Each DUI in the Bay Area, California triggers two separate and totally different types of cases. The first case involves the Superior Court system and the second charges brought against someone once arrested for drinking and driving involve the Department of Motor Vehicles and an administrative per se or APS case. The issues for the hearing are specified by the California Vehicle Code CVC 13558.

Due to the Vehicle Codes strict policies and guidelines, the drinking driver usually loses the DMV hearing. In most of these cases, the person who was charged with a DUI does not understand the 10-day limit and they end up waiving their rights to the hearing due to time constraints. If your lawyer or yourself can win at the DMV hearing or simply have the "action set aside" at the hearing, it presents a great bargaining tool for the court proceedings which are to follow. Due to the time issues, the DMV hearing is almost always first and a win in the first round always helps for the next round.

When a criminal defense lawyer begins his arguments at the court plea bargaining, presenting a win from the DMV hearing can help to present your case well and give you a good chance at winning at trial. It is important to remember that during the DMV hearing, you will be playing by a whole different set of rules from the court case.

Few, if any, criminal court rules apply as the DMV hearing is administrative and a different set of rules of evidence and procedure do apply here. With the codes written some time ago and before the Bay Area experienced such a rise in DUI arrests, it is hard to believe that where a vehicle code exists, it usually trumps the Government code section. This means for you, that a citizen's statement written in a police report IS objectionable just as much as the chemical test or breath test results usually lack the foundation they need to stand up to actual arguments.

This is where the citizen charged with a DUI starts to realize that obtaining counsel and getting a good criminal defense attorney can be imperative to keeping one's drivers license once they have been arrested for drunken driving charges.

A good criminal defense DUI lawyer can help anyone to understand the intricacies and loopholes presented with a DUI arrest. Helping the arrestee to not feel like such a victim and help them to understand that each case is unique and only a qualified attorney can help to walk the average citizen through the whole lengthy and time consuming process.

In the US and anywhere these days, having your drivers license can be extremely important to your daily life and routine. Used for the primary form of transportation from work, school, shopping and of course events, not having your vehicle or drivers license, can change one's life dramatically. Making sure to speak with a qualified defense attorney who is well voiced and experienced in DUI law is important to winning either the DMV or Criminal Court case.

Getting to these attorneys in a timely manner and filling out all of the forms necessary is also important if you are arrested on DUI charges in the Bay Area or any part of California. A good defense attorney will help walk you through the processes, fill out the necessary paperwork and forms for both the court system and the DMV process and generally help to make you feel comfortable and knowledgable about the Drunken Driving trials that you are facing.