Merry Christmas
Well we are about to start a new year and I can hardly wait to see how the state legislature is going to screw up DUI law in their never ending mission to "be tough on DUI." I guess the reason that I am so tough on them is that over the 15 short years that I have been representing those charged with DUI, the number of arrests for DUI has risen each year.
Every year, another "tough" law; every year the number of DUIs in our county rises. Why doesn't the law have any effect? Well, its really easy to explain, and for Christmas I will give the state legislature a present and tell them why "tougher" laws don't work.
Why do people get DUIs? It is because they make a bad decision to drive at the end of the night. Why do they make these bad decisions? Because "Alcohol impairs judgment." No matter how tough you make the law, the person reacting to the law change (by definition) will have decreased ability to make good judgments to comply with the silly "tougher" law. I like to explain it like this to my kids. No matter how many times I yell at the dog to play the piano, or how loud; the dog just ain't gonna play the piano.
If you want to solve the DUI problem you will have to find a way to make that bad decision to drive harder to accomplish if a person has had too much to drink before he drives.
Merry Christmas everyone, drive safe
Ray Flavin
