Cardon, Stuart, & Associates

Products And Services

• DUI Defense

  It’s not what you did…it’s what you do now that’s important, starting with the right defense attorney. You need to fully understand that, at a minimum, a DUI conviction can damage your reputation, endanger your driving privileges, jeopardize your employment, and, land you in jail. We will thoroughly investigate your case and aggressively challenge the evidence against you. Even when you think the police have strong evidence, we can help. A DUI Defense You Can Count On Police officers make mistakes, machines malfunction and technical errors occur. We uncover these mistakes and use them to cast reasonable doubt on your guilt. We challenge every aspect of the prosecution’s case, including: The officer’s basis for the traffic stop, as well as probable cause for the arrest Officer’s training and application of that training to your case Whether tests meet mandated requirements Whether you showed sufficient impairment Whether the officer followed all statutory and case law requirements All of this is used in deliberations with the prosecutor at pre-trial and at trial. As a result of preparation and perseverance, we are often able to have DUI charges reduced or dismissed. However, when a conviction is unavoidable, we always seek alternatives to jail, such as alcohol treatment, house arrest, and other options including community service. The Facts The effects and punishments for a DUI and DUI Metabolite have increased with the passage of every Utah Legislative session until they can now significantly impact anyone’s future and career. A second offense (and that includes a Reckless Driving Alcohol Related or Impaired Driving as a first or second offense) or a first offense with a blood alcohol level of .16 or higher, mandates formal probation, an ignition interlock device for the term of that probation, jail time, substantial fines, and extensive counseling. There are circumstances where a judge can waive some of these requirements, but only when they are stated for the record and only when they are stipulated to by prosecution and defense. A third offense within ten years can and almost always will be enhanced to felony status, which carries with it potential incarceration in the state prison for 0-5 years and up to a $5,000 fine. The DUI statute refers not only to the use of alcohol and illegal drugs, but also to legal and prescribed pharmaceutical drugs where they have affected the ability to drive safely. Under the separate, but closely related, statute of driving with the metabolite of a controlled substance in your system you can be found guilty if you have in your system any illegal or legal drugs. It is a defense to this particular statute if you have a legal prescription for the medication, but a legal prescription is not a defense to a DUI if that drug, even if prescribed, has impaired your ability to safely operate a vehicle. This statute continues to increase the pressure on the legal system, as well as upon innocent citizens. Once you have been charged with a DUI, the prosecuting authority aligns all of its considerable power and forces against you. Can you afford an attempt to trek through the maze which the legislature has created in this area without protection from an experienced guide? A DUI is clearly a tough and complex offense that can not only harm you immediately, but damage your long term reputation and employment possibilities. Because of this, you need the best defense for a tough offense. With all of the potential consequences of a DUI conviction, including possible loss of license up to 36 months, in the case of a second refusal within ten years, a “Not a Drop Alcohol Restricted License” for up to a lifetime, jail or prison time, insurance increases, formal probation, and an ignition interlock device, you can’t afford not to know what you’re doing when it comes to being charged with a DUI. We have focused our practice on DUI defense since 1987 and have seen the Utah State Legislature continue to increase penalties and stigmatize the DUI laws even further each year. By focusing our work, legal knowledge, and creativity in this area for the past 25 years, we have achieved positive solutions to nearly all of the problems caused by DUI arrests. There is light at the end of almost every tunnel. There are often good defenses to what may otherwise look like insurmountable evidence. You will never know of these defenses unless you have someone with the experience and the work ethic to find and reveal them to the court or tryer of the fact.

  Link: DUI Defense

• Criminal Law

  Criminal Law Defense *See Blog Section for additional facts and information Drug Charges and Paraphernalia: Most people don’t know that in Utah if you are convicted, or plead guilty to possession of illegal drugs, marijuana or otherwise, or possession of paraphernalia, that in addition to fines, possible and counseling, you lose your driver’s license for 6 months. It does not have to be in a vehicle. You, at least, now know otherwise. People will consistently call up after entering a guilty plea to one of these charges, and complain that they were just notified by the Division of Public Safety of the loss of their license. Much of the time something can be done to reverse the conviction, depending on timing, facts, and jurisdiction, but not always. Forewarned is fair warned. Notice we have not referenced how a conviction of one of these charges could adversely affect future job prospects either. It can and does. Get counsel. Avoid Converting DUI into Disaster: Sure, a DUI is a downturn, but failure to make the right decision after making the wrong one, can transform the downturn into disaster. Disaster in your present, your future, your family, your job and, often most important, your self-esteem. DUI is never a great experience, but it’s crucial to take steps, make the right decisions, to keep it from becoming a life long tattoo, and not one that you’re proud of. The morning after a DUI may be a time of regret, but it is also the time to pick yourself up, as you have always done, and choose to make the best of a bad situation. Choose the DUI lawyer that knows the language, the case law, the terrain, the process, and the dangers that a DUI arrest brings. Choose the DUI lawyer that has spent over two decades focusing on DUI defense. Or choose disaster. Drug DUIs: As a follow-up, relating to DUIs based on drugs, prescribed or otherwise, you can be convicted of DUI, when you only have lawfully prescribed meds in your system. The question becomes have those drugs made you too impaired to safely operate a vehicle. Usually blood is drawn if the officer suspects meds, but they really need to know what to look for in the blood to find it. Volunteering this info is not a good idea and is considered testimony. Therefore, it is protected by your right to remain silent. Remember that. Many officers and prosecutors jump to the conclusion that drugs are the culprit, as soon as they find that they may be involved. However, based on statistics, fatigue, distraction (cells, texting, etc.) driving, inclement weather, and excessive speed all play as great or greater role in causing accidents than does alcohol or drug involvement. When any of these things are present, the better road is to stay away from or get off the road. Know your limits and your med limits and ensure that they are not interfering with your ability to drive safely. Prescribed Drugs and DUIs: Can prescribed drugs found in the driver’s system establish a basis for a DUI charge and the possibility of a conviction? They’re prescribed and therefore legal, correct? Correct, but so is the intake of alcohol, if you are of age. The important point is whether, due to the prescribed medication or the alcohol, the driver is “too impaired to safely operate a vehicle” because of either or the combination of both. The prosecution must show both the impairment level and the causation of the substances of the impairment in order to prove their DUI charge. It’s a little easier in the case of alcohol DUI, because of the presumptive level of .08, but even there, they have to show reasonable or probable cause of impairment to justify the arrest. The answer is: Yes, a DUI can rely on only legally prescribed medications in the system, if the required level of impairment, due to those drugs, can be shown beyond a reasonable doubt. Of course, illness, physical limitations, fatigue, and other conditions must all be highlighted, and taken into account. Refusals and DUIs: Many attorneys, for years, have recommended refusing the breathalyzer, blood test, or the chemical test, when it comes to a DUI arrest, and many drivers have heeded this advice, as it has turned into urban lore. Now days, with electronic warrants available within mere minutes from judges, and with almost all departments having immediately available phlebotomists (a person certified to draw blood), it makes little sense to refuse. If there is a refusal, and the hearing on the refusal is lost, the driver’s license is suspended for 18 months rather than 4 months on a first action in 10 years and much longer on a second action within 10 years. Hence, refusals carry a significant penalty on the license, and in a very high percentage of the cases, law enforcement gets what they wanted and needed for the DUI anyway!

  Link: Criminal Law

• Personal Injury

  When you’re injured at the hands of another, either through their negligence or through their intent, you deserve to be compensated by their insurance company or them personally. Never believe that their insurance company is there to protect you. They come armed with experienced adjusters, and attorneys, with the goal to pay as little to you as you let them get away with. You must be ready for this battle, because that is what they’ll turn your claim into. Adding experience, knowledge, and foresight to your claim is the least and sometimes the most you can do to level the battleground. Bringing over 30 years of experience in the personal injury area enhances your chances of recovering all that you have suffered from. Whether it includes auto, truck, or motorcycle accidents as well as back injury, neck damage, broken bones, scarring, or disability we have the personal injury background to not only prepare your case, but to properly present it. Many cases reach settlement value early but some will have to go to trial, all will be pursued diligently, subject only to the complexity of the injuries and facts of each individual case. This is because we take each case on a percentage basis of the recovery so that we are in this with the same interest as you. There are no attorney’s fees for you unless there is recovery of damages and this agreement ensures that we achieve maximum recovery, in the shortest period of time. Again, this applies to cases involving: dog bites car, truck, or motorcycle accidents bicycling injuries pedestrian recoveries burns broken bones back or neck injuries medical or dental malpractice PTSD wrongful death disability airplane crashes class actions product liability assaults

  Link: Personal Injury

• Wills & Estate Planning

  Everyone should choose their own disposition of their estate. The alternative is the state makes that choice for you. If you pass without a valid will then you pass intestate. That means the state has provided for that situation. The intestate provision by the state may be a good thing or a bad thing for those that pass without a will or their heirs. But, how will they know unless they have compared their wishes with that provision? The simple answer is they won’t, and don’t. Spending the time to put your wishes and plan on paper when it involves decades of your life is a small tradeoff to ensure their proper disposition. A will naming a personal representative and your heirs will accomplish this. Establishing a trust through your will also will further protect not just your estate, but also your heirs. One of your heirs suddenly receives assets without limitation on spending those assets. Is that always a good thing? Of course not, but the possibility of it must be considered along with what limitations should be placed, who the trustee should be, and what and who must be protected. Is a living will a good idea? That is a personal choice everyone should make for themselves and which they should help their parents make. But, it also must be considered and talked about. Why are we talking about all of these? Because Kelly Cardon & Associates provides all of these services and can help you answer for yourself all of these questions.

  Link: Wills & Estate Planning