.

In this case, fortunately, no one died. But people obviously could have died – or could have been severely, permanently injured. If you made a mistake behind the wheel – drank too many sips of wine before driving home, for instance – your life could change forever, and you could be forced to serve a long time in jail.

3. Your legal situation is almost certainly “very much in play.”

Jail time and a ruined life/reputation is not a fait accompli. You might be surprised by the versatility, diversity, and power of the defense options available to you, whether you were arrested for driving under the influence in Beverly Hills with a BAC of 0.20% or you hurt someone while DUI in Pasadena. You need to understand what to do next. The steps you take in the days and weeks to follow could be instrumental in helping you build a stiff defense – or in sealing your fate in a less than ideal way. Connect with the team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers in Beverly Hills (8484 Wilshire Boulevard Suite 660B Beverly Hills, CA 90211-3220 Phone: (310) 550-6935) to explore options for your best defense. Attorney Kraut is a highly regarded and very well known criminal defense attorney who specializes in Beverly Hills DUI defenses.

May 21, 2012

A Good Way to Make Beverly Hills DUI News – Drive 100 Miles per Hour to a Kid’s Birthday Party

by Michael Kraut

Whether you or someone you care about has been arrested for driving under the influence in Beverly Hills, or you’re just striving to be a better, safer parent, you can learn a lot from the story of Katherine Russell, a 34-year old Northern Californian mom, who was arrested last week after driving a 100 miles per hour in her SUV…because she was late to a child’s birthday party.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Russell tested at more than twice the Beverly Hills DUI limit of 0.08%. A California Highway Patrol officer saw her Toyota 4Runner zipping by a Sonoma County Road at around 90 miles per hour. When the officer approached her, the SUV allegedly sped up to a rocketing 100 miles per hour. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident – and especially no children were hurt.

Parents here in Beverly Hills do some crazy “stuff” to help give their children a leg up and meet their needs. We live in a stress inducing city — Beverly Hills takes “keeping up with the Joneses” to the next level. All parents can be tempted to do stupid and dangerous things in the name of protecting their kids and giving their kids what we think they want or need. But there is a danger in this mentality. Sometimes, people get arrested for crimes like driving under the influence in Beverly Hills or elsewhere because they are striving to “do the right thing.”

In other words, we might know they we’re not in the best state for driving – that we “should” take more precautions or find designated driver. But our better instincts get overpowered by the urges and needs of the moment. Only after the fact do we realize how our efforts have backfired. And then we’re forced to scramble to figure out what we might be able to do about our trouble — how we can run damage control. This is only speculation, but it is possible that the 34-year old was speeding because of a deep and understandable need to take care of her child – to pick him or her up from that late night party. The moral is that our positive, nurturing urges can have damaging effects – if we are not careful to measure them against the realities of our situations.

Fortunately, a Beverly Hills DUI charge – even a complicated one – does not have to be a life sentence. An experienced, able, and respected Los Angeles criminal defense attorney at Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (8484 Wilshire Boulevard Suite 660B Beverly Hills, CA 90211-3220 Phone: (310) 550-6935 ) in Beverly Hills can talk to you about what happened and give you some powerful advice to start to construct an effective defense.

April 18, 2012

How to Never Get Arrested For DUI in Beverly Hills Again

by Michael Kraut

You recently got stopped for DUI in Beverly Hills.

Perhaps you ran a light while cruising Wilshire at 2 AM following a raucous industry party. Perhaps you had one-too-many wine coolers at the Sunday Beverly Hills Farmers’ Market and hopped behind the wheel of your Beamer…while a police officer saw the whole thing unfold. In any case, you are pretty frightened about what might happen — not only with respect to your driving privileges (e.g. will you lose your license or not?) but also with respect to your freedom, your car insurance, and your life in general.

After all, it wasn’t as if your life was smooth sailing before the DUI. You probably had tons on your plate – with respect to your business, your family, your recreational activities, possible health issues, etc. Now, on top of everything else, you need to get a handle on your Beverly Hills DUI.

Here’s the reality. There is no “one size fits all” defensive posture that’s appropriate for all defendants. Depending on circumstances, you may be smart to plead not guilty and fight tooth and nail to show that the Beverly Hills DUI breathalyzer test that you allegedly failed was miscalibrated. In other cases, it makes sense to cooperate with prosecutors and try to get your charges pled down. In other cases, you may need to construct an elaborate, thoughtful defense, particularly if you injured somebody or got arrested on multiple charges, such as resisting arrest, hit and run, etc.

While an experienced Beverly Hills DUI criminal defense attorney from the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935) can certainly help you establish and follow through on the right strategy for your needs, you also want to be looking at your long-term future. Sure, you want to “get through” your DUI related drama. But you also want to fix any underlying habits or behaviors or other structural problems in your life that caused you to get into trouble in the first place.

Researchers at Harvard have shown that people who “pre-think” their challenges and problems can often protect themselves against bad behaviors or habits. For instance, let’s say that you have a tendency to “get a little loose” at industry party events and drink more than you know you should. This “getting a little loose” can cause you to lose your judgment and do stupid things like get behind the wheel after a party. If you wait until the party to deal with your impulses, you are probably destined to wage a losing battle. On the other hand, if you know that you have this proclivity, you can create “if / then” statements to guide your behavior. Just like airline pilots need to be able to react instinctively – push the orange button, not the blue button, if the plane is crashing – you also need explicit instructions to help you avoid another Beverly Hills DUI.

For instance, you can construct “if thens” to the effect of:

• “IF I go to an industry party, THEN I will be sure to name a designated driver before I RSVP.”
• Or: “IF I feel myself “getting a little loose’’ at a party and I don’t have a designated driver, THEN I will immediately turn my keys over to the bartender at the party and insist that he call me a cab when I am ready to leave.”

If you can figure out the right “if then” treatments for your particular issues and then essentially memorize them, you should be more likely to make better, safer decisions the next time you are tempted to ignore your better angels.

Connect with a Beverly Hills DUI attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers now for immediate assistance with your case.

April 9, 2012

Beverly Hills DUI Sports News: Cristhian Martinez, Pitcher for Braves, Snagged for DUI in Atlanta

by Michael Kraut

After blowing a breathalyzer result of 0.13% (0.5% percent higher than the legal limit for Beverly Hills DUI), Cristhian Martinez, a star reliever for the Atlanta Braves, was arrested and hit with a DUI last week.

Martinez’s arrest came on the heels of another Atlanta Braves DUI debacle – former Brave Derek Lowe was busted last April for driving while intoxicated. The Braves seem even more distraught by Martinez’s arrest than they were by Lowe’s bust. Martinez was a star during so-called “Grapefruit League play” that precedes the opening of the real MLB season. He racked up 13 strikeouts and a 1.38 ERA, and generally performed with stellar precision. Upon learning about his arrest, the Braves released a statement saying that they “were very concerned” and that they “will require [Martinez] to be evaluated by an independent professional, as provided for by the new collective bargaining agreement.”

If you’ve been recently arrested for driving under the influence in Beverly Hills or DUI near USC or UCLA, Martinez’s arrest may hold some powerful lessons for you… if you choose to pay attention to them!

1. As any Los Angeles DUI attorney will tell you, no one is above the law.

Martinez is a star professional baseball player. But that didn’t really matter. Police still made him get out of his vehicle, go through the phases of a field sobriety test, blow into a breathalyzer, and hop into the back of a squad car after he allegedly failed his test. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, how much political power you possess, or how much you sweet-talk an officer – if you break the law (or even if officers just think you broke the law), you can find yourself in the back of a squad car.

2. There is life after a Beverly Hills DUI.

Maybe you are a college student or graduate student who only recently arrived in Los Angeles. You’re worried that your UCLA DUI charge will doom you to academic disaster or rob you of your vehicle and hence of your ability to get around town, look for jobs, see friends, etc. You might be right, to an extent. A DUI conviction can lead to all sorts of scary penalties, ranging from time behind bars to strict license suspension to long-term probation and beyond. But the nature and scope of your punishments will be determined by the urgency and effectiveness of how you respond to the charges against you. If you lolly gaggle and/or fail to do the research and other stuff necessary to prepare, a worst case scenario could come true. On the other hand, if you find a confident, aggressive Beverly Hills DUI criminal defense attorney, you can probably make surprisingly easy progress towards getting your charges dismissed or reduced. At the very least, a good Los Angeles DUI lawyer could give you some much needed perspective and connect you with other resources to begin rebuilding your life.

Harvard Law School educated lawyer Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935) in Beverly Hills has the talent, experience, connections, and “99 percent success rate at jury trials” track record to provide potent representation for you.

March 28, 2012

What if Driving While Texting was Punished the Same Way We Punish Driving Under the Influence in Pasadena?

by Michael Kraut

Driving under the influence in Pasadena (or anywhere else on earth, for that matter) is a dangerous and reckless act. Countless studies show that drivers who are DUI are less capable of responding to surprises on the road, more likely to get into injury accidents and cause property damage, and so forth.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you do not need yet another lesson from a Los Angeles DUI attorney about why this behavior should not be done.

But here’s something interesting! We don’t recognize that other acts that we do behind the wheel may be as dangerous – or perhaps even more dangerous – than DUI. Take texting while driving, for instance. Now, you may be familiar with reports like the famous Virginia Tech study from a few years ago that found that truck drivers who drove while text messaging were something like 20 times more likely than non-texting drivers to get into injury accidents. That’s 20 with a “2” and a “0.” Other studies from reputable institutions (you can Google around if you’re really curious) have basically come to the conclusion: driving while texting is as dangerous as driving under the influence in Pasadena if not significantly more so.

That being said, most people have an extremely difficult time really “grokking” this concept. The legal system certainly has not caught up with the science. Yes, driving while texting in California is illegal, and you can get punished. But compare the punishments for driving while texting with the punishments for DUI in Pasadena: mandatory jail time, interlock ignition device installed in your car, massive fines and fees and other costs, huge insurance inconveniences, loss of reputation, mandatory alcohol school, and so forth and so on.

Imagine if you had even close to similar punishments for driving while texting. Try telling a teenager who text messages 60 times a day that she can’t text for the next six months. See what happens. Or imagine if a driver caught text messaging had to spend 8 weeks at a class about the dangers of texting while driving.

This is not to argue that we should necessarily be more lenient on people who break laws like California Vehicle Code Sections 23152(a) and 23152(b) but rather that things should be more even handed. If driving while texting is statistically the equivalent (or worse) of driving while DUI, shouldn’t we apply our moral standards appropriately?

Having said all that, if you’ve already been tagged for a DUI, you are probably less concerned with fixing the strange artifacts of our justice system than you are with avoiding jail time, keeping your license, and cleaning up after the stop and arrest.

To that end, talk to Pasadena DUI criminal defense attorney Michael Kraut. As a former prosecutor who established the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (790 East Colorado Boulevard, 9th floor, Pasadena, California 91101 Phone: (626) 345-1899 ) after spending 14 years on “the other side,” Attorney Kraut boasts a terrific reputation not just among clients but among judges and his legal peers. He regularly provides expert commentary for news media like KTLA, the New York Times, Fox News, and the Los Angeles Times.

March 21, 2012

Beverly Hills DUI Education: Should Our Educators Take a Hint From Folks Up In Sacramento?

by Michael Kraut

Getting caught for driving under the influence (DUI) in Beverly Hills can be a big, big deal, not only because it can lead to life-changing legal repercussions, like prison time and loss of your driver’s license, but also to massive spikes in your insurance rates that can persist for years and cost you thousands of dollars. And that’s if you are convicted of a standard misdemeanor as opposed to a more severe charge, like a felony. But how can we, as a community, figure out why people tend to drive under the influence and what we might be able to do to collectively to change the behaviors and minimize the risks involved.

It’s easy to take a casual glance at the problem and begin moralizing. It’s easy to fall into an “us versus them” mentality:

• “That DUI driver is a careless or negligent individual.”
• “What really needs to happen is we need to punish people more”
• “The person who drove DUI was (insert label or judgment here: lazy, uncaring, selfish, etc)”

As any Los Angeles DUI attorney will tell you, the pool of defendants is far more diverse than many people realize. It’s not just “irresponsible teenagers” or “club-hopping twenty-somethings” that get nabbed for this crime.

Rather than focus just on punishing, dissuading, or stopping individuals from driving under the influence, it might be useful to address some of the underlying social causes.

To change the mentality, we may need different and more sophisticated educational tools. In Sacramento, students at Kennedy High School recently witnessed the real life sentencing of a DUI offender. The defendant, 25-year old Kristyna Robinson, got caught driving with a BAC level of 0.13%. The legal limit for DUI in Beverly Hills is 0.08%, as defined by California Vehicle Code Section 20152 (b). After drinking four beers and some whisky, she got pulled over and spent hours in jail. Her sentence included two more days in jail, informal probation, and fines totaling $2,300. The students witnessed her being led off in handcuffs with her head lowered. A sobering and emotionally-charged portrait of the potential consequences of DUI in Beverly Hills.

If we can make DUI more unacceptable to groups (as opposed to targeting individuals only), we might be able to find new points of leverage that will aid us in keeping our city and our streets safer… and in treating offenders with more compassion and respect.

If you or someone else needs the services of a Beverly Hills DUI criminal defense attorney, consider connecting today with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935). As a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former senior deputy district attorney for Los Angeles, Mr. Kraut has a wealth of experience, a terrific record at jury trials, and the resources and investigative tools to get you results.

February 20, 2012

Long Beach DUI News Blotter: Mel Gibson DUI Arresting Officer Settles Suit for 50K

by Michael Kraut

The Long Beach DUI news was rather pedestrian last week—but not the DUI news out of Malibu.

No, Mel Gibson did not get arrested yet again for driving under the influence on the PCH. However, the deputy who arrested him that fateful night back in 2006 has won a settlement of $50,000 in a religious discrimination lawsuit related to the Gibson stop.

Deputy Mee is Jewish. Allegedly, Gibson ripped into him with anti-Semitic comments, after Mee pulled him over. According to a Fox News report, “Mee… claims his superiors forced him to remove the anti-Semitic comments made by the actor at the time from a report… he later received negative performance reviews and was denied promotion opportunities.”

The settlement marks a victory for Mee. Earlier, a judge doubted that he would be able to prove his case. The judge had said that Gibson and Los Angeles Sheriff Lee Baca would not be called as witnesses.

Gibson expunged his Los Angeles DUI conviction in 2009, after he served his sentence. His public persona was damaged, particularly because of the alleged anti-semitic tirade. In 2011, Gibson again made national headlines when his taped rants against his ex-girlfriend were released on celebrity blog sites. Gibson sounded totally unhinged and scary on those tapes.

As the Gibson story illustrates, the quest to put your Long Beach DUI behind you can be an elusive one.

You may find success in the short-term only to relapse and be rearrested for DUI in Long Beach a month or a year or 5 years later. And every time you get arrested or get into trouble with the law, you are more likely to face steep fines and punishments.

As your Los Angeles DUI attorney will tell you, first-time offenders for misdemeanor DUI charges can face a large number of penalties (jail time, mandatory alcohol school, CA driver’s license suspension, major court costs and fines, etc). But these penalties pale in comparison to penalties for repeat offenders. For instance, if you commit three more DUIs within a 10-year period, your simple misdemeanor charge can get transformed into a felony charge. If convicted of that, you could face over a year in jail and other harsh punishments.

Long Beach DUI criminal defense attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454) will help you work through your struggles and develop the most reasonable, most strategic defense based on the facts of your arrest, your history, and your values.

Attorney Kraut is a former prosecutor with a Harvard Law School education who is well known in the community as a compassionate, yet aggressive, legal representative.

December 30, 2011

4 Biggest Beverly Hills DUI Stories of 2011

by Michael Kraut

Celebrities often do awful, and awfully crazy, things. In 2011, we saw some crazy and scary Beverly Hills DUI stories. In this post, we will review four of the year’s most scandalous celebrity moments.

1. Lindsay Lohan – Still Reeling from Her 2007 Los Angeles DUI
Unless you were living under a rock, you tuned into the Lindsay Lohan’s seemingly never-ending Los Angeles DUI probation violation saga. Ms. Lohan’s 2011 got off to a bad start on January 22, when she allegedly pilfered a necklace worth $2,500 from a store in Venice. She pleaded not guilty to the resultant felony grand theft charge, but the karmic dye had been cast for Ms. Lohan in 2011, and she proceeded to make headline after headline: she violated her probation, got sentenced, made tearful appeals, etc. Then she made headlines once again by agreeing to pose nude in Playboy for nearly $1 million. Her father, meanwhile, got arrested twice in one week for domestic violence charges.

Altogether, not a great scene for the Lohans in 2011.

2. Christina Aguilera – Watches as Her Boyfriend Gets Tagged for DUI
2011 was not a great year for pop princesses, was it?

On March 1, Christina Aguilera was arrested for public intoxication, while her boyfriend was tagged for DUI. Aguilera had come off of a rough 2010, but she rebounded magnificently in the latter half of 2011, thanks in part to her widely successful TV vehicle, The Voice. It goes to show that Beverly Hills DUI does not commit you to certain and permanent debauchery
3. Estella Warren’s Hit and Run DUI (with a Bit of Cop Kicking Thrown in There As Well)

Estella Warren, an actress in Planet of the Apes, was arrested for DUI back in May. She allegedly resisted arrest and kicked the cop who tried to handcuff her. Warren smashed her Prius into three separate cars and then drove away from the scene. All told, she got hit with charges of assault, felony escape, hit and run, and DUI.

4. Charlie Sheen – Not Busted for Beverly Hills DUI, but Might As Well Have Been
2011 was the year of Charlie Sheen’s epic, magnificent public meltdown. The year started out crazy, when Sheen was arrested after trashing his Las Vegas hotel room and partying with an adult film star. Charlie thus began a headline-grabbing rampage that included getting fired from Two and a Half Men after calling his boss “a contaminated maggot” among other things and then waxing similarly poetic (and vitriolic) about everyone from his ex-wife to Alcoholics Anonymous to Thomas Jefferson.

If you were arrested for driving under the influence in Beverly Hills in 2011, connect with a respected, highly successful Beverly Hills DUI criminal defense attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935). Attorney Michael Kraut is a former prosecutor with a terrific record at jury trials.

December 26, 2011

Like a Glamorous Beverly Hills DUI Story, but in Michigan: Former Miss USA Busted for DUI While Serving as a “Designated Driver”

by Michael Kraut

Americans love glamour and beauty, and we are fascinated by stories of “celebrities gone wrong.” Hence, our obsession with Beverly Hills DUI stories and news events involving pop princesses, celebutantes, fashionistas, powerful politicians, and others who get into trouble with the law. Sometimes, these stories are bittersweet; sometimes they are tragic, sometimes they are purely humorous. But we can learn a lot more from Beverly Hills DUI defendants than the tabloids (and even the mainstream news media) are willing to teach us.

Take the recent arrest of 2010 Miss USA, Rima Fakih. The 26-year-old captured America’s heart in 2010, but police captured her last week. Although police did not release details about the DUI arrest, the story is practically pregnant with object lessons for Beverly Hills DUI defendants and friends and family members of defendants.

According to the Detroit Free Press and other local news reports, Fakih had appointed herself designated driver last Saturday evening, when she went out with some friends. After noticing that her friend seemed too intoxicated to drive, Fakih took over the wheel. She quickly realized that she, too, was too intoxicated to drive. So she pulled the car over. Too late. Police had already spotted her, and she was quickly rounded up and charged with DUI. After news of her arrest broke, she, like so many Beverly Hills DUI arrestees – reached for her Twitter account to deny her reality: “Let’s clear things up now…I’m not in Michigan and I’m not in jail! Wrong Fakih.”

She later removed that post. But it’s instructive for us to talk about that.

We can see two lessons from here:

Number one, when people “have a few drinks” while trying to be a designated driver, bad things happen. In Fakih’s case, fortunately, no one was hurt and no property was damaged.

Number two, defendants can enter a period of abject denial after being arrested. This is a human reaction. But it can be a compromising reaction, in that you may do or say things after your arrest (because of your denial) that will compromise your ability to build a case.

To protect yourself and your rights, connect with the Beverly Hills’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935). Attorney Michael Kraut is an experienced, highly confident, Harvard Law School-educated Beverly Hills DUI criminal defense attorney. He served as a prosecutor for 14 years, so he knows how prosecutors will treat your case.

December 12, 2011

Beverly Hills DUI Penalties: When You Suffer, Everyone Around You Does, Too

by Michael Kraut

You’ve recently been hit with a charge of driving under the influence in Beverly Hills, and you’re still reeling from it. The mind is churning up worst case scenarios:

• What if the person you injured during your Beverly Hills DUI doesn’t recover or is saddled with a lifelong disability?
• What if you have to go to jail for years?
• Who will take care of your business, your home, your family?
• What if you lose your driver’s license and have to pay thousands of dollars in fines, etc?
• What should you be doing now to make your new job as a Beverly Hills DUI defendant easier and more strategic?

We’ve discussed the direct consequences of Beverly Hills DUI conviction (e.g. jail time, fine/fees, mandatory alcohol school, mandatory installation of an IID device in your vehicle, probation, etc) as well as the indirect consequences (e.g. hiked up insurance rates, loss of confidence, loss of self respect and professional reputation, massive, chronic inconveniences that strain your budget, etc).

But a third, arguably even scarier set of penalties awaits you. These pertain to the effect of your DUI event and possible conviction on society as a whole.

To get a little philosophical for a second… cities like Beverly Hills (and Los Angeles in general) maintain their social cohesion through bonds of trust, order, and mutual self interest. Those bonds are not absolute, however. Difficult economic conditions, fraud and crime, war, disease, and other destabilizing forces can fray these bonds and lead to chaos in the community.

Now, obviously, your Beverly Hills DUI is not going to “make or break” the city. At least, hopefully it’s not going to. On the other hand, the incremental effects of Los Angeles DUI arrests, convictions, consequences, etc on society as a whole are non-negligible. In other words, what you do behind the wheel has an effect beyond the immediate radius of your accident.

If you recall the movie Office Space, you’ll likely remember the scam the co-workers pulled – they essentially tried to “shave off” fractions of a cent from millions of bank accounts in a high-tech heist. Individually, no one customer was hurt; collectively, however, the financial institution was damaged.

The obvious retort is: Well, it was just me who got in trouble. How much of a difference could my actions have made? But multiply that attitude times hundreds of thousands of Angelinos, and you have a recipe for chaos, disorder and worse.

The moral here is: You have a choice. Even if you’ve already a committed a Beverly Hills DUI – and even if that DUI was serious and caused injury and/or property damage – you have a choice right now to change your perspective on what happened and not only rebuild your own life but also work towards healing society and making the city and our world a more compassionate, livable, hopeful environment.

Of course, it’s important to ground ideals into solid thinking and strategy. Connect with a Beverly Hills DUI defense attorney from the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935 ) right now to plan your next steps. Attorney Kraut is a hugely respected former prosecutor who can help you understand your rights and best next steps.