Car Treatment Following a DUI Arrest in Brunswick County

There are a variety of ways your car will be treated following a DUI arrest in Brunswick County. The car is going to be impounded if they are unable to get someone to pick it up off the side of the road in pretty quick short order. If a family member or someone of the like can come get the car, the officer may allow that. If they are the only person in the car and cannot be quickly retrieved, it is going to be impounded. At this point, hiring a local defense attorney is recommended.

How to Retrieve the Car

The person will need some kind of proof of ownership such as car title or registration.

There is a daily fee that is very high. Each tow lot can charge what they want and can set their own hours. They often close early to make it difficult for someone to pick up the car so they can charge for another day. Be careful of these hours.

The people charged with a crime are backed into a corner once they are incarcerated without bond. The prosecutors and the local law enforcement have no time limits; they have almost no circuit court dates. There might be one circuit court day a month. As an example, when a person gets arrested, he may have to sit in jail for a month to even have a bond hearing. And then they will make him some sort of plea offer to get him to plea to a felony so he can get out and pay his bills, take care of his children, et cetera. They can definitely use this kind of the procedure and bureaucracy against people. Hiring a defense attorney in this scenario is imperative. Beyond the treatment of your car after a DUI arrest, the treatment of the alleged is at stake as well.

Lawyer’s Role

Lawyers usually do not get involved with retrieving the car.

Searching an Impounded Car

The car might have been searched on the side of the road. If the car actually ends up being impounded, an inventory search is almost certain

The officer does not need any type of warrant to search the car. If a person has been arrested, the Law Enforcement Officer can do an inventory search of the person’s vehicle, essentially assuring that he is turning over the vehicle to a private lot that does not have a bomb in it, for instance. He can then treat your car as a potential threat and can search your car. The purpose of the search is to inventory and catalog all items in the vehicle and ensure there is nothing dangerous in there. Some of the drugs out right now are so dangerous that if someone touches them, literally, mere skin contact, can almost kill you. The officers need to do an inventory search of these vehicles to protect the people that tow the vehicle to the lot and watch over it at the lot until the person picks it up.

Finding Something in an Impounded Car

It is relatively common that something will be found in an impounded car. What starts out as a traffic stop, an inappropriate license plate, for example, ended up with the driver being charged with possession of drugs that they found in the car. For instance, they also found a gun in the car. At that point, the officers might tell him that if he pleads guilty to the drugs they will not charge him for having the gun in the car. If he was stopped for a DUI and a search revealed marijuana, they may tell him if he pleads guilty to the DUI he will not be charged with possession of the marijuana. Or they can just charge him and go forward on both charges.