Handling First California DUI Case (2021 Edition)

Dominick Welch | Welch Law Firm

Mr. Welch was employed by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office and received training from the California Highway Patrol in Standardized Field Sobriety Testing, and the California Department of Justice in blood and alcohol testing. He attended the relevant parts of the C.H.P. Academy and has spent time in the forensic crime lab working with toxicologists.

After leaving employment in the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office, Mr. Welch founded Welch Law Firm in Sacramento, California, and focused his practice exclusively on Driving Under the Influence (D.U.I.) Defense due to his belief everyone deserves a chance at redemption and rehabilitation. As a reputable legal figure in the community, Mr. Welch is known to advocate for inventively tailored treatment plans in place of in-custody jail time. Mr. Welch regularly practices in the D.U.I. only courtrooms in Sacramento, Placer, and surrounding counties.

Givelle Lamano | Lamano Law

Givelle Lamano is a Bay Area criminal defense attorney who truly cares about her clients. She has represented people from all walks of life including gang members in prison appealing their life sentences to first-time offenders who have never been arrested. She is licensed in both state and federal courts and has served as a court-appointed attorney for the Alameda County Bar Association. Ms. Lamano received the Super Lawyer Rising Star award in 2017 – 2021 for her professional achievement and peer recognition. She ranks in the top 2% of over 65,000 attorneys. She received the Client’s Choice award with Avvo from 2013 – 2016 and has a 10 ranking. In 2021, she was published in INC magazine and is a regular contributor to Forbes.

Ms. Lamano takes a more holistic approach to criminal defense by taking time to understand why a person was arrested in the first place and what factors contributed to an arrest or allegation. By doing this, she highlights the good traits in people who find themselves in a bad situation. She then uses that information to present her clients in the most positive light when negotiating deals in court. Ms. Lamano does not believe one bad act should ruin a person’s life or define who they are. Her goal is simple – get the charges dismissed and help clients avoid legal trouble in the future.

Ms. Lamano is also the founder of the Three Strikes Justice Center, a non-profit organization focused on alleviating the overcrowding of prisons through restorative justice. For 5-years, she served as a Board Member for Insight Prison Project, an organization providing services to prisoners and parolees all over California. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, a non-profit in Oakland that helps reunify incarcerated individuals with their families, and with Defy Ventures, a national non-profit that helps people with criminal histories get a second chance at life.

Preceding her criminal defense work, Ms. Lamano represented low-wage and immigrant workers at the Women’s Employment Rights Clinic at Golden Gate University. Ms. Lamano began working at a young age in various blue-collar jobs so she is no stranger to hard work. She has spoken as a panelist for Women in Leadership and spends her free time with family and Boston Terrier.

Peter Iocona | The SoCal Law Network

Attorney Peter F. Iocona is the Owner of The Law Office of Peter F. Iocona, or Peter F. Iocona, Attorney at Law, and a Founding Member, Owner, CFO, and Lead Trial Attorney for DUI cases for The SoCal Law Network in Laguna Hills, California, which he opened in 2016 with his two law partners, Alan Castillo and Marlo Cordero. Mr. Iocona was formerly the Managing Attorney and Lead Trial Attorney in Driving Under the Influence Cases for the Law Office of Barry T. Simons.

Mr. Iocona practices in both the State and Federal Courts of Southern California.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Iocona has an established track record of Not Guilty verdicts, dismissals and/or reduced charges for his clients in courts all across Southern California. Based on this record of achievements, Mr. Iocona has been listed in The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 Trial Lawyers and is regarded as one of Orange County’s most successful DUI Trial Lawyers. As an accomplished DUI Trial Attorney, Mr. Iocona was listed as a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers, a Thomas Reuters Attorney-Rating Service.

Mr. Iocona holds an Avvo-Rating of “Superb” or “10/10” and OC Metro magazine listed him as one of the area’s “Top-Rated DUI Attorneys in Orange County, California”.

Mr. Iocona was selected as a “Superior DUI Attorney” by The National Advocacy for DUI Defense (NAFDD). That same year, he was selected for inclusion in the 2015 list of the “Nation’s Top One Percent”, which is published by the National Association of Distinguished Counsel (NADC).

Mr. Iocona was also selected into the list of America’s Top 100 Criminal Defense Attorneys. This designation relates to not only Mr. Iocona’s work as a DUI Defense Attorney; but also to his work as a Criminal Defense Attorney.

In 2010, Mr. Iocona was asked to serve as an expert panelist for a DUI Drugs seminar sponsored by both the Orange County Crime Laboratory (O.C.C.L.) and the California Association of Toxicologists (C.A.T.), entitled: “DUI Drugs, Says Who?” and in 2015, Mr. Iocona was the first DUI Defense Attorney to be asked to lecture at the California Criminalistics Institute’s Forensic Alcohol Interpretation Seminar regarding “The Role of a Forensic Scientist in DUI Cases”. This course is sponsored by the California Department of Justice and attended by State’s Experts from across the country as part of their training as a forensic scientist. Mr. Iocona continues to speak or lecture at that seminar regularly regarding the role of a forensic toxicologist in DUI Trials and their opinions relating to blood test variability, breath test variability, alcohol absorption and elimination, and the interpretation of field sobriety test evidence and the effects of alcohol and/or drugs on the human body.

Mr. Iocona had been heavily involved in the reformation of the treatise called “California Drunk Driving Law,” serving as a contributing editor to the book from 2003 to 2016. Every DUI Lawyer in the State of California uses this book to understand how to defend one of their own clients against a DUI charge in the California.

A published author, Mr. Iocona is active in the legal community and regularly delivers lectures and seminars on the defense of drunk driving. Mr. Iocona is a member and graduate of the National College for DUI Defense, a member of the DUI Defense Lawyers Association, and a member of the California DUI Lawyers Association, and he lectured frequently about how to successfully defend against DMV APS Suspension actions and DUI Charges at seminars sponsored by some of these organizations. Here is a list of some of Mr. Iocona’s lectures:

• Orange County Bar Association-Bridging the Gap: “What Is Administrative Law?” (Santa Ana: July, 2008)
• California DUI Lawyers Association (CDLA): “Effectively Handling D.M.V. A.P.S. Hearings” (Irvine: February, 2008)
• California DUI Lawyers Association (CDLA): “Effectively Handling D.M.V. A.P.S. Hearings” (Oakland: June, 2008)
• California DUI Lawyers Association (CDLA): “Effectively Handling D.M.V. A.P.S. Hearings” (Fresno: May, 2009)
• Expert panelist for a DUI Drugs seminar sponsored by the Orange County (O.C.) Crime Laboratory and the California Association of Toxicologists (C.A.T.), entitled: “DUI Drugs, Says Who? (Anaheim: November, 2010)
• California Association of Toxicologists (CAT) Panel Expert: “When is One Qualified to Render an Opinion?” (Anaheim: November, 2010)
• California Association of Toxicologists (CAT) Panel Expert: “DUI Drugs-To Quantitate or Not to Quantitate?” (Anaheim: November, 2010)
• 84th Annual California State Bar Seminar (California State Bar), “Effectively Handling D.M.V. A.P.S. Hearings & Writs and Appeals,” (Long Beach: October, 2011)
• 2012 “Fast Eddie” Kuwatch All-Day DUI Seminar, “D.M.V. A.P.S. Hearings: What Still Works,” (San Francisco: March, 2012)

Seth Chazin | The Law Offices of Seth P. Chazin

I have been a criminal defense lawyer in the San Francisco/Bay Area for over 30 years and have been certified by the California State Board of Legal Specialization as a Certified Criminal Law Specialist since 2001. I have defended thousands of clients in Federal, State and Juvenile courts throughout California and the United States facing felony and misdemeanor charges for all types of criminal offenses including capital murder and other homicide cases, numerous felony DUI with injury cases and vehicular homicides.

I have assisted clients for over 30 years in administrative and post-conviction matters, including more than 50 DMV admin per se hearings. I have filed numerous criminal appeals and writs on behalf of clients and represented clients in parole violation and parole lifer hearings. While working with the State Public Defender in the mid-90’s, I, along with a colleague, successfully investigated and presented the actual innocence claim of a client on death row for the alleged double murder of an elderly couple in the Los Angeles area. After numerous appeals and writs, the client was released from death row and ultimately released from prison for good in 2018, after having his death sentence vacated and overturned by the California Supreme Court, as well as the finding of guilt itself overturned by a Federal District Court in Southern California.

Session I – The basics of DUI Science | 1:00pm – 2:00pm
1. How to lay the evidentiary foundation to admit a breath or blood sample | 1:00pm – 1:15pm
2. Breath Test | 1:15pm – 1:30pm
3. Blood draw | 1:30pm – 1:45pm
4. Standardized Field Sobriety Tests | 1:45pm – 2:00pm

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

Session II – Court Process | 2:10pm – 3:10pm
1. Managing client expectations and explaining the law in plain English | 2:10pm – 2:25pm
2. What to expect at the arraignment and pre-trial negotiations? | 2:25pm – 2:40pm
3. Identifying DUI defenses and holes in the police report | 2:40pm – 2:55pm
4. Negotiating plea bargains or going to trial | 2:55pm – 3:10pm

Break | 3:10pm – 3:20pm

Session III – The DUI Trial | 3:20pm – 4:20pm
1. Common DUI defenses | 3:20pm – 3:25pm
2. Voir Dire | 3:25pm – 3:30pm
3. Opening Statement | 3:30pm – 3:40pm
4. Direction Examination | 3:40pm – 3:50pm
5. Working with Experts | 3:50pm – 4:00pm
6. Cross Examination | 4:00pm – 4:10pm
7. Arguments | 4:10pm – 4:20pm

Break | 4:20pm – 4:30pm

Session IV – Client Interview | 4:30pm – 5:30pm
1. Initial and personal information gathering. | 4:30pm – 4:45pm
2. The police stop and search, FST’s and arrest. | 4:45pm – 5:00pm
3. Issues related to blood-alcohol testing | 5:00pm – 5:15pm
4. Case strategy including use of forensic toxicologists, negotiations, and trial prep | 5:15pm – 5:30pm