Jury Trials Are Both a Wonderful and Scary Thing

Jury trials are both a wonderful and scary thing. Sometimes the only way to win your case and clear your good name is to have your day in court and take your case to a jury of your peers. If settlement is not an option, then a case needs to be prepared for a jury trial…which is like preparing for war.

Many times the threat of a war is enough to win a victory; however, this does not always happen. When a jury trial is the only option, you want an experienced DUI attorney that is a veteran of countless DUI battles in the local courthouse.

Preparing a case for trial, like preparing for war, takes time, effort, experience, skill and money. War, whether you win or lose, is costly. The cost of a trial is not just paying money! Trials take an emotional toll on everyone involved. Jury trials also take an enormous amount of time. It would not be unusual for a DUI case to take a week to a week and a half or even two weeks to try to verdict. This means that people charged with a DUI who want to go through trial will have to be prepared to take off work for almost two weeks. There are also a lot of costs that go along with the battle. Attorney fees and expert fees can skyrocket because of the time and skill necessary to try a case to verdict.

Another big concern is about what happens if the jury agrees with the government and convicts. Once convicted the individual does not have control of the outcome of the case. If convicted, judges take control, and they have a wide assortment of possible penalties to impose including possible jail time (even on a first-time DUI). Anyone who goes to trial must be prepared for the possibility of being taken into custody (arrested in court) and remanded to the custody of the Sheriff.

Although there are serious risks and costs with going to trial, it is good to know that at the end of the day if you can’t work out a deal, you can always have a jury decide the truth about what happened. Jury trials are not for everyone. In fact, only a very small percentage of cases ever get to a jury. If a settlement is not an option for you, and you can afford the cost (in time, stress, and money), you need an experienced DUI trial attorney to lead your case through the war… and if things go your way, to victory.