It seems that I’ve been on a bit of a bankruptcy kick for a while – and you’re right, I have. It’s an important subject to talk about because there are a lot of people out there in dire straits and bankruptcy may be an only option for them. Instead of just talking about finding bankruptcy attorneys and what you can do if you want to be a successful bankruptcy attorney, I figured I’d actually talk about your options. Here we go!

There are technically more than three kinds of bankruptcy out there, but the chances of you qualifying for the other kinds are so remote that I’m not going to waste your time and my time talking about them. The three kinds I’m talking about are Chapter 7 bankruptcy, Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. These are the ones that most people would find themselves going through if the need arises.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Explained

Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the route that most people go. It is described by most as “straight bankrupcty.” This is the kind you use when you just want to wipe out as much debt as you can. This is also the simplest and quickest way to reduce your debts.

In Chapter 7, a debtor basically gives up all of his property to someone that controls it (known as a trustee), who distributes what is allowed to be distributed to pay off debts and then wipes out everything else.

Some debts cannot be extinguished with a Chapter 7 filing, including spousal and child support, student loans, some taxes, and some other kinds of debts. So, if you want to try to get rid of that huge student loan you just accumulated, you’re out of luck.

Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Explained

Chapter 13 is set up for the person that has some regular income but has accumulated so much debt that they just can’t handle it any more (though the debt can only reach a certain amount to qualify under this chapter). The idea behind Chapter 13 is to stop the interest from accumulating, create a payment plan for the creditors, and stretch that plan out three to five years to pay off those debts. What the debtor gets in return is a lowering of the debt obligation.

In this plan, there is a little more pressure put on you, the debtor, because you have the obligation to repay your debts according to the plan that are laid out. If you don’t pay as you agreed the debts you incurred do not go away – the bankruptcy is dismissed and you’re still on the hook for your obligations.

What’s great about Chapter 13 bankruptcy is that you get to keep all of your property – you don’t have to give everything up like you do in Chapter 7. That’s offset by the requirement to stick to the payment plan, but for some, it’s worth it.

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Explained – the Business Bankruptcy

Chapter 11 is a tool set up to allow businesses that have found themselves in financial trouble to reorganize their debts to return the business to profitability. This is the medium you typically hear about when a big business starts to go under and needs to be saved (lately think Barnes and Noble or K-Mart).

Through Chapter 11 a plan is set up that creditors must approve. What typically happens here is the creditors realize if the business goes under they may lose all of their money owed, so they are willing to take less money (say 75% of what they are owned) in order to get paid.

There you have it, a little bit of information on bankruptcy law. If you have questions, please let us know. If you have comments, please share them. We’d love to hear from you!

Burnout is something that can happen in any profession, no matter how lucrative, how popular, or how fun it may seem from the outside. And, with attorneys of all sorts, burnout is common. Yes, there is a lot of money to be made as an attorney, but that is often offset by working long hours (most attorneys only make money when they are billing for their time, the high stress of the job, and the sacrifices it requires personally.

I’m an Atlanta DUI defense attorney, so that’s what I’m going to talk about specifically today, though these thoughts will probably apply to people in any industry or walk of life that share characteristics with attorneys. The point here is to come to grips with the potential of burnout before it happens. By making a  few small, subtle changes, burnout can be something that never happens to you.

1. Take a Break From Being a DUI Lawyer

Pay attention here, because this is probably the most important lesson you are going to learn today, if you learn anything at all – the world will continue to revolve if you leave it for a moment. Clients will continue to be called. They will continue to be helped. The world will not end. It is okay to take a break.

Sure, you may not be able to take a two week vacation every year, though if you did you’d find it refreshing, I would wager. But, you can take a one week vacation. You can take a week off where you don’t do anything related to being a DUI lawyer – you completely check out. And you need to do this. It allows you to reset, to recharge your batteries, to get the fresh perspective we all need to be successful at our jobs.

2. Keep Your Perspective About Your Job

Sure, being a lawyer is an important job, and being an Atlanta DUI attorney may even be more important, but that doesn’t mean you need to base your happiness and your health on the outcome of your cases. Take some time to develop a sense of perspective about your career. Understand that the best you can do is your best – put forth that effort and be satisfied with that.

It doesn’t take one long in criminal defense to get the feeling that everyone and everything have done everything they can to make your job harder, if not impossible. But those are the hands you’re dealt. Work with them, do your best, and accept that.

3. Take Care of Yourself Physically

There is nothing worse, in my opinion, than being beaten down both mentally and physically. If you let yourself get out of shape, if you don’t shave, if you don’t iron your shirts, you are just amplifying your internal feelings.

I know an Atlanta DUI attorney that faithfully works out every day. It doesn’t matter if he has a good day or a bad day, he hits the gym, or the pool, or the basketball court. When I talked to him he told me that that experience every day for him is a mini-vacation. He can focus on his physical well being and push aside all of the stressful thoughts he has related to work. And you could do the same.

There you go, three ways to prevent burnout. Do you subscribe to any of these methods? Are there other things you do that you think are better? What are they? We want to hear from you!

I’ve got a confession to make. There are a lot of things that I have to do throughout the day that I don’t like doing. And on top of that, there are a lot of things that I should be doing throughout the day that I don’t get to do because I’m wasting time doing something else that needs to be done immediately. Those two daily occurrences got me thinking about the relationship between time and productivity – and I thought I’d talk about it here today.

Even more specifically I thought I’d talk about it from the perspective of a Seattle bankruptcy attorney, which is what I am.

What is My Time Worth as a Bankruptcy Attorney?

Believe it or not, this question is harder to answer than one might initially expect. What I’m talking about doing here is assigning a relative value to your time. Is an hour of your time worth $10, $50, $100? What is that time worth? You’ve got to be able to answer this question before you can move on.

The way I figured out what I thought an hour of my time was worth was to kind of back into it. As I already mentioned, I’m a Seattle bankruptcy attorney. With that job comes an effective hourly rate. If someone wanted to hire me to help them by the hour (most of the time I work for a fixed fee) I’d probably charge somewhere in the neighborhood of three hundred dollars an hour.

Is that my effective hourly rate? Not exactly. There’s at least one more step involved.

Now that I know I could be charging three hundred dollars an hour for work, I need to figure out what an hour of my time is worth generally throughout the day. As we all know, no one bills one hundred percent of the time. There are breaks, there are non-billable periods, and there are times when you’ve got to do administrative tasks.

To find out what an hour of your time is worth you need to figure out how your pay is distributed throughout your day. For example, let’s say that I, as a bankruptcy attorney, can bill four hours a day, with the other four hours spent doing necessary work, but work that isn’t billable. That means my effective hourly rate is $150 – which is $300 multiplied by 4 (hours billed) divided by 8 (total hours worked).

Why Effective Hourly Rate is Important for the Seattle Bankruptcy Lawyer

Every day we are forced to make decisions. Should we do this activity or that activity? Should we take on this business or should we take on that business? By knowing what your effective hourly rate is you can determine whether or not a task should be completed by your or by someone else.

Let me give you a perfect example. The other day my computer broke. I couldn’t get it to connect to the internet. Something had gone haywire. When that happened I had a decision to make – I could either try to fix the problem myself, which I figured would take me about an hour, or I could hire someone else to do it for me. How should I choose what to do?

I thought about it for a minute and the answer was simple. As a bankruptcy lawyer I could make $150 for the hour I spent working on attorney things, or I could make no money trying to figure out the computer issue, or I could spend $50 for a computer repairman to come out and fix the problem while I worked on bankruptcy matters.

The answer is simple, right? Hire the help. Even though I’ve got to pay the repair guy $50, I’m still making my $150, which leaves me in the black. If I try to fix the problem on my own, I can’t do attorney work – I’m out the $150, instead doing work that makes my effective hourly rate just $50 an hour.

When you’ve got to decide between productivity and time, choose productivity. Farm out the other things that take your time – you’ll make more money in the end as a result.

This post isn’t written for every DUI lawyer out there. It’s really written for those that have started their own law firm, started their own blog, started their own website, or in some way shape or form started creating some content that clients and potential clients will see. When one of those things I just mentioned happens something else happens as well – you need help to make them work. This post is about making sure all of your hard work doesn’t go toward fattening someone else’s pockets.

One of the great things about starting a DUI lawyer website, blog, map listing, or any other type of electronic content is that once you create it you effectively own it, in a very similar way to one that owns real estate. You have the ability to manage that property, change that property as you wish, allows others to see it, or keep it private. You have the ability to sell it, rent it out (think advertising), or give it away. And you own it forever, unless you make some of the classic mistakes we are going to talk about.

1. Every DUI Attorney Should Control Their Website

When I opened my law firm a few years ago, I knew straight away that one of the first things I needed to be successful was a website. I wanted to do whatever I could so that people would know, like, and trust me as an Atlanta DUI attorney.

I didn’t know anything about website design or development, so I started looking around for help. Before I did that, though, I talked to some friends I had in the tech industry, and they all said I must do two things on my own first:

1. Buy and secure my own domain name; and

2. Buy and set up my own web hosting

The reason for this is simple – if you don’t own these two important pieces of real estate, someone else has the power to turn them off at a moments notice. And that means someone else has complete control over you and your law firm.

2. How to Get Help with Your DUI Law Firm Website

Just because you own everything doesn’t mean you have to do everything yourself. In fact, if you wanted to try to set up your DUI attorney website on your own I’d think you were crazy. That endeavor would end in only one way – with a lot of time wasted and a terrible website.

Instead, just do what you might do if you hired anyone else to help you, or even work in your law firm – just give them access to your real estate that you can revoke if necessary. Temporary passwords are available for almost everything. Just set one up and let them get to work.

3. Control All of Your Law Firm Web Presence, Not Just the Website

In some ways I learned this lesson the hard way. When I was first starting out I hired out a firm to do some online advertising for me. I told them what I was looking for and basically turned everything over to them. That was fine for about a couple of weeks, until I started seeing things pop up on the internet that I wasn’t pleased with from a quality control standpoint. I wanted to get the stuff removed but had no access to any of it.

That was an important lesson learned when I soon thereafter hired someone to help me with my Google maps placement. I wanted to do whatever I could so that when someone was looking for an Atlanta DUI attorney I showed up on the map as high up on the list as possible. I talked to someone who was happy to help me but wanted exclusive control over the content. I said no and went looking for someone else – I think that was probably the best decision I ever made.

Remember, some day when you retire and want to get rid of your practice, a major piece of it’s value will be it’s online presence. If you own that outright you’ve got a much more valuable practice. Don’t give up control, even if you need help.

I was talking to a guy tonight who wanted to be a successful Seattle bankruptcy attorney. He was already into bankruptcy – he’d even opened his own business. But he just couldn’t get ahead. We talked for a little while and I gave him some pointers, but I didn’t think we had enough time to really delve into what it takes to be successful. So I decided to write this blog post to lay out my plan for becoming a successful bankruptcy lawyer. Maybe he’ll find it and read it. Maybe you’ll find it and read it.

Before I get too far, I want to explain a little bit about who I am and who I am not. I am an attorney, but I am not in the bankruptcy field. I opened my own law firm three years ago, and it’s starting to see a lot of success. My passion is the law, but it’s also business, and I probably spend just as much time thinking about business as I do law. I apply those thoughts to my law firm, and I do whatever I can to help those that want to sit down and talk about the business of law.

In my opinion, becoming a successful Seattle bankruptcy attorney requires three things: (1) a great website; (2) a well defined, well thought out procedural model; and (3) a well thought out search engine optimization strategy. As I write this down I think I’m going to talk about them in a slightly different order than I listed them – I’m going to talk about number two first, then number 3, then number one. Here we go.

Every Successful Seattle Bankruptcy Attorney has Great Processes

I realized two things early on in the formation of my law firm. First, at the end of the day we were doing a lot of things over and over again. And second, people feel very comfortable when they expect an experience and then actually get to feel that experience.

What does this mean when you are starting your law firm? Simply, your job should be from day one, that when someone comes to your law firm for bankruptcy help, they get the same experience the first time they call, the second time they call, when they come in, when they email you, when they visit your website, and on and on. They should all be consistent with one another.

And then, on an entirely different level, creating the same experience over and over allows your employees to understand the goal of the firm, allows them to understand their roles, allows them to deliver those consistent experiences, and allows you to leverage the manpower you’ve got by systematizing everything that you can.

Every Successful Seattle Bankruptcy Lawyer has a Great SEO Campaign

If there is one thing that is certain, it’s that more and more people are turning to the internet every day for help. And, when it comes to something that is embarrassing or difficult, the turn to the internet is even more pronounced.

What is more self defeating, what is more embarrassing, then having to declare bankruptcy? And, furthermore, who is one to turn to when the bill collectors start calling incessantly, when you don’t know how you’re going to make your next house payment, or the electricity keeps getting turned off? The answer, as we all know, is the internet. And that’s exactly where you want to be if you’re a bankruptcy lawyer.

So, how does one create a strong SEO presence on the internet? It’s actually pretty easy and pretty difficult all at the same time.

Think of the internet as a huge group of politicians all wanting to get elected. Although every site is a politician, it is also a voter, and all votes are not created equal. The more votes one has received from others the more votes it gets to give out. And, if one votes for a site that is related to it (in the case, for example, a Seattle bankruptcy lawyer voting for an Atlanta bankruptcy attorney) it carries more weight. The more votes you have the higher up you are on the search engines.

In this case, those “votes” are links. Every vote you can get for your site is one more example of someone outside of your control telling Google that your site is to be respected and trusted in your particular area of expertise. The more respected and trusted you become, the higher up the rankings you go.

If you want to be a successful bankruptcy attorney you’ve got to have clients. If you want to have clients, you’ve got to have a strong internet presence. If you want to have a strong internet presence you’ve got to know a little something about SEO.

Without Clients, You’ll Never be a Successful Seattle Bankruptcy Attorney

By this time you’ve got your processes in place, you’ve got your search engine work done, but the phone still isn’t ringing. If that’s the case, then you’ve probably got a crappy website. And having a good website is extremely important to your success.

What do you think the key to a successful website is? If you said flash, if you said a lot of bells and whistles, if you said a fancy layout, you would be wrong. A successful website really needs three things: (1) make a great first impression; (2) quickly establish a relationship of know, like, and trust; and (3) have a strong call to action. Let’s talk about all three.

1. A Great First Impression.

When it comes to this kind of stuff I always do one thing. I think to myself, if I was looking for this type of service, what would I be looking for? What would turn me on and off? What would make me distrust that person. And then I do or don’t do those things I think are good or bad.

With that in mind, design your website so it makes the impression you hope to give. When you think you’ve got it set up, send it around to friends and family and have them critique it.

2. The Know, Like, Trust Relationship

Talk to any marketer long enough and they’ll tell you about know like and trust. In this case, you are trying to market your services to people that don’t know you at all. And, on top of that, they are typically weary of bankruptcy attorneys because they think they are just out to take what little money they have left.

To counter that, your website needs to speak to them from the instant they click on it. It needs to address those fears, allay those fears, and create a sense of relationship. Every successful bankruptcy lawyer I know does this to perfection.

3. The Call to Action is Where It’s At

The call to action on a website is that final step. It is the instruction to the person on your site telling them what to do next. It can be to call a phone number, it can be to fill out an inquiry form, it can be whatever you want, but the call to action needs to be big, it needs to be bold, and it needs to be easy.

There you have it, how to become a successful Seattle bankruptcy attorney. What do you think? Your comments and questions are always welcome.

Whenever I meet with someone who has been charged with a crime for the first time, whether it’s a simple misdemeanor or a serious felony, I always tell them the same thing: “the case is going to take a lot longer than it feels like it should.” I tell them this for a reason – it’s the truth. Today I’m going to tell you why I, a criminal attorney, think that is.

1. The Process is Just a Long One

The process in general is a long one. It is designed to give the defendant every opportunity to investigate the case, talk to any potential witnesses, find any witnesses on their own behalf, and then prepare to defend the case.

While this might seem easy for simple cases, things can get in the way to hold it up. For example, in my time as a Houston criminal attorney I’ve come to expect police reports and witness statements to trickle in over a long period of time. I don’t know if this is done on purpose and I don’t really care. What I do know is this trickle makes our investigation last longer – every time we get a new piece of information we have to check it out.

2. The Courts Slow Down the Criminal Process

With the onslaught of new crimes being created the courts have become extremely clogged with cases. This often accounts for the length of time a case takes to get resolved, particularly if a trial is in order. In some of the courts I practice in, just because a case is set for trial does not mean it is going to actually go to the jury. Often the case is continued for one reason or another – most often because a case in front of ours has priority.

This backlog causes a ripple effect and everything else slows down. A motions hearing may not occur for a long period of time because there is simply no open space to do it.

3. Witnesses Have a Tendency to Become “Busy”

This doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens enough that I thought it would be prudent to include it here. This section is really related to law enforcement more than anyone else. Typically if other witnesses don’t show up the only option is to dismiss. But with cops, they usually talk to the prosecutor and give a reason for not showing up – that allows the court to grant a continuance.

I can’t tell you how many times a motions hearing or trial has been continued because a cop is “in training” or “on medical leave.” It happens a lot more than you would think.

4. Sometimes Time is On Our Side

To be quite honest, sometimes cases drag on for a long time because that is exactly what we want them to do. In all my time as a Houston criminal attorney I’ve never had a case get better by setting it for trial and motions right away. But I’ve frequently had it get better by dragging it out for a time.

The more time that passes the more that memories fade, the more that witnesses move and can’t be found, and the more that things just get better for us. If memories are faded, that means the reports they created are the case. If their reports are the case then cops can’t “remember” things they didn’t include in the report. We can usually take advantage of that.

There you have it. If you were wondering why criminal cases seem to drag on forever, now you know why. Sometimes it’s the court’s fault, sometimes it’s the prosecutor’s fault, and sometimes it’s exactly what we want to happen.

I’m a DUI attorney, but I’m also a businessman. I own my law firm. A big part of being a successful DUI defense attorney is being good at what you do. But another big part, maybe even a bigger part, is being good at letting people know what you do and convincing them that you can help them – otherwise known as marketing. I think we do both good.

But there are some things we won’t do, some things I think are outside of the right thing to do – one of those things is talking about our cases. Here’s why.

1. A Good DUI Attorney Doesn’t Win all of Their Cases

What I’ve just said above is true, and the alternative is true as well – we don’t lose all of our cases. Some cases we get amazing results on, and some cases we lose after fighting out guts out for the client. But one constant remains no matter the case – each case is it’s own separate beast.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you are an Atlanta DUI lawyer and you’ve just won a big case. You won it on a legal motion – the cops messed something up. So you go out and yell it from the rooftops. Does that mean you are going to be able to get the next guy the same result? Not unless they have exactly the same problem, which is rare.

This is the first reason I don’t talk about my cases – it gives potential clients a false sense of reality – and I’m all about being up front.

2. Client Confidence is Number One for DUI Attorneys

There is one thing that is pretty consistent across DUI cases – they are embarrassing. No one wants to be charged with a crime, particularly one like this that carries a bit of a stigma with it. In some cases even a charge can carry grave consequences for the person charged with the crime – it can affect work relationships, it can affect home relationships – and it’s my job to not be the one that blabs about it to everyone.

The most I’ll do for any of my cases is talk in extreme generalities. People need to know that I’m serious about being an Atlanta DUI attorney, so I want to make sure they know that I know what I’m talking about. To do that I’ll leave out any identifying information – gender, location, vehicle make and model, and anything else that might even slightly tip off anyone to who my client is.

If you see DUI attorneys marketing their work to get clients, beware. While it’s nice to know they got that one person’s DUI dismissed, it’s not so nice to know that your information could be pasted up on their website some day.

There is one thing that is certain among DUI attorneys – we are always looking for new ways to get new clients, to find new clients, and to make ourselves available if and when anyone needs our services. The hot thing right now is obviously the internet, including Facebook, Twitter, websites, iPhone apps, and the like. Another hot item of late is the QR code. That’s what we are going to talk about today.

What is a QR Code?

Great question. QR stands for “quick response.” And that’s the point of the QR code – it gives someone the ability to quickly respond to an advertisement, to get that business’s information, and to interact with them later.

If you don’t think you’ve seen a QR code before, you just don’t know what they are, because they are everywhere. They are on soft drinks, on billboards, on tags, on all kinds of stuff. When you go out next, pay attention when you see the things that look sort of like tribal art on any advertisement you see. They’ll be in a perfect square, and I think they typically are consistent across all four quarters of the code (if you folded it in half it would overlap perfectly). That’s a QR code.

Are QR Codes Good for DUI Attorneys?

My initial answer is no. And here’s why. Let’s say I’m a Salt Lake City DUI lawyer. I’ve got a pretty good practice going and I’m using mostly internet advertising and my website to get business. Now I roll out these QR codes everywhere, asking for people to scan in my information so if they need it some rainy day they’ll have it.

Once problem I see with this is that most people, in my experience, don’t think they need a DUI attorney until the need one. What I mean is, the likelihood of someone seeing an ad like that, scanning in the code, and keeping it for a rainy day, isn’t very likely. People just don’t think they’ll get in trouble. For that reason I think it would be tough.

There May be a Use for QR Codes for DUI Attorneys Though – the List

Before I get going too far on this, I want to say that I’m not just a DUI defense attorney – there’s more to me than that. Another facet of me is the business owner side of me – I own my law firm – I don’t just work there as a lawyer. That means that I have to (and I would say get to) think about how things work in the context of the business.

I’ve found, in my time as a business owner, that one of my most valuable possessions is my mailing list. This list is comprised of current and former clients, colleagues, friends, relatives, and people who’ve opted in on my website to get some kind of information about hiring a Salt Lake City DUI attorney.

What makes this list so valuable is it has all of the people that are either interested in using my firm at some point, or would be great referral sources in the future.

And that’s what I think the QR code could be used for.

Just imagine, you are in a store somewhere, or on the bus, or wherever you might be, and you see my advertisement for DUI defense services. You start to dismiss it, because you’ll never find yourself needing help like that, but then you see the call to action – “want my free guide on how to deal with the cops? Just scan in this QR code.” You’re curious, so you do it.

Boom. I’ve got that information and you’re now a part of my mailing list. Now I’ve got the ability to put our firm in front of you on a continuing basis, so if that time ever comes when you or someone you know does need my help you’ll know who to call.

So, I guess in the end the answer is yes, that QR codes can help a DUI defense attorney. What you want to make sure of, though, is that you are realistic with what they can do. Don’t overreach, have a plan, and success will be yours.

As you might guess, I’m a Houston criminal attorney. Have been for quite some time. I really like what I do. I’d even say I love it. It’s a fun job, it’s rewarding, it’s challenging, it’s never boring, and I get to work with and against a lot of pretty cool people. But it’s not all great, and that’s what I want to talk about today. I want to tell you what I think is the hardest thing about being a Houston criminal attorney.

If I had to give you a guess what do you think it would be? Representing guilty people? Nope. Standing up in front of a jury? Nope. Investigating the cases? Nope. All good guesses, but none of them right.

The hardest thing about being a criminal attorney is the simple fact that most of the time we don’t win the case.

If you talk to a criminal defense attorney and they tell you they aren’t competitive, either they are lying or they aren’t very good at their job. To be good in this profession you’ve got to be competitive. Sometimes that is the only thing keeping you going, and it’s only competitiveness that allows you to take a case to trial that you have very little chance of winning (think huge underdog in basketball or football – that’s us).

Despite my great efforts to win every single one of my cases, the plain truth of the matter is that I don’t, and most other criminal attorneys don’t either. In the arena of criminal law more often than not people are caught red handed or confess. When that happens, the case gets much harder to win.

So, how do I deal with losing a lot, you might ask? It’s not too hard to deal with. If you lose a case and you fought hard, you just pick yourself up off the floor and move on to the next one. I think so long as you are doing your best you’ve and you do everything you can to try to win the case you can hold your head high, even in defeat.

But that’s not always easy to do. That’s why you often see at least one criminal attorney on the docket that has clearly had his spirit taken from him. He doesn’t look like he cares anymore, he doesn’t fight for his clients, and he just looks defeated.

There you have it, the hardest thing about being a Houston criminal attorney. If you are thinking about getting into the profession, I’d highly encourage you to. There are a hundred good things about practicing criminal defense. The only thing, though, is this one bad thing can be pretty daunting sometimes.

Today, for our article of the day, I thought I’d tell you why I’m a Salt Lake City DUI attorney. Yes, there actually is a reason. And yes, it’s more than “that’s where the clients are.” So sit back, relax, and enjoy.

1. I Get to Pick My Clients, and That’s Who I Want to Help

Believe it or not, I like being a DUI attorney. It’s a fun job. It’s criminal defense. The cases move fast. You get to stand up in court and put forward your best argument. And you get to  win every once in a while. That alone is enough of a reason to be a DUI lawyer. But that’s not it, there’s more.

Because I own my own law firm, I have the luxury of choosing my own clients. And, while I like doing criminal defense, I don’t like the idea of really getting into the trenches with the hard core stuff (that’s the beauty of doing your own thing – you get to do what you want). Also, with DUI defense, most of the people you are helping out really have just made one stupid decision and need some help.

2. You’re Opponents are Cops

I really like the idea of fighting “the man.” There is no better place to do that than as a Salt Lake City DUI attorney. Our only witnesses are cops. Our only opponents are the prosecutors. Very rarely do civilian witnesses get involved, and if they do it’s only on the periphery. Instead, I get to spend my days dreaming up ways to make cops look like idiots on the stand (and, sadly, it’s often not that difficult).

3. If You Want to be a Good DUI Attorney You’ve got to Focus 

When I was a kid, I wanted to play in the NBA. From the moment I made that decision all I did was eat, drink, and sleep basketball. When I wasn’t playing I was watching. When I wasn’t watching I was talking about it. It was the center of my life. And as a result of that I got to be pretty good at it. Though genetics held me back from reaching my goal, I learned an important lesson – if you want to be good at something you have to immerse yourself in it and you’ve got to practice.

So that’s what I do with my law firm too. Being a DUI lawyer isn’t like doing other criminal defense (unless it’s a specialty area like death penalty defense). There are issues that come up in a DUI case that just don’t come up in other cases – namely the field sobriety tests and the breath test. Each of those things presents unique problems that, if you don’t know what you’re doing, can be missed.

When I opened up my firm a few years ago and dedicated my practice to defending those accused of driving under the influence, it was not a difficult decision. That practice area gave me the opportunity to do these three things: help regular people with serious problems; fight the man, and become really good at an area of the law. I like being a DUI attorney. I’m good at what I do, and I’m excited every day to help people.

Why do you do what you do?