Do I Get a New DUI Trial if I Win My Appeal?

Do I get a new DUI trial if I win my appeal?

The answer is, possibly. When an appellate court reverses (takes away the drunk driving conviction) and remands (sends the case back to the trial court), they are saying that the trial court made one or more significant errors at your trial. This means that your DUI conviction cannot be upheld. Often, the evidence that was allowed (incorrectly) to be introduced will either be excluded at your new trial or no longer available for use at the new trial. Hence, the prosecutor may not have enough evidence to proceed to a new trial. And a dismissal or a reduction of charges may be mandated.

The prosecutor may also consider that his or her office already took their best shot at you, and is now faced with starting over. This is expensive, and often their witness or witnesses may no longer be available. Plus, your defense attorney will have the benefit of using the detailed, sworn testimony of the police officers available in the transcript of your first trial to impeach these officers at any new trial. Such facts may give your attorney powerful leverage to negotiate with the prosecutor either to dismiss the DUI-DWI charges or seek to reduce the charges to a lesser offense.

Correcting an error in your sentencing

In rare cases, detailed review of the record in your entry of a guilty plea or in your sentencing after trial can reveal errors made by your judge, the prosecutor or even your own attorney. This type of post-conviction review is best handled by DUI attorneys who specialize in fighting such cases.

Errors may have occurred when the judge mistakenly sentenced you to the wrong code for too long or incorrectly sent you back to jail after the time allowed to do that had already passed or expired. The difficulty of such situations may be to locate and pay a specialist in habeas corpus relief, unless family, friends or a court-appointed attorney care enough to try to assist you.[/fusion_text]