Office Profile

OUR DUI DEFENSE SYSTEM

• We will file paperwork with the traffic court automatically cancelling your first court date. This paperwork will advise the court that attorney James Snell is your attorney of record, and will put the court and the police department on notice that we are contesting your case.
• If you received a Notice of Suspension form at the time of your arrest (such as for refusing a breath\urine test, or submitting a high-level BAC result), we will also immediately file a petition to challenge this suspension. This is done the same or very next business day.
• At the same time we file paperwork with the court and serve on the police department or prosecutor’s office asking for copies of all of the relevant documentation or evidence about your case. This is a process called discovery. Discovery requests include things such as the roadside video, officer’s narrative report, breath, urine or blood test results, and scoring sheet for any field sobriety tests.
• When we receive the discovery materials (usually in a 4-6 weeks) we will send you a complete copy for your review. We’ve found that some of our clients enjoy studying these details of their case, others choose to not relive their arrest. Either way, we want to make sure it is made available.
• Your complete case will be evaluated by James Snell and at least one additional lawyer in our office. They will be looking for all possible avenues of defense, including issues related to the police officer’s own compliance with South Carolina DUI arrest laws. The lawyers review each case separately, and then confer to review each other’s findings to make sure that no relevant issue was overlooked. This review looks for and considers literally hundreds of possible issues and defenses in your case (current count of our main checklist is 397).
• When helpful, our lawyers, and potentially even a private investigator obtained by our firm, will travel to your arrest location to personally view the site and to look for any unusual conditions such as rough or uneven terrain or other circumstances which cast doubt on the credibility of the field sobriety tests or other aspects of the officer’s conclusion.
• After our review we will be prepared to discuss the case, including our findings and opinions regarding potential defense strategies with our client. Most clients choose to come in for an in-person meeting to review their case, but these discussions can also occur by telephone if more convenient for our client.
• During the case review meeting we will review with you likely settlement offers you may receive from the prosecution, as well as a complete explanation of the defenses to be raised should you choose to take your case to trial.
• Most area courts will schedule a pre-trial conference before an actual court date. This is an opportunity for us to meet with the prosecutor to discuss a settlement (plea-bargain) in your case. Because you’ll have meet with us before the pre-trial date, you’ll have an idea as to whether or not you are going to want to accept any specific offer or not. The rule in our office is that unless the case is dismissed, or reduced to a level that our client feels is in their best interest we want to continue to fight the case in trial.
• If your case is dismissed or reduced to your satisfaction, then you can accept that result at a pre-trial. If not, the case will be scheduled for a contested trial to be conducted later. At trial all of the issues uncovered during our multi-attorney review process will be raised to the court and argued as reasons for your case to be dismissed.