What is the name of your state? California. My son is currently dealing with his 1st DUI charge so I hired a lawyer. Got notice from his office that next scheduled appearance in court is on 12-28-07. no need to appear, lawyer will appear for him. I was on the internet last night and just happened to check a site listing public court records and found out that my son has a count #3 added to his charges and a warrant for his arrest for failure to appear in court on 12-14-07. I called the law office first thing this morning to bring it to their attention. Said they would get back to me, but have not. My question is, is this going to screw up any plea bargain or chance my son has to get penalties reduced?
Has this happened to anyone else?
First of all you need to deal with this "warrant for his arrest" immediately. Call your local court to find out where to bring your son. If you need to bring your son anywhere, your son should NOT answer any questions pertaining to his case. He can explain that he currently no longer has an attorney and therefore requests council before answering any questions.
Secondly, fire this lawyer by a certificated written letter (be sure to pay extra postage for a "signature request" too). Within this letter, include a copy of the written notice they sent you regarding your son's need not to show up. This would also be a good time to include in your letter a request a full refund for any monies paid.
Then, immediately send a letter to the courts explaining that you have fired the current lawyer hired for your son's case. This should also include a copy of the letter you sent to the lawyer along with a copy of the notice you received from the lawyer's office regarding the scheduled apperance. Again, pay for extra postage for a signature request. And it's also good to include a "CC" at the end of the letter because you should send a copy to the lawyer's office just fired.
Now as soon as you can, hire a lawyer who is well-schooled in DUI laws. I'd suggest you check out the ncdd.com website for lawyers who have taken the time to learn about DUI laws.
You may also want to consider while writing these letters, include your son in the process. I don't know how old he is, but you can't continue to do all this hard work to protect him his whole life. He was, afterall, the one charged with a crime, it might be a really good time to cut the apron strings and let him deal with it too.
Has this happened to anyone else?
It does happen quite often with lawyers who take cases their clearly not qualified to handle. DUI defense tends to be more complex than even murder defense. One should never hire a lawyer who doesn't understand the complexities of DUI laws in the same manner you wouldn't hire a lawyer who handles cases involving medical fraud to defend tax evasion. Unfortuantely too many lawyers think they can defend cases they're clearly not trained to handle. This happens all in the name of money. Hence, the term ambulance chaser
Good luck