Labor Day weekend is upon us!  Unfortunately, it's the last hurrah that officially ends summertime, and while most of us will not be working, Georgia's law enforcement agencies and officers will be hard at work.  People all over the state of Georgia will be traveling to the lake, a last-minute va...

When a person is given a traffic ticket or is cited or arrested for a misdemeanor traffic offense, there are many consequences for missing a court appearance.  The most important thing to remember is that the problem will not resolve itself.  If you have missed a court appearance or have forgotte...

Additional laws apply to you whenever you drive with a child in your vehicle. For example, Georgia's O.C.G.A. § 40-8-76 states that all children under the age of eight must be restrained in an appropriate child passenger safety seat.  To satisfy the statute's requirements, the car seat must be...

Hiring an attorney can help you resolve your case through alternative sentencing programs. Most Georgia courts offer Pretrial Diversion Programs. If your case is eligible, by completing a Pretrial Diversion Program, your charges will be dismissed and potentially expunged from your criminal record...

My friends know that I love classic movies. If you have not seen Harvey, Arsenic and Old Lace, Laura, and the original Judgment at Nuremberg, you are missing out. Harvey is my all-time favorite, and I have had that big white rabbit up in my office many times. Today, I was watching the Montgome...

A Commercial Driver's License ("CDL") holder charged with a DUI faces many legal and practical consequences above and beyond the ordinary DUI consequences. Not only are Georgia's DUI laws much stricter, but also a CDL holder's job depends on a valid driver's license. Being arrested for a DUI in...

One of the most difficult things to do is to help save someone from themselves.  When I was a young lawyer (more than 16 years ago), I represented a DUI client with an alleged .147 B.A.C.  The police also charged her with running a red light. The client was adamant that the Intoxilyzer 5000 resu...

If you have been arrested for a DUI, the officer may have given you a DS-1205 Form if you either refused the state administered breath test or tested over the legal limit. The DS-1205 Form is your temporary driver's license for the 30 days following your arrest. While most of our clients want to...

As reported today in the AJC, the Gainesville GA Police are looking for four people suspected of tossing rocks from a freeway overpass onto the traffic below.  The rocks damaged two vehicles. Once caught, the people who committed this crime will be facing Aggravated Assault charges, along with R...

Today, I went to answer a phone call using the built-in Bluetooth in my car and proceeded to scrap both passenger side tires quite significantly. I am posting this as a confession that I was a distracted driver in the hopes that I refrain from such behavior in the future.  Interestingly, I did...

Many taverns and bars have breathalyzer machines, so that people can check their blood alcohol content (“BAC”) before getting behind the wheel. These machines can potentially do more harm than good. The problem with them is that they create a false sense of security that may lead an impaired pe...

Longtime Marietta GA City Councilman, Anthony Calvin Coleman, 56, has been indicted on charges of racketeering and making false statements. According to the indictment, Coleman is accused of helping Terry Jones Mays, 56, falsify information regarding court ordered community service hours. In Se...

Any person with common sense should be alarmed at what we see in Ferguson Missouri.  It has gotten out of hand.  The escalation is wholly the result of the over-militarization of police in the United States. It all started with the “war on crime.”  Using the word “war” set the tone that has al...

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Henry County Police found a man passed out in his SUV with toddler in the front seat. When the police arrived at the scene, Robert Eugene Mobley, 39, was passed out in his vehicle while stopped at traffic signal on the Jodeco Road exit ramp off Int...

The DUI Exception To The Constitution is Alive And Well: On June 23, 2014, the United States Supreme Court essentially held that a defendant accused of a DUI couldn't challenge the accuracy of breath testing machines with expert testimony. In People v. Vangelder, the defendant was accused of ...

Very often misdemeanor defendants are punished in a punitive manner that has no nexus to their offense.  Frankly, some of the punishments make little sense. Recently, my associate had a case involving underage drinking.  Generally, these types of cases are sent into a diversion program and upon...

DUI By Bicycle In Athens-Clarke County Georgia: On Monday night, Athens-Clarke County Police arrested a man for riding a bicycle while intoxicated. The police report states that an officer tried to stop Edward Jerome Daniel Jr., 43, for riding a bicycle without a headlight. Daniel ignored the of...

Federal Judge, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Fuller, 55, has been accused of hitting his wife after she accused him of infidelity. This Sunday, Atlanta police responded to a complaint from Fuller's wife and arrested Fuller at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in downtown Atlanta.   Judge Fuller has been ch...

Since our DUI Defense firm practices statewide, we very often handle cases in counties that have small populations.  The court systems are organized very differently in these counties because of economic realities. Small communities cannot afford to have multi-level court systems.  As a result,...

This Sunday afternoon, a woman led Cobb County police officers on a high-speed chase in a stolen police car. The officers responded to a suspicious woman who allegedly had a gun at the intersection of Windy Hill Road at I-75. The woman, later identified as Emmerli Wilcoxson, somehow managed to ...

In Georgia, driving is considered a privilege rather than a right. Being arrested for a DUI in Georgia triggers both a criminal and civil process. In the civil process, the Georgia Department of Driver Services (“DDS”) will attempt to administratively suspend your driver's license. This proceedin...

Georgia's O.C.G.A. § 40-8-73.1 regulates vehicle window tinting. Under this statute, you cannot legally tint the front windshield at all, and you cannot reduce light transmission through the rear windshield and windows to less than 32 percent, plus or minus 3 percent. The statute defines “light t...

Due to several serious accidents and fatalities on Georgia lakes, since 2013 penalties for Boating Under the Influence (BUI) are very similar to a Driving Under the Influence (DUI) in Georgia. The relevant BUI statute, O.C.G.A. § 52-7-12 (a), states that “no person shall operate, navigate, steer...

A van struck three pedestrians this Thursday evening around 6:30 p.m. in DeKalb County, near the intersection of Chamblee Tucker Road and Henderson Mill Road. All three pedestrians were transported to a hospital. DeKalb County fire department spokesman Capt. Eric Jackson reports that the victims...

If the police have charged you with DUI in Atlanta, your arraignment will be Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. in courtroom 5A, with Judge Christopher Ward.  He is the judge assigned to process and adjudicate all DUI arrests in the City of Atlanta, unless the case is either bound-over to the Fulton Cou...