Tampa DUI attorneyIn 2008, 11,773 people were killed in alcohol related car crashes.  This represents a 9.7 percent decrease from 2007 in alcohol impaired driving fatalities.  A DUI Attorney Tampa, Florida will represent someone who is accused of driving under the influence of alcohol or other illegal substances but cautioned there is a limit to the number of times a person with DUIs can stay out of prison.

Different states have different rules for the number of DUIs a person can collect before a judge finally sentences them to jail time.  Sometimes a judge will issue community service, require a drunk driver to seek treatment or take away their driving privileges  with a suspended license; however none of this seems to matter to the thousands of people who continue to drink and drive and collect DUIs knowing that the law is very lenient and ‘workable’ to their advantage.

In order to keep their clients out of prison, a Tampa DUI attorney may ask the court to install an ignition interlock system in their client’s car and to set at .04 percent instead of the standard .08 percent so that when their client has been drinking, they cannot drive their vehicle without blowing into the ignition interlock system in order to start the engine. The fact that the interlock system is set at below the standard legal limit shows a judge that the client is willing to try and sober up or seek alternative transportation if they have been drinking and need to drive home.

Tampa criminal attorneys, who also represent people who have been drinking and driving, believe that there are two separate types of DUI cases.  There are people who are pulled over for the first time and were at a wedding or other family gathering and had a few drinks and then there are people who are continually driving while under the influence of alcohol or other substances such as prescription drugs, marijuana, speed, meth or other dangerous drugs.  The criminal justice system should not treat these two types of DUI offenders the same; however many see a drunk driver as a drunk driver no matter if it’s their first offense or their fifth offense.