Good afternoon,

I'm very sorry to hear of your daughter's situation.

Quite frankly, the best thing that you could do to assist your daughter will be to provide funds so that she can retain a private criminal defense attorney to defend her in the misdemeanor DUI charge.

There are a variety of ways that a good defense attorney can defend a DUI case---depending on all the facts of the case, and they may be able to either have the sentence reduced, or perhaps the entire charge thrown out---again, depending on the facts.

If she is convicted in the state court, in addition to the state fines and penalties and license suspension, she will also likely suffer a 1 year driving ban on all military bases as well as the end of her career in the Navy---as she will not be retained when her present enlistment is up.

So, help her get a criminal defense attorney to defend against this charge. That be the best thing that you can do to help her at this point.

You may reply back to me using the Reply to Expert link if you have additional questions; and if you do, I ask that you please keep in mind that I do not know what you may already know or with what you need help, unless you tell me.

Please recognize that the rating system only gives me credit for working with you when you click one of the 3 stars/faces on the right (positive rating). Also, kindly rate me based solely on my service to you in understanding the law, and not based on whether my answer is what you were hoping to hear. I have no control over the how the law impacts your particular situation, and I trust that you can understand how it would be unfair for me to be punished by a (negative rating) ----the first 2 stars/faces----for having been honest with you about the law.

I wish you the best in 2012,

Doug