Lynnwood Municipal Court and Seattle Municipal Court recent cases and results.
In 2014, I represented an former alcohol-drug counselor who’d relapsed after many years of sobriety and was looking at serious jail time, probably two years consecutive, for DUI’s in Lynnwood Municipal Court and Seattle Municipal Court where he also got into an accident and had a negligent Driving in the First Degree criminal charge in the works, though I maneuvered to avoid it being filed. This client had already used his once per lifetime Deferred Prosecution, so I had to approach the two judges and the two prosecutors in the two different courts in one concerted effort over many difficult months, in briefing and orally in open court. By continuing these cases several times while the client obtained intensive forensic mental health and chemical dependency assessments and established a track record in treatment, I attained for this client a ‘global resolution’ between the two courts avoiding all jail time for my client when the amount of jail time originally sought by the prosecutors in both courts was astronomic. He served his entire sanction in both courts via Electronic Home detention (“EHD” also called “EHM”), though he had to wear a SCRAM (also called “TAD”) ankle bracelet before starting treatment, which measures alcohol consumption from one’s ambient skin perspiration even when one is not actually sweating. I also defeated the restitution claims made in his Seattle Municipal Court DUI by the city by proving the owner of the vehicle he struck while drunk was trying to ‘double dip’ (i.e., collect twice for the damage to his vehicle via a restitution order, which the court properly denied). His Lynnwood Municipal Court DUI was a very bad one in which he drove up onto a sidewalk near a pregnant woman while highly intoxicated. Through my skillful negotiation efforts and tenacity this client was spared perhaps up to 16 months in jail between the two courts. Situation defused.
In November 2015, a woman had a review hearing set in Lynnwood Municipal Court for failing repeatedly to enter mental health treatment and then not getting her psychologist to provide to the Lynnwood Municipal Court Probation department the requisite monthly progress reports. I had her warrant quashed after obtaining her psychologists letter documenting the visits he had with her, then having him improve that letter for the judge, probation officer and prosecutor, and the court not only quashed her warrant but took no action at all, cancelling her review hearing. I get these kind of results by working the cases hard, relentlessly negotiating, and using motion practice to personalize my client to the court, along with getting them the help they need for rehabilitation to head off the court from wanting to give them a ‘full jolt’ wake up at sentencing. Hundreds of my clients have benefitted from this approach over the years for cases that are not winnable at trial, and many are simply not.
Bothell Municipal Court recent case result.
In August 2015, I appeared in Bothell Municipal Court for a client who was charged with a Bothell DUI. He had a review hearing for a new violation in one of the King County District Courts for a new charge. After taking this case over from the public defender and another private attorney, I proved he was in fact in treatment and compliant with it, and that he was under the care of a shrink, and the judge took no action and even ordered to close his case upon payment of his previous fines. He avoided jail and saved his business. Very Happy Client!
