LA DUI Defense

THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. CHARLES P. SUBRAMANI, Defendant and Appellant
Court of Appeal of California, First Appellate District, Division Four
October 31, 1985

The defendant drove his vehicle striking broadside a vehicle injuring the driver and the passenger. Driver suffered minor injuries but passenger sustained substantial injuries. Defendant was charged as follows on V counts, felony driving under the influence and causing injury to the driver (Veh. Code, § 23153, subd. (a)); felony driving under the influence and causing injury to the passenger (§ 23153, subd. (a)); felony driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent or more and causing injury to the driver (Veh. Code, § 23153, subd. (b)); felony driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent or more and causing injury to the passenger (§ 23153, subd. (b)) and misdemeanor driving with a suspended license. Prior to trial, defendant pleaded guilty to count V. Defendant was convicted of both felony and misdemeanor driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent or more based upon one collision in which two persons were injured. The defendant challenged the judgment.

Issues:

Whether the misdemeanor drunk driving counts must be vacated?
Whether the defendant is being properly charged with more than one count from a single act of drunk driving which caused injury to more than one person?

Discussion:

This court held that the defendant could be charged only with one count of felony drunk driving (i.e., with violations of subds. (a) and (b) of § 23153); the injuries of either or both of the victims could be used as proof of the charge. Here, however, the prosecutor charged separate felony counts for each victim; that was improper. Because the felony convictions involving injury to victim Blackwell (counts II and IV) were properly charged and are supported by substantial evidence, they can stand. The misdemeanor counts (counts I and III) involving Brown are mere surplusage and therefore must be stricken.

This court held that while such dual conviction is proper, dual punishment is prohibited by Penal Code section 654. (People v. Duarte, supra, 161 Cal.App.3d at pp. 446-447.) The trial court correctly applied that principle by ordering that the execution of the sentence on one of the felonies (count IV) was to be stayed in accordance with Penal Code section 654.

Conclusion:

This court hence reversed the judgment against defendant only as to the misdemeanor convictions and affirmed the judgment in all other respects. Defendant was properly charged and convicted of felonies for both driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.10 percent or more.

Disclaimer:

These summaries are provided by the SRIS Law Group.  They represent the firm’s unofficial views of the Justices’ opinions.  The original opinions should be consulted for their authoritative content

Originally published here.

When going in for a lawyer, you would want to pick only the very best. Hence, in this way, you can be assured that you will get legal representation that is very hard to beat and can therefore be assured of a somewhat reduced punishment as a result of opting for these lawyers. In order to do this, you might want to know how to identify the top Los Angeles DUI Lawyer available for your price range. Once you have worked on this, you wouldn’t have to work as hard in getting your case sorted out and building a bulletproof defense.

Remuneration after victory

The hallmark of a good Los Angeles DUI Lawyer would have to be the fact that they always collect their fees only after winning the case for you. Hence, you don’t have to pay anything upfront before the case goes to trial. Only if the lawyer has been able to get you a desirable outcome should you pay them. The conditions of these will be discussed prior to taking on the case. Hence, if the lawyers demand you to pay all the money before the case begins, you might want to think twice about going in for them.

Highly experienced

It is easy to pick out the Los Angeles DUI Lawyer that can defend you without any issues in court. These are the ones that come with a decent amount of experience. Experience translates to having a thorough understanding of the law. When the lawyers are able to understand every aspect of the law, they are much more likely to defend you and help you win the case. At times, you might be quite surprised at the kind of things that these lawyers go in for when it comes to defense. Hence, experience should be a necessary condition when seeking out for legal services.

Building a strong defense

The lawyers that tend to falter in court will not be able to succeed, no matter what the odds are. Hence, when you get a good Los Angeles DUI Lawyer, the manner that they approach the case is completely different. This alone should give you a good idea as to how good they are and how they are actually able to fight the case out on your behalf. If the other party notices any kind of weakness in the argument, they are bound to exploit it. Hence, you cannot afford to let this happen to you, which might cause you to lose the case as well.

There are other factors too that make for a really good Los Angeles DUI Lawyer. With a little bit of searching, you should be able to identify the good ones from the rest. It shouldn’t be a very challenging task for you either. Hence, it is important that you are able to understand what goes into a quality lawyer and subsequently use the same to help get a good one to represent you for your case. After all, the right representation does go a long way in helping you win your case.

Originally published here.

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