California Criminal Law | California DUI law | California Traffic Tickets

What happens if I refuse to take the test when stopped for DUI in California?

It’s amazing how much confusion there is around what you should do if you get pulled over after having had something to drink.  Whether it is from family, friends, or even clients who are facing multiple DUI convictions, I often hear “so if I get pulled over, I should refuse the chemical test, right?” It…

California Criminal Law | Constitutional Rights

Can You Avoid A Prostitution Conviction By Claiming You Were Doing Porn?

Yes, but there are a lot of issues to consider. In California, there is a difference between pornography and prostitution and I’m not talking about the bad acting…from what I’ve heard of course.  In the landmark case of People v. Freeman, the California Supreme Court held for an act to be  prostitution, the money or…

California Traffic Tickets

What Does “Using” A Cell Phone While Driving Mean? Examining CVC 23123 and CVC 23123.5

Technology grows at an exponential pace. The phone you’re using to view this article is probably more advanced than the computers California legislators were using to draft statutes regulating cell phone use on the road. When your elected representatives first passed SB 1613 and SB 28, mobile communications devices were still in its pre-Darwinian stages…

California Criminal Law

What If Brian Downing Lived In California? Significance of Jessica’s Law For People Facing Sex Charges.

If you’ve never heard of Brian Downing, a simple Google or YouTube search would generate a lot of hits under his name.  Be forewarned if you decide to take the latter route. Long story short, this rabid University of Alabama aficionado allegedly placed his nuts on the facial area and body of an inebriated LSU…

California Criminal Law | California DUI law | California Traffic Tickets

You Don’t Need To Signal When Other Vehicles Aren’t Around VC 22107

We’ve all been told to use the appropriate signal when making a turn or changing lanes. Signaling always seemed to be absolute. However maybe from apathy, laziness, or a desire to throw a middle finger to the law, we refused to make that signal at one point in our lives.  Specifically, you might have been…

California Criminal Law

Murder and PTSD

Murder and PTSD by Randall T. Longwith, Esq. What effect, if any, does military service during war time have on the human psyche? Can it cause someone to kill? Recently, the New York Times published a report that details the number of Iraq and Afghanistan Military Veterans involved in killings throughout the United States… and…