Do not i repeat do not ever retain this lawyer (tom smith) unless it is a first offence. I hired him a 2500 dollar retainer fee because i was charged with felony obstructing and an m.i.p. well the problem with the mip was that i was not brethalized and police records showed that. i also had not consumed enough alcohol to even show if i had been (ill get into that later) i made the mistake of telling tom the whole story about what happened and he set out to be a good samaritan. This was my first offence as an adult and the only previous ones were pretty minor posession and things of the like. well i was high on e at the time of the incident and beign honest with my lawyer like i so foolishly thought i could i told him about that and my past drug use. he then suggested drug court. and before i go any further i want to say i am not a drug attict and drug court is extremly excessive. i smoke pot or at least used to and thats about it the e use was maybe one time every 6 months and i happened to have 2 pills for personal use on me when the cops showed up which forced me to leave the scene or face 2years in prison for posession of mdma. but i digress. so basically he tells me drug court is the only way out of this prediciment i have put myself into and without any knowledge of it i agreed to it and was very nervous about the whole thing well a few court dates go by i dont get so much as a single call from the guy to inform me about what is going to happen the next day in court (i had about 6 court dates in total) so everything gets all done and i get to the point that it is finally sentencing day and i was still charged with what i mentioned earlier. however as for the mip that night i had had literally 1 tiny sip of a mixed drink (grey goose and lemonade) and that was at least a half hour before cops showed up so even if i had blown i would have blown clean. but we get to the final sentencing to drug court and he tells me i HAVE to plead guilty to all charges and that he will not fight the mip because i told him i had consumed alcohol. even though i know for a fact it was literally 1 sip (drinking has never been my thing) so i plead guilty to all charges knowing that if i complete drug court that i will have the felony reduced to a high court misdemenor. well after it is all said and done and i am introduced to the HELL that is the 20th circuit drug court. i find out that old boy tom smith is one of 10 people in the drug court team that makes descisions on who to accept and who to kick out and decide punishments and things of the like. so long story short i paid the guy 2500 dolllars to get me into a program that is a lot more than what i could have gotten off with had i retained another lawyer that was willing to keep the things i told them confidential. ohh and i also paid him to accept me into a program which he was a big deciding factor in if ANYONE gets in it probalby only helped that i was his client and the dick didnt even get an mip with literally NO evidence of me beign drunk other than the cops saying they recodnized my intoxication from alcohol by their training. TLDR i pled guilty to an mip when i wasnt drunk to get into a program that was far excessive than what i could have gotten from another lawyer. read more