When Celebrities Get A DUI

Today's news of Tiger Woods Arrest for DUI should remind all of us that the law is designed (in theory) to work equally.  Like anyone, he was arrested, processed, and released.  His unfortunate mugshot was on the news this morning. 

He, like others before him such as Mel Gibson, Lindsay Lohan, Nick Nolte, and the thousands of my clients will have to go to court to answer the charges. 

The short lesson here is that no one is above the law.  Also, he is fortunate he did not harm anyone or himself.  

However, unlike the majority of my clients, Mr. Woods will have to publicly apologize and offer to the world a public solution to his personal problem. 

The publicity of his case is part of the cost of being a wealthy celebrity.  Regardless of what my clients must endure, none of them will end up being plastered on the news.  None of my clients will have to then go on a public apology tour.

I remember when Michael Vick was arrested, I was stunned by the amount of negative publicity he faced, and look at the outcome.  What he did was terribly wrong. However, anyone else would have paid a small fine and would have been given 40 hours community service.  Vick went to Federal Prison.  

I often hear that public figures are treated better by the legal system.  There was a time when that was true.  It is no longer the case.  Public figures receive 24-hour scrutiny in the news and online.  There result is that they are often treated far worse than an ordinary person.  

Tiger Woods does not deserve better treatment, but he does not deserve worse treatment.  He is the same person he was before his misdemeanor traffic offense.  Let us not cast too many stones at his glass house.  Anyone can make a mistake.