Los Angeles Criminal Law Blog

For better or worse, alcohol has become an intrinsic part of most colleges cultures. Alcohol is common at college parties and seems to be omnipresent in certain aspects of college life, such as sorority and fraternity gatherings. Unfortunately, the prevalence of alcohol and the pressure to imbibe can result in serious consequences for some students.

College students under the age of 21 who get caught drinking or get arrested while impaired could face charges related to being a minor in possession of alcohol. Those charges can haunt someone for many years. It can affect your professional life, including your ability to get a job in your field of study.

Parents have to help their children through many challenges, and this is especially true during their teenage years. Teens face a lot of pressure, whether they are dealing with hurdles in school, peer pressure or problems with friends and family members. All of these factors can contribute to underage drinking, and some decide to get behind the wheel with alcohol in their system. To make things more complicated, teens may face drunk driving charges with a very small amount of alcohol in their system as a result of zero tolerance laws, which we recently looked into on this blog.

As a parent, you may be angry or feel let down when you find out that your teen was charged with DUI. However, you should try to be understanding and help them protect their future since these charges can affect them down the road as well. It is important to uncover any details that could impact their drunk driving case and be fully aware of the legal options they may have. Every DUI case is different and there may be a number of avenues to explore when it comes to helping your teen defend themselves.

Not everyone currently sitting behind bars is guilty of committing a crime. In fact, there are a number of prisoners in California and across the nation that are innocent and have not committed a crime at all. According to the Innocence Project, 364 people have been released from their prison sentences after DNA evidence proved they were not guilty. Why are innocent people being locked up while the guilty parties are able to continue their lives as a free people? Flaws in the United States judicial system lead to wrongful convictions and incarcerations. While some states and groups are lobbying to remedy these issues, people continue to get wrongful convictions.

The Innocence Project lists several factors that contribute to conviction injustice. Bad lawyering or inadequate defense is one major contributor. When people are unable to provide their own defense, an attorney may be appointed by the state to defend their case. In some situations, these attorneys do not care about protecting the innocence of their client, but rather use bad lawyering as a form of legal malpractice.

Your life typically undergoes considerable change once you have a California driving under the influence charge on your record, and you may find that you struggle to maintain employment and support yourself or your family after a conviction. While you may, depending on circumstances, face jail time, substantial fines and related repercussions in response to your crime, you will also experience ripple effects that come from somewhere other than the California court system.

More specifically, Insure.com reports that your car insurance rates will often skyrocket following a conviction for DUI, and this typically holds true regardless of where you live, geographically. From coast to coast, for example, drivers typically see their auto insurance rates climb somewhere between 28 and 371 percent following a conviction for DUI. So, how much can you expect your insurance rates to spike as a Californian with a DUI conviction?