Comprehensive Arizona DUI Information
can your lawyer keep up?
DUIs are litigated on the fast track. An Arizona DUI Lawyer must have the support staff and stamina to keep up.
Can your lawyer keep up with your case? This question, while in the past irrelevant, is becoming increasingly important in Arizona DUI cases. A new court rule says that all DUI cases must either conclude by a plea bargain or go to trial within 6 months from their start date. This didn't use to be the case. Your attorney must now have the energy and resources to litigate your case in a compressed time-frame.
So it is important to ask whether your attorney has not only the availability, but also the resources in the form of support staff to handle his or her caseload. For instance, Phoenix Municipal Court now requires an attorney (and usually the defendant) to be present at every hearing, whereas previously an attorney could get both himself and his client out of every court appearance prior to trial. This makes it very difficult on solo practitioners, who often are forced to hire attorney from outside of their firms to make appearances for their clients.
While, in theory, it may sound good that your attorney represents that he/she will handle EVERYTHING in your case, the reality is that if an attorney is bogged down doing parlegal stuff, managing her office, making minor court appearances, doing witness interviews, tending to their practice, answering routine questions, fending off vendors, etc, then they are not going to have the time or energy to concentrate where their efforts should be, which is in working the important legal and stratagic aspects of your case.
RETURN TO THE HOW TO HIRE A DUI LAWYER PAGE