I had been out drinking with my girlfriend after I picked her up from work, when I was pulled over by a police officer. I was shocked when he accused my of speeding when I knew I wasn't (some parts of town I stay under the speed limit). He asked me If had been drinking and I told him yes, I explained... to him that I had 2 drinks and was on my way home. He then asked me to step out the my car and follow him to his patrol car...... the rest was all down hill. I stumbled when he had me put my heel to toe and walk in a stright line, performed well, at least I thought I did on the rest of the test and finally he had me write my ABC's on a card. Then I blew a .16, which is 4x the legal limit if you have a commercial license, he left my car with my girlfriend and gave me an unwanted free ride to jail.
Well I followed the instructions on the pink paper, informing me I had 10 days to respond to the DMV, blah, blah, blah licese will be temporary for 30 days pending the outcome of my case. I had to inform my job, and crossed my fingers. The search was on, I now make enough money and wouldn't be appointed a public defender by the court. I wasn't about to take anything less than a win and was even prepared to go to trial if necessary, because this would be my 2nd DUI within 10 years which meant that I would be disqualified from ever being able to get a commercial license again. My job did offer a legal benefit service that I used and Kristina was one of the lawyers that was in the group, I had free consultation to talk about my case with a number of lawyers. I spoke with 2 and I chose her after my meeting with her.
She told me that she did have experience in commercial DUI cases and after listening to my side of the story thought that the way I was handled (not taken in by the arresting officer to jail and given what I think is call the "Drager" test... the big machine down town). I guess that raised a red flag and was cause for her to look at why and who accually gave me that test. A little time went by and she found that the officer that gave me the test was fairly new her qualification to accually perform the test and could have messed up. I gave her a detailed account of how I was transfered, what happened from start to finish, and she found that I was handled legally, according to me.
She had found that the arresting officer signed a document that stated he "signed under penalty of perjury", was the sole person that performed my preliminary field sobriety test (PFST) and the final test at the police station. With that we were off to the DMV hearing. With a commercial license I have to go to a hearing with the DMV, they review the facts of the case and determine if I can keep my license, yes on top of going to court, it's like court twice.... the hearing went so fast and over my head when it was all said and done, inside this small room with Kristina, myself and a no nonsense looking asian guy that worked for the DMV, he said that if I remembered correctly that it was a "stay" on my license. She looked at me and smiled, I asked what happened and she said "we won!".
She said it was almost a gurantee if the DMV hearing is won that the court case would be the same. After being as patient as I could, on the day I went to court (after many) the district attorney said that they were dropping the case, for "lack of evidence". She found the one single thing that probably saved my license, my life, my job..... because I don't know anything else but that.
I only rated her responsiveness good, because I felt like I should have been #1 even if she had other cases, that's natural for anyone in my situation to think and I only rated her being good in her knowledge, because she spoke with a colleage about the case and was helped. But we all learn new things in our journey to master our crafts. I don't hold that against her at all, she shared that fact with me and I would recommend her to anyone I know.