FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CALIFORNIA LAW

• YOU SHOULD KNOW: When you are arrested for a DUI in California, you should be able to delay the automatic license suspension from occurring 30 days from your arrest. You should call your local Driver Safety Office within ten days of your arrest and ask for an administrative per se hearing. Also ask for a stay on your license suspension. The DMV will grant you the stay and send you a temporary license. By exercising this statutory right, you should be able to drive legally until the date of your hearing, which is usually several months after your arrest. If you prefer, retain our firm within that ten-day window, and we will make all the necessary arrangements associated with temporarily preserving your driving privilege. We will then appear at your hearing and fight to have the impending suspension lifted.

• YOU SHOULD KNOW: You do not have the right to have a public defender represent you at your administrative per se suspension hearing in California. The hearing is civil in nature, and the State will not provide you with the free services of an attorney.

• YOU SHOULD KNOW: If you are convicted of spousal abuse or another similar crime in California, expect the court to include in your sentence the requirement that you attend a one-year spousal abuser treatment program, even in the case of a misdemeanor.

• YOU SHOULD KNOW: Some misdemeanor sex offenses in California require, upon conviction, that the perpetrator register as a sex offender with authorities for the rest of his life.