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Home Blog Drunk Driving 3rd Offense (felony) DUI – Part 1 – Finding the Right Lawyer

If you’re facing a Michigan OWI charge, and especially if it’s a 3rd offense case, there are 2 key questions to keep in mind as you look around for a lawyer:

1. What can you do to produce the very best outcome possible in my case?, and 2. What can you do better than everyone else?

If you don’t have a clear answer to both of these questions as you consider any particular attorney, then keep looking.  It’s that simple.
The internet is full of sites that say a whole lot of nothing, and some of them even have slick pictures, to boot.
None of that matters.
The bottom line is that you hire a Michigan DUI lawyer to make things better.  To get that, you’re going to have to plow through a ton of marketing hype and outright BS to find real information that is helpful to you.
Because of the way most lawyers market themselves, legal services now seem very much like commodities.  Every lawyer lists having “X number of years of experience,” and being “aggressive,” “tough” and so forth.  You can add all kinds of other meaningless descriptors, like “former prosecutor” or “former police officer” to the mix, but none of that makes any one stand out from all the others, and it doesn’t answer the 2 questions posed above.
The key is to look for that real information.  You do that by taking the time to look around and compare lawyers through their writings.
That’s unconventional advice in a field where almost every legal website displays “Call Now!” in the biggest letters possible, but the simple fact is that there is NEVER a good reason to not be a good consumer and check out your options.
Sure, it’s great for some lawyer if you stop looking around once you encounter his or her site, but not so much for you.
Here is perhaps the most important point about hiring a lawyer: don’t be in a hurry.
There is nothing that a lawyer is going to do in the hours after you get out of jail that can’t wait a few days.  Sure, it feels good to think you’re “protected” as soon as possible, but the truth is that you’ll protect yourself far more by not rushing to hire the first lawyer that calls you back, or who is open on Saturday, more than anything else.
Take the time and read around, while trying to get a feel for a lawyer and his or her voice as you do so.
Finding the right lawyer for your 3rd offense charge is an important decision.  Treat it that way.  Whatever else, run the other way from anyone who tries to rush you, or cut short your selection process.
In the context of a 3rd offense DUI case, you need exceptional results, and that won’t come from anything less than an exceptional lawyer.  Look for the standouts.  These will almost always be the attorneys who focus on and talk about what you need to hear, rather than trying to lure you in by making things sound very promising by saying what you want to hear.
Again, look for real information.
In addition to this website, I have the biggest and best blog anywhere (the blog is way better than this site), updated with 2 new articles that I write each week.
Each article provides real information that explains how things work in the real world.  With hundreds of DUI articles already posted and a search feature, you can find answers to all of your questions in one place and can get a good idea of how my team and I do things before you ever even think of actually speaking with anyone.
In truth, you should be able to do that with any lawyer worth considering.
Nothing about the process of hiring a lawyer for this should be a guessing game; it’s your life.  Hiring a lawyer for a felony drunk driving means knowing that you’re placing yourself in good hands, not handing over all your money in exchange for a bunch of slick double-talk, vague explanations, or alluring promises.
An important part of finding the right lawyer means that you will, eventually, need to pick up the phone and call around.  There is no better way to get a sense of a lawyer or law firm than by contacting them directly.
I’d suggest, however, doing that after you’ve read their stuff. It’s great to know that they sound like what they’ve written (or not).
Beyond just looking for the right DUI lawyer, there are 3 critically important things to consider when dealing with a 3rd offense felony drunk driving case that will help you do that:

  1. The evidence,
  2. The location, and
  3. Your relationship to alcohol.

To be clear, each of these is a formal subject in its own right.  You can find multiple articles dedicated to evidence, location and drinking on the blog, within the DUI section.  In the following sections, the best we can do is take a brief look at each of these topics, or else risk “getting lost in the weeds,” so to speak.
The kind of in-depth articles that examine and explain things, like those published on my blog, distinguish the approach my team and I take in DUI cases from most other lawyers.
In addition, those articles proved clear answers to the 2 questions from the opening section that you should be asking as you look for an attorney to handle your 3rd offense DUI case:

1. What can you do to produce the very best outcome possible in my case?, and 2. What can you do better than everyone else?

Our office is made up of really friendly people who will be glad to answer your questions and explain things.  All of our consultations are free, confidential, and done over the phone, right when you call.
When you give us a ring, we will promptly address all of your concerns.
Our firm has NEVER  made people come in to the office to “talk about it.”  We’d hate to have that kind of marketing ploy used on any of us, so we won’t do that to anyone else.
My team and I bring an exceptional combination of experience, skill and training that allows us to produce extraordinary results in all DUI cases.
No matter how you try and spin it, “good results” means actually making things better for a client by avoiding or minimizing the as many of the potential negative consequences and legal penalties you face.
In order to offer the high level of DUI expertise that my team and I provide, we limit our representation in DUI to cases pending in the Greater-Detroit area of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Lapeer, Livingston, St. Clair and Washtenaw Counties.
We’ll explore that in more detail in part 4 of this subsection, as we examine the important role of location.