Legal Fees in Your Georgia DUI Case: What you should expect From Us (And Any Other Georgia DUI Attorney)

When you retain our office in your Georgia DUI case, we will agree upon the total expenses that you will pay us for representation in your Georgia DUI case.   We do not charge DUI clients on an hourly basis.  Most experienced Georgia DUI lawyers have long since abandoned hourly charges.  When you retain us, you will know the total amount of fees that you may expend in your case.  You will not have to worry about receiving a billing statement with an astronomical number of hours being assessed to you.  We may well spend an astronomical amount of time on your case, but that is what we expect and your costs will not vary as a result of those efforts.  We do not charge you for phone calls or the time that we spend writing you case update letters.  We provide you with an itemization of our fees in writing. The fee that we agree upon in writing is guaranteed to be all of the fees that you will pay to our office throughout your Georgia DUI case.

We accept payment in the form cash, checks, and all major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover).  We commonly discount our fees for certain classes of clients, such as active members of the United States armed forces, veterans, teachers, and law enforcement or EMS personnel.  Some clients may qualify for a payment plan.  We reserve the right to refuse to accept installment payments from any client.  Do not be offended by this.  We are not in the business of bill collecting.  Our Georgia DUI lawyers enjoy aggressively pursuing the defense of DUI cases.  We do not enjoy spending time talking with clients about outstanding bills, and we have adopted this policy to ensure that most of our time is spent on your DUI case. 

When you meet with our office to discuss your DUI case, we will address your concerns, answer your questions, and we will provide you with an evaluation of your case based upon the facts you provide.  We do not charge for this initial consultation.   

Our fees in DUI cases are based upon three (3) levels of service: (1) trial fees, (2) motions hearing fees, and (3) plea fees.

Trial Fees

When you retain our office for representation of you through a trial in your DUI case, you receive detailed and personalized service at every stage of your DUI case, including at a jury trial if you choose.  Specifically, you will receive the following services in your DUI case:

1.       We will request a hearing upon your administrative license suspension (ALS). This is commonly called the 10-day letter.

2.     Representation of you at the ALS hearing. We will ensure that a transcript is made of the officer's testimony at the ALS so that the testimony can later be used in the defense of your criminal case. 

3.     Appearance at or waiving your arraignment. If the court will not permit us to waive your arraignment, we will appear with you at your arraignment.  At your arraignment, you are notified of the charges against you and you enter your not guilty plea.  Generally, we can relieve you from appearing at arraignment by waiving your arraignment with the court.

4.    Appearing at pre-trial court dates and negotiating your case with the prosecutor.

5.     Filing discovery motions and motions to suppress and exclude certain evidence from your case. 

6.    Reviewing discovery provided by the state. If audio or video recordings exist, we do our best to arrange for you to have access to these recordings.

7.     Representing you at a hearing upon your motions.

8.    Trial (jury or non-jury).

A trial fee does not include any appeal (pre-trial or post-conviction).  A trial fee also does not include expenses such as court reporter fees, transcript costs, or expert witness fees.

Motions Fees

In certain cases, it is possible to obtain a dismissal or a reduction of a DUI charge prior to trial by contesting issues such as the illegality of your stop, the illegality of the "seizure," and the incorrectness of the implied consent advisement.  After we meet with you and discuss the facts of your DUI case, we can provide you with an assessment of whether a fee that would provide you with our services through a motions hearing will be beneficial to you.  In the event that you retain us to represent you at a motions hearing and that hearing is unsuccessful but you decide that you would like a jury trial, we will honor the jury trial fee that we quote you at the outset of the representation.  Like a trial fee, a motions fee does not include any appeal from the trial court's denial of any motions.  A motions fee also does not include expenses such as court reporter fees, transcript costs, or expert witness fees.

Plea Fees

The least expensive fee rate that you can retain our expertise for is a plea.  If you choose to retain our services for a plea, we represent you through an arraignment, we will negotiate the best plea possible in your case, and we will appear in court with you to enter your plea. We will work to have charges dismissed or reduced. We will seek to ensure that the negotiated plea is for the minimum sentence allowed by the law.

If you retain us to represent you in negotiating a plea and presenting the plea to the court, you must recognize that you will be taking a substantial step towards giving up your right to be presumed innocent and to make the state prove your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.  If you retain our office for a plea, we will file no motions on your behalf, we will not seek to review any video or audio recording, and we will not represent you in any administrative license suspension hearing.

License Reinstatement, Probation Enlistment, and Life After Your DUI Case

All too frequently, attorneys who are inexperienced with Georgia DUI practice part ways with their clients at the conclusion of the case.  We think this is outrageous practice and it frequently ignores the most troubling and important aspects of the representation, such as reinstatement of the driver's license.  We know how difficult it can be to achieve the reinstatement of your license.  We also know the rules and regulations of the Georgia Department of Driver Services better than almost any other attorney in the Georgia.

Recently, we have noticed a disturbing trend in DUI cases where a defendant is sentenced to probation.  We have seen attorneys enter pleas without recognizing the devastating impact that probation may have upon their client.  What if you resided outside of Georgia at the time that you entered a plea that included probation, and after the plea you were told that you could not leave reside outside of Georgia?  Believe it or not, we see people all the time that are blindsided by these types of rules.  You can only avoid these types of problems by retaining an attorney that is knowledgeable about these types of issues.