Up to $1025 fine for dropping a lit cigarette from your car.

With last summer’s severe fires, and Washington entering a drier season as summer starts (but not today in Seattle!), the Washington State Patrol announced a crackdown on lit cigarettes being littered from vehicles. Normally the limit for a ‘civil infraction’ such as this is $250, but the Washington State Legislature specifically made an exception for dangerous … Read more

A Domestic Violence Charge or Conviction and Your Gun Rights

One of the most overlooked and unfortunate aspects of the criminal justice system in America is that it often doesn’t end at trial. If you end up getting convicted of a domestic violence charge after a trial, or even as a pretrial condition of release, the repercussions don’t even stop at the fines and jail … Read more

Washington’s Mandatory Arrest Law for Domestic Violence

If you have never been arrested before, then the first time is likely to be one of the worst experiences of your life. Feeling the handcuffs click on your wrists and being shoved into the back seat of a police patrol vehicle is an incredibly embarrassing, demeaning and frightening experience, even if no one is obviously … Read more

Self-Defense in Washington – The Basics

One of the only rules you can count on across all of fields of law is that every rule has an exception. One of the rules in the arena of criminal law is that it is almost always illegal to hurt or kill someone. However, even to this rule, there are certain exceptions: In the State … Read more

Washington’s New Law Requiring GPS on Ignition Interlock. RCW 43.43.395(3)(a)(ii).

As stated at:  https://www.lifesafer.com/blog/new-washington-bill-traps-ignition-interlock-dodgers/ Washington State is the most recent state to consider new laws that will boost the power of ignition interlock devices to prevent deaths due to alcohol-related crashes. House Bill 1276, which has passed in the House and now moves to the Senate, mandates two changes that are designed to bring down … Read more

Under the Legal Limit: Still Under Arrest

All 50 states in the U.S. have made it illegal to drive a car or other vehicle when your blood alcohol content (BAC) is at or above 0.08%. However, it might be a surprise to hear that Washington is one of the states where you can get arrested, charged, and even convicted for Driving Under … Read more

Arrested with another DUI

Prior Offenses and Repeat DUI Offenses.  If you got, in the last 7 years, a prior DUI or Physical Control conviction, and are now charged again with DUI, you will face mandatory minimum (“enhanced”) sentencing if you are convicted of the new DUI or Physical Control charge.  This is also true – that you will … Read more

DUI or Vehicular Assault Blood Draws in Washington State.

So you think your high-blow alcohol DUI or marijuana DUI is bad?  Did the cops who stopped you call a DRE (Drug Recognition Expert?  Was there a BLOOD DRAW? Important Disclaimer:  Derrick Coleman clearly has, like we all do, the constitutional right to be presumed innocent, etc.  The Bellevue police report states that Coleman’s blood … Read more

Why won’t the Prosecutor drop a no contact order if I just ask, so my husband or wife can come home? I don’t want to press charges.

If the police get called to your home for suspected or alleged Domestic Violence, and end up removing someone from the home (arresting them), a Domestic Violence charge is usually filed against one or both people involved. Under the so called “four-hour rule” found in RCW 10.31.100(2)(c), if the police arrive within four hours of the 911 call made … Read more