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Did you know that law enforcement has a competition every year to decide who has pulled over the most DUI suspects?  Los Angeles actually came in second in the state for DUI arrests and procedures.  During a week-long competition between various counties and cities throughout California, DUI arrests for the three-week year-end campaign were up 85 percent over the previous year, rising from 84 to 153.  And that's just in Monterey Count! Statewide, the campaign tied for the honor with Fresno County's Avoid the 21 effort. That county's population is more than double that of Monterey County.
Imagine being arrested, charged and convicted of a Los Angeles DUI charge, just so the county could win a competition. The officers and law enforcement agencies seemed to value their competition over constitutional rights and the fact that a DUI charge could change a person's life forever.
Los Angeles DUI Defense
At Kestenbaum, Eisner and Gorin, our Los Angeles DUI defense attorneys are skilled at defending Los Angeles DUI charges.  There are many drunk driving defense techniques which can be employed during a case.  A drunk driving defense may include calling into question the validity of the breath and blood test technology used by the officers.  Blood tests are more accurate than breath tests, but neither is an absolute and a skilled Los Angeles DUI defense attorney could use either to your advantage. 
Drunk driving defense could also call into question the procedure and attitude of the police officers involved.  If an officer did not have probable cause to pull you over, or if the police conducted an unlawful police stop, they could both be used in a drunk driving defense.
All in all, you must have a qualified, experienced Los Angeles DUI defense attorney working with you to successfully defend your case.  If you choose to defend yourself, or if you use a public defender, you are sure to have a much worse outcome than if you use a Los Angeles DUI defense attorney for your drunk driving defense.  Contact the DUI defense attorneys at Kestenbaum, Eisner & Gorin today.

Hollywood often portrays underage drinking as a humorous activity, but any Los Angeles DUI defense attorney will tell that it's a major hazard and can lead to serious consequences.  DUI defense lawyers in Los Angeles represent so many underage DUI defendants that it's almost an industry unto itself.

While drinking alcohol before the legal age minimum of 21 years of age may be a common enough occurrence, it is still illegal and may still involve a criminal charge. Los Angeles has a zero tolerance law for underage drinking and driving. What that means is that while the legal threshold for a driving under the influence charge is a blood alcohol concentration of .08% or greater, if someone under the age of 21 is found to have a blood alcohol concentration of just .01%, they can incur a driving under the influence charge.

In addition, the defendant in this case would also likely face an automatic one-year suspension of their driving privileges in addition to whatever other penalties they are given as punishment for the infraction. Age becomes an interesting factor in criminal offense charges. Typically, minors who commit a variety of crimes are subjected to a slightly different legal system than are adults.

The juvenile court system tends to focus more on rehabilitation from criminal or otherwise illegal behavior instead of outright punishing defendants as an adult legal system would. The juvenile court system is not any more lenient in its convictions, it simply believes that minors exhibiting bad behavior can be corrected and learn to make better decisions. In the case of underage drinking and driving in Los Angeles, if the defendant's blood alcohol concentration is over the legal limit of .01%, but under .05%, the infraction is usually charged as a civil violation, which tend to carry less severe penalties. If the defendant's blood alcohol concentration is over .05%, then the defendant may be charged with a criminal offense. Underage drinkers in Los Angeles caught driving are also legally required to submit to field sobriety tests, breath tests or blood tests to determine blood alcohol levels.

Adults in similar situations may decline these tests altogether. Minors between the ages of 13 and 20 who are caught drinking in Los Angeles (even if they are not driving) will also see their driving privileges delayed an extra year. Dealing with an underage drinking-related crime can be a confusing and complicated process. An experienced criminal defense attorney is necessary to guide you through the process.

If your underage child has been charged with a drinking-related crime, call the attorneys at Kestenbaum, Eisner & Gorin, LLP right away to ensure the best possible outcome for you and your child.

Hiring a Los Angeles DUI defense attorney experienced in handling Driving Under the Influence (DUI) cases is the single most important thing you can do for yourself if you have been charged with DUI.

All too often law enforcement officials become overzealous in citing drivers for DUI. In February two men who had been issued tickets for DUIs filed suits against the city of Chicago and the officer who cited them claiming the officer had written bogus tickets in order to wrack up over-time pay through court appearances. In 2007 a separate Chicago police officer was investigated for failing to follow proper procedure during his DUI citations, including failure to administer a field sobriety test.

In the wake of the officer's investigation, 50 separate charges of DUI were dropped and nearly 500 more were left in question. This past February a Rhode Island man was given a DUI citation while riding a bike. The fact that the two primary methods of determining whether or not a driver is, in fact, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, field sobriety tests administered by a policeman and breathalyzer tests, are inherently flawed and unreliable has yet to be addressed by law enforcement officials. In a confusing and often intimidating legal world, a good DUI defense attorney knows to look for details like this to help you attain the best possible outcome for your case.

Field sobriety tests, commonly referred to by officers and DUI defense lawyers as "FSTs" can be any one or combination of a dozen physical tests administered by an officer after pulling over a driver suspected of DUI. Some of the most common are standing on one leg, walking a straight line and nystagmus (an officer asks a subject to follow an object such as a pen with their eyes). Since studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have determined the above three tests as the most effective in determining a driver's sobriety (or lack thereof), many states have adopted them as the standard battery of tests.

Los Angeles law enforcement agencies, however, have largely ignored these recommendations and many officers may still administer whichever FST they prefer. The problem with many FSTs, even the above three, is that they are largely subjective and can be difficult for many sober people to pass. Extenuating factors such as minor illnesses or tiredness can give many people trouble with balance and memory. The extent to which someone pulled over on suspicion of driving under the influence "passes" or "fails" these arbitrary test is also at the sole discretion of the law enforcement official on the scene.

Breathalyzer testing can also be extremely unreliable, as any competent DUI defense lawyer knows. Most breathalyzer machines work by attempting to detect ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, in the breath. The problem here is that the breathalyzer machine will detect any one of a number of chemical compounds that are similar in chemical structure to ethanol, but are not, in fact, alcohol at all. Medical conditions such as untreated diabetes, fasting, dieting and even certain types of bread products can all cause chemical compounds in the breath that can be misinterpreted by breathalyzer machines as ethanol, contributing to a falsely high blood alcohol reading.

If you have been charged with DUI, call the attorneys at Kestenbaum, Eisner & Gorin, LLP right away to begin preparing your defense.