There was a time when drunk driving offenses were relatively minor crimes, or at least thought of that way, but that time is long gone.  Nowadays, DUIs are very serious criminal offenses that can costs you thousands of dollars and can affect your life forever.

People who are convicted of a DUI suffer a number of consequences, both seen and unseen. They lose their driver’s license, and without their license, their ability to travel and get around is severely hampered. They carry a criminal record, which can be used against them when they apply for housing or try to get a new job. They also have severe financial penalties to consider, such as penalties and fees relating to the sentence, treatment and driving programs and increased insurance premiums, just to name a few.

Many people would have you believe that if you are accused of drunk driving and you are found to have a blood alcohol level that exceeds the legal limit of 0.08, then there is no hope for you. Best case scenario, as this line of thinking goes, is that you could serve some time in jail and have a permanent criminal record.  In addition, you will pay a lot of money for insurance and other factors related to your DUI, robbing you of some of your freedoms and ability to live life the way you want.

To be fair, the risks described above are very real if you are accused of a drunk driving offense. However, just because you are accused of drunk driving doesn’t mean you are lacking in defense options. In fact, there are many viable defense strategies that can be utilized to help you mitigate the damage of the charge or even beat the case outright.

Imagine this: you go out to a bar to celebrate your friend’s birthday. It’s just you and a few friends, but you each have a few drinks over the course of a couple of hours. When the night comes to an end, you all walk outside and try to flag down a taxi. But this is to no avail. Eventually you tell your friends “it’s okay, I can drive.” You get behind the wheel of your vehicle and drive off, thinking that you aren’t over the blood alcohol limit.

However, after traveling a few blocks, a police officer spots you swerving a little and pulls you over. The officer ask you to submit to a breath test, and you do. The results aren’t flattering: you have a blood alcohol level higher than 0.08.

Driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs that cause impairment is a crime in all 50 states.  In New York, a DUI charge is taken very seriously and punished accordingly, though only when a conviction is actually obtained by government prosecutors. When New Yorkers are accused of drunk driving charges, they typically rely upon the advice and support of a criminal defense attorney.

A motorist was recently accused of drunk driving and is now facing several charges in relation to the incident. The 54-year-old Point Pleasant man was allegedly driving drunk in the Holland Tunnel. Officials said that he injured a Port Authority police officer as he attempted to escape.

When we talk about “costs” in relation to a drunk driving charge, this doesn’t merely mean the legal penalties and consequences associated with the charge. There are many different penalties that compose the legal costs of the DUI — but the various financial and “indirect” costs of having a DUI on your record could end up being worse than the legal penalties.

Don’t believe us? Well, consider the following:

Being charged with a sex crime is one of the most serious legal situations a person can face. Along with the possible sentencing that can come with the potential conviction in New York, a near immediate stigma goes along with the whisper of an alleged sexual offense.

If you are being accused of something like rape or sexual misconduct, we know you are scared. There is a lot on the line, including the possibility that you will have to register as a sex offender. There is a lot to know about the sex offender registry

Being accused of soliciting a minor online can shocking; especially given the stigma that sex crimes carry in our society. It may seem like you have to prove yourself innocent beyond a reasonable doubt in instead of the state proving its burden to that standard.

Regardless of what you might believe, you have a constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. This means that the prosecution must every element of the crime you are charged with before you may be convicted.

The New York Daily News recently ran a story about the defense being offered in a case of two boys accused of raping a 14 year-old girl in her school bathroom. The defendants, who were 17  and 18 at the time of the alleged rape, have argued pretty convincingly that the sex was consensual.

Not only do they claim the sex was fully agreed to by the girl and, in fact, planned in advance, but they were also able to produce “explicitly compromising images of herself” the girl had sent to at least one of the defendants.

Sexual assault is a very serious crime, one that carries severe penalties and can leave you with a reputation that mars your future prospects indefinitely. In the state of New York, there are many different sexual assault charges that can be filed against someone accused of such crimes. Just look at the list here. You’ll quickly notice that most of these are considered felonies.

In the state of New York, sexual assault charges before a judge give that judge the discretion to pick a range of years for their sentence. What this means is someone who is sentenced on sexual assault charges will have an “indeterminate” sentence, and that his or her time in jail will largely depend on how he or she behaves while behind bars once the minimum part of the range is met.

Sexual assault crimes are highly charged crimes, and as such, the penalties reflect that. When someone is convicted of a sexual assault charge, it will be up to a judge to determine the parameters for the convicted person’s punishment. The jail time, if any, sexual offender registration level and other conditions all determined by a judge based upon a variety of factors particular to the offense and the history of the person convicted.

In the state of New York, the maximum time for a forcible sexual abuse is seven years, while it is as much as 25 years for a forcible rape. On top of that, those convicted will be required to register, with various conditions, as a sex offender for a minimum of 20 years from their release from jail and possibly their entire life.  As such, if charged with a sex crime, you should have an experienced defense attorney at your side or it may impact you for the rest of your life.