My son was pulled over by a highway patrol man, he was givien a citation for 0.01 alcohol level, he does not have a license?

It is not a great idea to represent yourself. You do, however, have the constitutional right to do so. I would recommend spending an entire day in the court to observe how judges handle self-represented defendants to get an idea of how irritated they get at amateur lawyering. If you really want to represent yourself, you should purchase an hour of a traffic attorney's time to have her or him coach you on how to handle things. A better choice if you do not want to pay the fine is simply to hire an attorney. The approach suggested in your situation is to hire a traffic attorney with the following goals in mind: 1) Look for a technical defense that will get the citation dismissed; 2) Try to negotiate agreement with the prosecutor to amend the citation to become an infraction that does not get reported on you record; and 3) Ask the judge for a deferred finding (Supervision Program in my state) if you and your lawyer are unable to find any technical defenses. You might find my Legal Guide helpful "How to Choose A Lawyer For You" http://www.attorneyqna.com/legal-guides/ugc/how-to-cho... You might find my Legal Guide helpful " What Do I Tell My Lawyer" http://www.attorneyqna.com/legal-guides/ugc/what-do-i-... Check with a lawyer in your locale to discuss more of the details. Good luck to you. God bless. Best of luck to you. If you found this answer helpful, let me know by clicking the Thumbs-Up tab at the bottom. You may mark this as a Best Answer for the time I spent crafting this and thinking about your matter.

Your son is probably also charged with a misdemeanor for driving without a license. He needs a lawyer. If he is a juvenile, he automatically qualifies for the puiblic defender. If he is an adult, he can apply for the public defender if he cannot afford to hire a lawyer. Nevertheless, he should get a lawyer, one way or another. He could face a one year delay in being eligible for a license and he could end up with a criminal record if he is not careful. Having sad that, a lawyer can probably work with this. The lawyer can tell you if it is possible to get the misdemeanor dropped if he applies for license. While the .01 count is an infraction, he still needs to deal with it in order to avoid a license suspension period. You indicate that therre is a possible necessity defense; that is, he drove without a license and after consuming alcohol but out of necessity. For that to be a defense, the facts woudl have to demonstrate that there was a reasonable fear of bodily injury or death and that driving (as opposed to calling a cab, the cops or Mom) was essentially impossible. Nevertheless, a lawyer would want to look into this. Even if it s not an outright defense, it may be a good way to get the probation officer (in juvenile) or the DA (in adult) to make a deal. Anyway, have your son talk to his lawyer and good luck!

There are several questions that will be relevant in your son's case. The first thing I would want to know is how old is he? If he is under 21, he may have pretty significant DMV penalties (ie 1 year suspension). You need a DUI lawyer who specializes in these kinds of cases and NOT just a traffic attorney. As far as a criminal prosecution, that is likely never to happen with that low of an alcohol content, unless there were other issues. With respect to the DMV, it is very important to try to protect his license. Contact a DUI specialist for this, not just a general criminal attorney.