Well, nobody really wants to write a review for a lawyer, much less a DUI lawyer... right? Well,…read morehere we go.
I got caught up in the stupid stop-everyone-taskforce on St. Patty's Day 2011. Naturally I was drinking at my local pub, but knowing that cops were swarming outside I took it easy and waited. This didn't stop the cops from pulling me over immediately after pulling out of the parking lot and making up some bullshit "probable cause" for stopping me. In my case, it was an "improper left turn." (Bogus because I used all the proper lanes, used my turn signal, and didn't disobey any posted signs).
I'm normally on the other side of the law so I didn't know what to really do. All I knew was that I wasn't drunk (4 drinks from 4pm til 9pm, and pulled over at 11pm) and that it'd be pretty shitty to go to jail for a DUI of which I wasn't guilty of. So, I hired Craig Penrod.
JUICY DETAILS: So my BAC came back 0.04 so Arizona tossed out the DUI and the DUI OVER 0.08 charges automatically. This left the improper left turn charge for Arizona to collect on since it had invested it's police time and its judicial time in trying to prosecute an innocent. The state ended up dropping that too.
MY THOUGHTS: To be honest, I've wondered many times, why did I cough up $4k to Craig to have the state drop two of the charges automatically? Would it have been better to just wait to hear the results, then hire him? Maybe. I hear that this is not the way to go, but lawyers may have made up that suggestion. So in my situation, it seemed like I paid Craig to do little to nothing.
A far as his office goes, this is what I didn't like. Upon getting the BAC of 0.04 they asked me not once, but four times if I had any other "substances" in my blood that night. The reasoning behind the question is that you can be under the influence, but not drunk (drugs). I told him and his office each time that I barely did OTC medicines, much less illegal drugs. So, no. But they asked four times. Aren't you guys writing this down? Another thing I hated was partially due to me and my schedule. I work a night shift so attending to meetings during the day aren't always the easiest. His office repeatedly wanted me to come in to discuss various matters. Maybe this is for the client so that it is face-to-face and more confidential than over the phone but it was super annoying to me. So my BAC was 0.04, so call me... that isn't bad news and I don't need to drive 20 minutes just to sit in a lobby for 5 mins, just to sit in a room for 1 minute to tell me that my BAC was low so the state is dropping those charges. Maybe to help this the firm would benefit from having a questionnaire where the defendant can say how they want to be contacted or something. I'm sure some people would really like the face-to-face, but I personally found it annoying. With that said, they were pretty flexible on their times and slots.
So in the end, what $4k got me was this... I got to sit on my ass and go on vacation while Craig did all the paperwork, went to hearings, and talked them out of the improper left turn charge. However, at first Craig did suggest that I just take the class/fine for that charge, to which I kindly told him that I "didn't make an improper left turn" and he said he's see if they'd drop it. C'mon Craig, this is what I'm paying you for! Get all that **** gone!
I'll leave it at this. If you know you were drunk and need someone that knows how to work the system, Craig is probably a good choice. However, if you think you aren't drunk then it may be better just to wait it out.