Recent Blog Posts
License reinstatement following vehicular homicide conviction
Revocation of your driver’s license is typically part of the penalty for a conviction on charges of vehicular homicide related to DUI. However, this does not necessarily mean that you lose your license forever and can never drive again.
Eventually, it may be possible to reinstate your license following a conviction for vehicular homicide related to intoxication. However, you must meet certain conditions first.
Incarceration
You must provide the Washington State Department of Licensing with information regarding your incarceration. The length of your incarceration determines the date that you are eligible to reinstate your driver’s license. At the very least, you must wait for two years.
Underage DUI charges can shatter a teen’s life
Underage drunk driving charges can be very difficult cases to manage for a host of reasons. Sometimes, these cases arise even though a young driver had an extremely minute amount of alcohol in their system. Thanks to zero-tolerance laws, any amount of alcohol in a teen’s system can cause them to face DUI charges if they are stopped by a law enforcement official. Many teens and even parents do not realize that DUI charges can surface even though a young driver is not intoxicated. Moreover, some of these cases are completely fabricated or a driver’s rights were not respected when they were stopped.
There are countless ways in which DUI charges can shatter a teen’s life. From a social standpoint, these charges can be absolutely devastating. They may lose friends and others who looked up to them may lose all respect for them as a result of the case. Furthermore, these charges can impact their academic life in a number of ways. Not to mention, down the road they may face career problems because of their record. These are just a few of the reasons why drunk driving charges can be so serious for young drivers and many teens have felt like their lives have fallen apart in the wake of a DUI case.
Sex offender registration level designations
For the past several decades, states all across the country, including Washington State, have created and updated programs that require defendants convicted of specific sexual offenses to register as designated sex offenders. The requirement to register as a sex offender can mean different things based upon the nature of the offense for which they were convicted, among other factors. These things correlate to a level designation assigned to each individual.
The Washington State Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs indicate that each person who must register as a sex offender will be identified as either a Level I, a Level II or a Level III offender. The Level I designation is given in the least serious cases when a person has been deemed to have the lowest level of risk for re-offending. In contrast, the Level III designation is given in the most serious cases when a person has been deemed to have the highest risk for re-offending.
What should I do if accused of domestic violence?
While being accused of any crime in Washington state is a big deal, there are few crimes that carry the weight of domestic violence. If you find yourself in a position where you are being falsely accused of domestic violence, it is important to know the steps necessary to protect yourself. A domestic violence accusation can land you in the court of public opinion far before you end up in a court of law. According to Findlaw, if you are being falsely accused of domestic violence, it is important to not say anything that can be used against you, and you absolutely should not escalate the situation.
The first people that you should contact are your own family. You want your family to hear the situation from your own mouth as opposed to them hearing it through the grapevine. The next thing that you should do is change all of your passwords to your accounts and any passcodes to devices. It is possible that the person trying to falsely accuse you of domestic abuse will sign into a message system and send threatening messages while pretending to be you.
How are fraudulent insurance claims identified?
While the majority of insurance claims filed are legitimate, insurance companies are constantly on the lookout for fraudulent claims. To help identify them, the National Insurance Crime Bureau created a list of suspicious loss indicators, which investigators look for to determine whether a claim may be fraudulent.
When massive damage occurs to your home, you will probably have an emotional reaction to the situation. After all, you have both a financial and sentimental attachment to your home, and even with insurance coverage in place you’re bound to experience stress regarding the matter. That’s why insurance adjusters find it so odd when a person reacts without emotion to the claim filing process. While not exactly evidence of wrongdoing, your demeanor could raise alarms for the investigator if it falls outside of what’s considered the norm.
The effects of distracted driving on a criminal case
Distracted driving may take many forms in Washington state. Anything that takes a driver’s attention away from the road is a distraction and causes distracted driving. However, the biggest issue of this kind, according to the Insurance Information Institute, is distraction from cell phone use. This problem is very large in that it is responsible for about 9% of all fatal crashes in the country. This, in turn, leads to criminal charges against drivers.
Although most drivers see using a cellphone as a serious danger when driving, 77% of drivers still use their cellphone for calling while driving and 44% use it for texting or emailing while driving. Most people who admit to using a cell phone while driving say they do so because they believe it could be an emergency that cannot wait.
When it comes to how distracted driving affects a criminal case, it is usually evidence against a person facing a criminal charge due to an accident, according to the Traffic Resource Center for Judges. However, it may also come into play as a way to charge a third-party for the incident.
Can a DUI affect your scholarship?
If you get into a DUI-related incident in Tacoma, could your scholarship be affected? Today, we at the Law Office of Michael Austin Stewart examine just how big of an impact a potential DUI conviction could have on your future as a student and your subsequent career.
The first thing many people focus on when students are convicted of DUI-related crimes is that a college can deny admission based on that alone. But what if you have already been accepted into the college? What happens to your financial aid or scholarships, if they are impacted at all? This actually depends on the type of financial aid you’re depending on, along with other factors. These factors can include:
- If your DUI involved a felony conviction
- If you’re currently incarcerated
- If the scholarship is private or federal
- If there are drug charges related to the DUI charge
In particular, if you are relying on federal aid of some kind, you will be facing severe limitations on the types of financial aid you can rely on after conviction. Some will be given priority to other applicants, while you might be entirely barred from others. This is especially true if you are incarcerated, as many types of aid like the Pell Grant or federal student loans are not available to you then.
How can your dangerous driving habits lead to vehicular homicide?
Car accidents happen all the time in Washington. Typically, they are minor fender benders that result in nothing more than some bumps and bruises. However, serious accidents also happen quite often. It is very easy for anyone to find themselves facing vehicular homicide charges. All it takes is one second to change a number of lives. A bad decision or a wrong choice can suddenly mean someone has lost his or her life and you are sitting in handcuffs. It really can happen to anyone because dangerous driving habits are something everyone let becomes desensitized to. Nobody thinks it will happen to them.
At the same time, you can be a wonderful driver who follows all the law to the letter, but you still are not immune to a vehicular homicide charge because, as Driver Safely explains, one of the biggest risks on the road to you is other drivers. You can control what happens in your vehicle or what you do when biking or walking on the roadway, but you can never control what someone else does behind the wheel.
3 problems with eyewitnesses
Eyewitnesses were once thought to be the best type of evidence to present in a courtroom. However, this is no longer true. Research and history have shown that eyewitnesses are notorious for being wrong. A person may swear he or she saw someone commit a crime, when other evidence later shows it is impossible that the accused is guilty. So, eyewitnesses testimony can sometimes be refuted in a Washington court.
The National Center for State Courts says that when working with eyewitnesses, everyone should be wary. There are many problems with this type of testimony and evidence. The following are three of the main reasons why eyewitness testimony might not stand up in court.
Visual perception is not always correct
Have you ever had a situation where you and someone else saw something happen but your perceptions of the incident were completely different? This is because visual perception is variable. If you were standing in a different location, you probably saw things the other person could not. This happens all the time with eyewitnesses. They think they saw everything that happened, but they did not.
Should Tacoma follow Seattle’s lead when dealing with drug crimes?
The fight against drugs in Washington mirrors that of every other state. This is a losing battle on many fronts. Prisons are filled with people in on drug charges. The morgues are lined with those who have overdosed. Despite these things, the problem does not seem to be getting better. This has led some leaders in the state to try a different approach to treating those facing drug charges. In Seattle, the legal system has actually stopped charging people for having small amounts of drugs, according to the New York Times.
Instead of charging people with a crime for possession, the idea is to help them get past their addiction. The program helps these people find social services to help them better their lives and get off drugs. This is instead of the usual process of putting them in jail or prison with a criminal charge.
The idea of providing help instead of automatically making someone a criminal is one that Tacoma may wish to emulate. It seems to be working thus far for the capital city. Arrests are down and people are getting help to stop using drugs. They are able to put their lives back on track and become productive members of society. This is all due to this approach of helping and not punishing.
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From our office in Tacoma, WA, we represent clients in Auburn, Bonney Lake, Centralia, Chehalis, Des Moines, DuPont, Edgewood, Federal Way, Fircrest, Fife, Gig Harbor, Kent, Lakewood, Milton, Normandy Park, Olympia, Orting, Pacific, Parkland, Puyallup, SeaTac, Seattle, Spanaway, Steilacoom, Sumner, University Place, and other towns and cities throughout King County, Lewis County, Pierce County, and Thurston County.
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