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Wednesday, January 4, 2012
By Michael Nichols
Categories: Drunk-Driving, OWI
A court agreed to impose no probation or jail pending the outcome of a substance abuse assessment in a Michigan OWI-OUIL-DUI case in order to resolve the case without the need to rule on a motion filed by Lansing drunk driving attorney Mike Nichols. The prosecuting attorney also agreed to recommend the driver’s home state grant him a restricted license. “Often you have to plug away on 2 tracks to get a good result in a Michigan drunk driving case … this case was no different,” says Michigan drunk driving expert and attorney Mike Nichols. Nichols is author of a practice book on drunk driving for West Publishing called “The Michigan OWI Handbook,” and serves as an adjunct professor at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing.
Nichols added: “In this case, we filed a motion to suppress because the arresting officer conducted a very haphazard OWI investigation in my opinion. Instead of litigating the motion on the first morning back from vacation for the officer, everyone agreed that the gentleman, who is from out of state, could plead to an impaired, that the prosecuting attorney would recommend on the record a restricted license for him and that the results of the chemical test would not be voluntarily reported to the driver’s home state.” Nichols also credited the client following the advice to schedule a substance abuse assessment and maintain sobriety right away: “All of those things are important to help this man get his life back.” Nichols added: “As we got closer to a resolution, the judge got encouraged that he would not have to consider granting the motion because of the impact on the case. I asked for a special conference on sentencing with the judge and advised that we could resolve the case with a plea instead of holding the motion that morning if he would consider imposing fines and costs. So, pending the outcome of the substance abuse screening, this gentleman can move on with his life back home and work on what he needs to work on with professional help but without court supervision.”
When you need a team that is committed to results to help you with a Michigan drunk driving charge, contact Mike Nichols at 517 432 9000.