Can you discuss some of the differences between the Oklahoma courts in which you practice DUI defense?
Answer: So for Oklahoma County and Canadian County, those are both state courts. It’s a little bit different than municipal courts. Your range of punishment for a DUI in those courts is 10 days to a year, or for other charges carry much more time than municipal courts. Oklahoma County specific, a lot of times people get pulled over by OCPD, which is Oklahoma City, so potentially they could have a case in Oklahoma City or Oklahoma County. The easiest way to know is, if you get bonded out, your bond should always be $1,000 or more. And then two, if your court date is at 1:30, you are in Oklahoma County, versus in Oklahoma City, it’s at 9:30. A lot of times people get confused, and a lot of times they can bifurcate, or in theory they can bifurcate cases, meaning, you know, if you’ve got traffic tickets from Oklahoma City and the DUI was a state charge, then in theory, Oklahoma City could keep just the traffic tickets, but what usually happens is the DA requires them to submit the entire charge, so you end up going into state court in Oklahoma County.
With Canadian County, it’s kind of the same way. They’re arraignment is always at 3, so if their first court date when they get let out of jail is at 3:00, then it’s going to be in Canadian County, and usually Canadian County takes quite a bit of time to file charges, so it could be, you know, anywhere from five days, we have people that are at a year right now that still haven’t been filed on, so the state can take as long as they want. They’ve got a three-year statute of limitations for misdemeanors. They can slow-play stuff, but if their court date is at 3:00 in Canadian County, then it’s not going to be in Yukon, it’s not going to be in El Reno, that will be in Canadian County.