Jan 2017
Protip: Check and Double Check
Today was an interesting day.
Went down to the courthouse to pay my fine. My deadline is coming up and I wanted to get it out of the way. Most of my time was spent arguing how to do it - should I drive there and park or should I take the train and not worry about parking? How long is this going to take? Should I go early or wait till after the lunch rush?
Most of that wasn't the issue (I walked right up to one of the clerks)
However - I came to find that not all of my paperwork had been filed. The clerk informed me that neither my DMV certificate nor my MADD certificate had been filed. I was shocked! I had taken care of these things more than 9 months ago!
I called my lawyer's office - my lawyer was no longer part of the firm. I explained to them what was going on and within ten minutes they had everything sorted out and a person to go down to the courthouse tomorrow or Monday to file everything.
A few lessons learned:
This is a tough process, I know. And it's no fun, and it's a lot of hassle. But being early, and thorough will save you a lot of headache. If I had gone in at the last moment, I could've had a longer probation, more fines, or worse.
Get it done early, and double check.
Went down to the courthouse to pay my fine. My deadline is coming up and I wanted to get it out of the way. Most of my time was spent arguing how to do it - should I drive there and park or should I take the train and not worry about parking? How long is this going to take? Should I go early or wait till after the lunch rush?
Most of that wasn't the issue (I walked right up to one of the clerks)
However - I came to find that not all of my paperwork had been filed. The clerk informed me that neither my DMV certificate nor my MADD certificate had been filed. I was shocked! I had taken care of these things more than 9 months ago!
I called my lawyer's office - my lawyer was no longer part of the firm. I explained to them what was going on and within ten minutes they had everything sorted out and a person to go down to the courthouse tomorrow or Monday to file everything.
A few lessons learned:
- Don't wait - The longer you wait, the more chances that something will change, something will go wrong, some mistake will be made. The sooner you take care of stuff, the sooner you're not worrying about it, and the more time you have to correct things if they go wrong.
- Check and Double Check - Last Spring I biked over to my lawyer's office (I was on full suspension) and turned in my documents. I assumed that he would turn them in to the court in the next few days or so. No real worry. But he hadn't. Either he was waiting for me to drop off the check to pay my fine, or left the firm shortly thereafter (No idea when he left). But my documents had not been filed. It was a mistake to assume that they were.
This is a tough process, I know. And it's no fun, and it's a lot of hassle. But being early, and thorough will save you a lot of headache. If I had gone in at the last moment, I could've had a longer probation, more fines, or worse.
Get it done early, and double check.
Guest Post: Can the Police Use Social Media in Your DUI Case?
I reached out to Attorney Robert Miller, a fellow DUI blogger to get some insights on DUI from a lawyer's perspective. He alerted me to a growing trend that is downright scary - Tom.
Social media networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+, are rapidly being incorporated by law enforcement agencies for use in gathering evidence of drinking, intoxication, and to otherwise investigate crimes by spying on suspects and individuals on probation or parole.
These techniques are slowly catching on across the country, and are increasingly a hot topic for law enforcement agencies. In a 2012 survey of 1,221 federal, state and local law enforcement who use social media, four out of five officials used social media to gather intelligence during investigations. Half said they checked social media at least once a week, and the majority said social media helps them solve crimes faster.
People use social media networks to share various amounts of personal information. Some criminal suspects and convicted felons have been known to share photos and videos of criminal activity on Facebook.
The week this article was written, four suspects in Chicago filmed themselves torturing a disabled man on Facebook Live. In an Orange County example, the Huntington Beach Police used social media to arrest a juvenile for threats made recently.
In another state, a 22-year-old named Colleen Chudney was on probation for a 2012 drunk driving offense. Part of the terms of her court imposed probation required her to refrain from consuming alcohol, which is a common term of DUI probation. After St. Patrick's Day, Chudney was required to take a breathalyzer test in Westland, Michigan. She passed the test. However, she later went on Facebook and posted information to her profile stating that she had been drinking.
"Buzz killer for me, I had to breathalyze this morning and I drank yesterday but I passed thank god lol my dumbass."
Information about the Facebook post got back to Chudney’s probation officer. Thus, she had to return to court to discuss her Facebook statements with the judge. She is facing jail time for the DUI probation violation. If she had never posted that information to facebook, she would never be facing a probation violation in her DUI.
What techniques are the police using to investigate criminal conduct on social media networks? A popular tool is social network analysis, known as SNA. It is an analytical tool that was initially used by the FBI to map and analyze social media relations. Law enforcement agencies can use the tool to analyze the social media networks of suspects, and their interactions with each other.
This type of analysis provides a systematic approach for investigating large amounts of data on people and relationships. It improves law enforcement effectiveness and efficiency by using complex information regarding individuals socially related to suspects. This often leads to improved clearance rates for many crimes and development of better crime prevention strategies.
SNA serves as a valuable tool for law enforcement. While technologically sophisticated, SNA is easy to employ. Using available data, police departments structure the examination of an offender's social network in ways not previously possible, and search for violations.
If you are being prosecuted for or are on probation for drunk driving in Orange County, California, we urge you to refrain from making any statements on social media networks. Any statements may be used against you later by the prosecution or probation officer. Contact Orange County DUI attorney Robert Miller for legal advice regarding any drunk driving charge(s) you may be facing.
Social media networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+, are rapidly being incorporated by law enforcement agencies for use in gathering evidence of drinking, intoxication, and to otherwise investigate crimes by spying on suspects and individuals on probation or parole.
These techniques are slowly catching on across the country, and are increasingly a hot topic for law enforcement agencies. In a 2012 survey of 1,221 federal, state and local law enforcement who use social media, four out of five officials used social media to gather intelligence during investigations. Half said they checked social media at least once a week, and the majority said social media helps them solve crimes faster.
People use social media networks to share various amounts of personal information. Some criminal suspects and convicted felons have been known to share photos and videos of criminal activity on Facebook.
The week this article was written, four suspects in Chicago filmed themselves torturing a disabled man on Facebook Live. In an Orange County example, the Huntington Beach Police used social media to arrest a juvenile for threats made recently.
In another state, a 22-year-old named Colleen Chudney was on probation for a 2012 drunk driving offense. Part of the terms of her court imposed probation required her to refrain from consuming alcohol, which is a common term of DUI probation. After St. Patrick's Day, Chudney was required to take a breathalyzer test in Westland, Michigan. She passed the test. However, she later went on Facebook and posted information to her profile stating that she had been drinking.
"Buzz killer for me, I had to breathalyze this morning and I drank yesterday but I passed thank god lol my dumbass."
Information about the Facebook post got back to Chudney’s probation officer. Thus, she had to return to court to discuss her Facebook statements with the judge. She is facing jail time for the DUI probation violation. If she had never posted that information to facebook, she would never be facing a probation violation in her DUI.
What techniques are the police using to investigate criminal conduct on social media networks? A popular tool is social network analysis, known as SNA. It is an analytical tool that was initially used by the FBI to map and analyze social media relations. Law enforcement agencies can use the tool to analyze the social media networks of suspects, and their interactions with each other.
This type of analysis provides a systematic approach for investigating large amounts of data on people and relationships. It improves law enforcement effectiveness and efficiency by using complex information regarding individuals socially related to suspects. This often leads to improved clearance rates for many crimes and development of better crime prevention strategies.
SNA serves as a valuable tool for law enforcement. While technologically sophisticated, SNA is easy to employ. Using available data, police departments structure the examination of an offender's social network in ways not previously possible, and search for violations.
If you are being prosecuted for or are on probation for drunk driving in Orange County, California, we urge you to refrain from making any statements on social media networks. Any statements may be used against you later by the prosecution or probation officer. Contact Orange County DUI attorney Robert Miller for legal advice regarding any drunk driving charge(s) you may be facing.
Paying the Price: The Fine (and alternatives to paying the fine)
The minimum fine for a DUI in Los Angeles County is $390. Most likely if you plead out, and/or had no priors, this should be about what you were given in your sentencing.
So, naturally, when you get your documentation you receive a “Compliance of Fine Payment/Cashier Slip” detailing your fine and the various “court costs” associated with your case.
With court costs your $390 fine comes out to be around $2000.
Huh? How’d that happen?
When you think “court costs” you think that you’re being charged for the administrative system, much like the costs associated with getting your driver’s license or getting a permit to do construction. This is not the case.
Instead, the court costs are little fees that they tack on to every conviction to use it as a source of income. Some of this does go to cover Judge’s salaries and the infrastructure of the building, but most of it is used to make up budget shortfalls caused by the public electing to lower taxes (or voting in officials who lower taxes). Lower taxes, higher fines.
The biggest part of the fine is the “Penalty Assessment”. This is assessed on all criminal fines, not just DUI fines. Get a speeding ticket - it’ll be on there.
Originally in the 1950s the rate of the Penalty Assessment was $1 for ever $20 of your fine. Mine was a little over $30 for every $10 of my penalty.
Additionally, there’s a “Penalty Assessment DNA” which funds DNA identification programs supposedly. Mine was around 1/3rd of my original penalty.
Believe me, how these rates are determined and what the money goes to is incredibly hard to research. For any rate I find online I do the math on my penalties and they don’t quite add up. Some are more, some are less. There’s not much you can do about this, but it would be nice to have some transparency during this part of the process. Alas, that’s not what they want.
The math of the form is difficult to add up - some numbers are listed, giving you a balance for them, but are supposedly included in the base fine - but that doesn’t mean they’re additional listings. If the fine that you agreed to from the court was $390, they’ll list the base fine as $320. Then you have items RESTDUI ($20 - no idea why it’s separate or what it’s for) and LABSVCS ($50 - believe this to be them charging you to use the station breathalyzer) claiming to be part of the base fine, but listed separately. It’s all designed to confuse you.
Trying to research this piece, I hit a lot of dead ends, and can’t find answers. I was charged $75 for PBHEALTH which states that it has a maximum of $100. What determines why mine was $75?
I asked my lawyer about it. He told me not to worry too much about it. He’d looked it over and it was in line with what the others looked like.
I guess you can worry too much about this sort of thing. Fighting any part of it would be an extreme uphill battle.
Alternate Options (and why they’re no good)
On your sentencing form you’ll see a part that says that you will pay a fine or “in default thereof serve ___ additional days in County jail, consecutive, or perform ___ days of community labor”. Some people’s brain starts turning when they see this - with jails and prisons overcrowding you can often serve at 3:1 ratios (meaning you get credit for 3 days when you serve only 1), and sometimes even get 4:1.
Might it be worth it to give up a weekend or two to save a couple of grand? It seems kind of tempting.
Unfortunately, like most of the bright ideas you come up with to get out of things, it doesn’t work like that.
Serving jail time or doing community labor (which has it’s own difficulties, overcrowding means that you can’t serve that day instead of getting more credit for less) only counts against the base penalty of your fine. The court costs will still be there. In that case, a day in jail only counts for about $35.
Not worth it.
Additionally, some people try to get house arrest to either pay the fine, or count as their probation (more on that later), which isn’t ideal either - then you have to serve out the full time, no ratios. So 15 days means 15 days (plus the fees for the monitoring bracelet add on, so it’s just a losing proposition).
How to Pay
For once, something in this whole process is simple. If you head down to the clerk’s office, you can pay with cash or a money order, which I expected, but, they’ll even take a personal check and some will even take a credit card.
If you have a check or money order, you can either give it to your lawyer or mail it to the county clerk’s office. If you want to pay cash or with a credit card, you have to go down there. Some places allow you to do this online, but, sadly, Los Angeles is not yet one of them. As with any civil service, expect to wait in line for a while to do a three minute procedure. Be sure to have your documents with you, as they need a lot of information to process your payment.
Payment can be done in a lump sum, or installments if you don’t have the resources. As long as the court is getting something, they’re willing to work with you.
It stings. It certainly does. But, once you’ve paid, you’re closer to getting this behind you.
So, naturally, when you get your documentation you receive a “Compliance of Fine Payment/Cashier Slip” detailing your fine and the various “court costs” associated with your case.
With court costs your $390 fine comes out to be around $2000.
Huh? How’d that happen?
When you think “court costs” you think that you’re being charged for the administrative system, much like the costs associated with getting your driver’s license or getting a permit to do construction. This is not the case.
Instead, the court costs are little fees that they tack on to every conviction to use it as a source of income. Some of this does go to cover Judge’s salaries and the infrastructure of the building, but most of it is used to make up budget shortfalls caused by the public electing to lower taxes (or voting in officials who lower taxes). Lower taxes, higher fines.
The biggest part of the fine is the “Penalty Assessment”. This is assessed on all criminal fines, not just DUI fines. Get a speeding ticket - it’ll be on there.
Originally in the 1950s the rate of the Penalty Assessment was $1 for ever $20 of your fine. Mine was a little over $30 for every $10 of my penalty.
Additionally, there’s a “Penalty Assessment DNA” which funds DNA identification programs supposedly. Mine was around 1/3rd of my original penalty.
Believe me, how these rates are determined and what the money goes to is incredibly hard to research. For any rate I find online I do the math on my penalties and they don’t quite add up. Some are more, some are less. There’s not much you can do about this, but it would be nice to have some transparency during this part of the process. Alas, that’s not what they want.
The math of the form is difficult to add up - some numbers are listed, giving you a balance for them, but are supposedly included in the base fine - but that doesn’t mean they’re additional listings. If the fine that you agreed to from the court was $390, they’ll list the base fine as $320. Then you have items RESTDUI ($20 - no idea why it’s separate or what it’s for) and LABSVCS ($50 - believe this to be them charging you to use the station breathalyzer) claiming to be part of the base fine, but listed separately. It’s all designed to confuse you.
Trying to research this piece, I hit a lot of dead ends, and can’t find answers. I was charged $75 for PBHEALTH which states that it has a maximum of $100. What determines why mine was $75?
I asked my lawyer about it. He told me not to worry too much about it. He’d looked it over and it was in line with what the others looked like.
I guess you can worry too much about this sort of thing. Fighting any part of it would be an extreme uphill battle.
Alternate Options (and why they’re no good)
On your sentencing form you’ll see a part that says that you will pay a fine or “in default thereof serve ___ additional days in County jail, consecutive, or perform ___ days of community labor”. Some people’s brain starts turning when they see this - with jails and prisons overcrowding you can often serve at 3:1 ratios (meaning you get credit for 3 days when you serve only 1), and sometimes even get 4:1.
Might it be worth it to give up a weekend or two to save a couple of grand? It seems kind of tempting.
Unfortunately, like most of the bright ideas you come up with to get out of things, it doesn’t work like that.
Serving jail time or doing community labor (which has it’s own difficulties, overcrowding means that you can’t serve that day instead of getting more credit for less) only counts against the base penalty of your fine. The court costs will still be there. In that case, a day in jail only counts for about $35.
Not worth it.
Additionally, some people try to get house arrest to either pay the fine, or count as their probation (more on that later), which isn’t ideal either - then you have to serve out the full time, no ratios. So 15 days means 15 days (plus the fees for the monitoring bracelet add on, so it’s just a losing proposition).
How to Pay
For once, something in this whole process is simple. If you head down to the clerk’s office, you can pay with cash or a money order, which I expected, but, they’ll even take a personal check and some will even take a credit card.
If you have a check or money order, you can either give it to your lawyer or mail it to the county clerk’s office. If you want to pay cash or with a credit card, you have to go down there. Some places allow you to do this online, but, sadly, Los Angeles is not yet one of them. As with any civil service, expect to wait in line for a while to do a three minute procedure. Be sure to have your documents with you, as they need a lot of information to process your payment.
Payment can be done in a lump sum, or installments if you don’t have the resources. As long as the court is getting something, they’re willing to work with you.
It stings. It certainly does. But, once you’ve paid, you’re closer to getting this behind you.