Being pulled over by a police officer can be a stressful and confusing situation for most motorists. This is especially true If you have consumed alcohol earlier in the day. When the officer approaches your car and starts asking you where you are coming from, and where you are going, and if you have been drinking. Now your mind starts racing and your heart starts beating. Am I getting arrested for a DUI? The officer takes your license and walks back to his vehicle to run your license. The officer returns to your car and asks you to get out of your vehicle and perform some tests to see if you a ..read more

Illinois law places severe restrictions on the ability of people convicted of a felony from legally changing their names. Illinois law is among the strictest in the United States for convicted felons seeking to change their names. The Illinois Secretary of State allows Illinois license owners to put their gender identity on their licenses. Under current Illinois law, felons convicted of a crime that requires that individual to be placed on a state registry, such as a Sex Offender Registry, are barred from ever changing their name. The lifetime ban also applies to people convicted of Murder, Ar ..read more

Over the holiday weekend, the Schaumburg police conducted their annual “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” enforcement campaign. The enforcement campaign ran from December 16 to January 2. The annual campaign is run by the Illinois Department of Transportation and is managed funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, which provides the funding for the campaign. Most of the local police departments in the area participated in the campaign. The funds allowed the Schaumburg Police to add four additional units to be dedicated to enforcing the traffic laws during the campaign. The Sch ..read more

Can you have a Medical Cannabis Card and a FOID card at the same time? Can you have a Medical Cannabis Card and a Conceal and Carry Permit at the same time? You would think that these questions are easy to answer. However, these questions have caused great confusion and misunderstanding in Illinois. The State Legislature has done a terrible job of clearing up the law and making this an easy issue to solve. Instead, you have to search for answers to these questions for yourself. If you ask an employee at a gun shop if you can have both, you will get a different answer depending on the day of th ..read more

It is common for clients to ask me if I can get their case dismissed because the police did not tell them that they have the right to remain silent when they were arrested. The right to remain silent comes from the 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution which protects citizens from incriminating themselves. This means that you cannot be forced to testify against yourself. The 5th Amendment’s right to remain silent is an important right that every citizen has but is not asserted as often as it should be by criminal defendants. In order for a statement made to the police during a custod ..read more

Today, I met with 2 new clients to talk about representing them for their criminal cases at the Rolling Meadows Courthouse. Both cases have different facts, and both clients responded differently when they were confronted by the police. I want to talk about these 2 cases because they illustrate how what clients do when they interact with the police, can often be the difference between winning and losing a criminal case, going to jail, or walking away from criminal charges without a conviction. The first client I met today is charged with a DUI. I represented the client’s wife for a DUI in Roll ..read more

Distracted Driving is defined as doing anything that diverts a driver’s attention away from driving their vehicle. There are four types of Driver Distraction. They are as follows: Visual – Not looking at the road. Auditory – Hearing something that is not related to driving a motor vehicle ..read more

Criminal Defendants do not get to pick and choose when the police come and place them under arrest. However, sometimes the writing is on the wall and you know what’s coming. Either the police are looking for you or attempting to contact you, or your employer is asking questions and you know that you may be in trouble. Either way, you should reach out to an experienced and knowledgeable criminal defense attorney as soon as possible. There is no down side to talking to a criminal lawyer as soon as you think you may be in trouble so you know what to do when (and if) the time comes. Sometimes, tal ..read more

Last week I was talking to a client about his case and the circumstances surrounding his arrest. He was explaining what the police did and was convinced that his “rights had been violated”. After he told me that “the police did not read him his rights” after he was arrested, I explained to him that a common misperception is that the police must read you your rights once you are arrested. After I explained this to the client, he asked me what rights he had when he was confronted by the police. This got me thinking about what rights citizens have when they are confronted by the police and how a ..read more

This is, without a doubt, one of the most common questions I get from clients, especially if the client is accused of Domestic Violence and is charged with a Domestic Battery. Most of my clients appear for their first Court date only to be disappointed when the Judge continues their case and tells them to come back with a lawyer. Because a Domestic Battery is a Class A Misdemeanor that carries up to one year in jail, the question is not if you need a lawyer, but whether you will have a Public Defender represent you or whether you will have your own lawyer represent you. This will depend on whe ..read more