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Thursday, December 8, 2011
By Michael Nichols
Categories: Michael J. Nichols
An East Lansing man listened to his lawyer’s advice and the result was a sigh of relief at sentencing. “This particular client was really great when it came to letting me stand by him from a litigation standpoint and giving me the tools I needed to get him a result on the legal side,” said Lansing attorney Mike Nichols. Nichols added: “However, while we were litigating the admissibility of the blood draw in his felony OWI III case, he violated his bond by experiencing a relapse and getting drunk then causing an accident while behind the wheel. He definitely needed support staying sober.”
After a circuit court judge in Ingham County suppressed the results of the blood draw for a violation of the implied consent act, the man was charged with his 5th OWI when he experienced a relapse and drove. “This client has tons of potential to succeed in life – he needed to commit to sobriety and realize the depth of his addiction and the causes of it,” said Nichols. “Even though we had terrible facts based on the client’s ever-changing criminal history, because we had positioned ourselves well on the litigation of the OWI III we were able to negotiate a result with the prosecutor so that this person has a chance to keep a felony off his record if he successfully completes the terms of probation,” Nichols added.
Mike Nichols told the client’s story in both courts and negotiated a package that would avoid a jail term and avoid a permanent felony with the help of attorney Wendy Schiller-Nichols. The Nichols Law firm used the team approach to give their client hope. “It was critical that our client entered into inpatient rehabilitation voluntarily after the accident that followed his relapse episode. It was not coincidental that the relapse happened 2 years to the day that his felony OWI in Ingham County occurred. This person indeed has a story to tell – it was a matter of discovering it and presenting it,” said Nichols.
Lansing attorney Mike Nichols is an OWI-OUIL-DUI expert, author and adjunct professor of DUI Law and Practice at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing. Mr. Nichols will be speaking in February at the American Academy of Forensic Science 2012 annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Find out how he can help you turn hope into results at 517.432.9000.