You made a mistake.
You are pulled over, they do some eye voodoo, and then they make you do some calisthenics on the side of the road. You get arrested, blow in a funny machine that beeps and bops and tells you, you’re intoxicated.
And now, for the first (or fourth) time, you are looking for a DWI attorney.
You have many, many choices out there.
Much like your choices at the bar, your choice in hiring a DWI lawyer has many options but they are generally grouped together. Well, call, or top shelf, you made the call before you made the regrettable choice to head home, and no you have to make the choice of an attorney that you don’t want to regret down the road.
You can go with the liquor in the well.
Well liquor gets the job done, but it’s usually a quick buzz, burns going down, leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and the hangover is really, really bad.
The lawyers in the well usually do a little bit of everything, they know just enough about areas of the law to seem like a real lawyer. The problem with a lawyer from the well in a DWI is that they get you the standard plea agreement or deal really quick, it doesn’t cost too much, but enough to burn a little going down. Then, the hangover comes, and if you ever have any more problems with driving and alcohol, you are guaranteed to feel that hangover. The more times you plead guilty or don’t win your administrative suspension case, the bigger your problems will be in a case where you are involved in another alcohol related charge.
Of course, the next shelf up at the bar are generally the call brands. They cost more, but the problem is that some of them don’t taste any better than the well brands. They can be great, if you know one that you’ve had before, but when you are just looking at labels and you really don’t know anything about the product you can make a call, pay a higher price, and still have as bad a hangover as you do with the well liquor.
These attorneys likely have some specialization in DWIs, but maybe they just know the verbiage, or maybe they know how to talk the talk, but would fail you if you end up needing to get in court and have a contested hearing. If you have tried an attorney on the call shelf you may have had a great experience, maybe they did a good job. However, the call shelf is dubious. Your attorney may have just cost more, and not known any more or done any more work to handle your case in a proactive way.
Then there is the top shelf. The top shelf is usually made up of distillers known for their excellence. Most top shelf liquor has a subtle warming sensation before leaving an aroma of the spirit on your tongue. It tastes good, it doesn’t burn much, and unless you drink the whole darn bottle the hangovers never feel quite so bad.
You get what you pay for with the top shelf, but it’s more than just the price, it’s the quality.
Quality from an attorney means they don’t burn going down and they leave a good taste in your mouth no matter what the outcome because you know you had great representation. They take care of you, answer your questions, make sure you are ready for any court appearance and any potential outcome of your case.
They fight when it’s time to fight and negotiate when it’s time to negotiate, and they have the experience and smarts to know the difference.
I came to the DWI and Criminal Law Center over a year ago because I knew the kind of firm it was — a top shelf firm. Founder Kim Benjamin is a trial lawyer who is nationally known for DWI defense who I’d seen work and respected as one of the best lawyers in Missouri. I brought over 40 criminal jury trials with me after over a decade of criminal defense work. I knew we would be a top shelf firm, ready to fight the government in any and all DWI cases.
Book an appointment now on our website if you have a DWI. We are the best chance you have of beating that case. www.DWICriminalLawCenter.com
