How do I choose a DUI attorney in California?

Confirm active licensure in the State Bar of California's public records — Business and Professions Code section 6125 limits practice to active licensees — then ask three practice-specific questions: how often the attorney defends DUIs in your courthouse, whether they personally handle the DMV hearing, and how they approach the stop, field tests, and chemical evidence.

Speed shapes this decision: the ten-day DMV hearing window means the ability to act immediately is itself a selection criterion. Beyond licensure — verifiable in the State Bar of California's public records, with only active licensees permitted to practice under Business and Professions Code section 6125 — the useful questions are concrete. Ask how regularly the attorney appears in the specific courthouse where the case is set, since local motion practice and prosecutorial tendencies vary; whether the attorney or a colleague will staff the DMV administrative hearing and what its realistic function is in your facts; and how the office evaluates the evidence: the basis for the stop, field sobriety test administration, breath instrument calibration logs, Title 17 compliance in any blood draw, and whether a blood split for independent re-testing should be requested promptly, before samples are degraded or discarded. Finally, get the flat-fee structure in the written agreement Business and Professions Code section 6148 requires, including exactly which stages and services it covers.

Authority: Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6125