Los Angeles Hit and Run Lawyer Blog

If you are charged with a Hit and Run in Los Angeles, you have not yet been convicted. In order to be convicted, you must either enter a plea of guilty, or the Criminal Court must find you guilty of all the elements beyond a reasonable doubt. If the court cannot prove each of the elements beyond a reasonable doubt, your case will be dismissed for lack of evidence.

There are three elements that must be proven: 1) That there was damage to property or injury to person 2) that no contact information was left, and 3) the driver left the scene.

Damage to Property or Injury to Person

Oftentimes when a person is charged with a criminal offense, they have multiple charges against them. One of the most common dualscharges is a drinking under the influence charge, and a hit and run.

When you appear before a criminal Judge at your first scheduled hearing, the Arraignment, a few things will happen. The Judge will inform you of your rightssduring criminal proceedings, the Prosecutor will give you a plea bargain, the Court will inform you of the maximum potential sentence that may be given to you in accordance with the California Penal Code, and you will be asked to enter a plea.

The plea bargain is of particular importance. This is an offer that is made by the Prosecutor, that if you plead guilty on that day, then the offer will be what you are pleading guilty to. Oftentimes, when there are multiple charges against you, the Prosecutor may offer to drop one, but if you accept a Harvey Waiver.

First things first, what is a “wobbler”? A wobbler is a criminal code section that allows a person to be charged on various criminal levels. For example, a code section will allow a prosecutor to charge a person with either a felony or misdemeanor, or a code section will allow a prosecutor to charge a person with either a misdemeanor or infraction.

How does the Prosecutor determine what to charge each person with?

A prosecutor will determine how to charge a person under each code section depending on the facts of the case and the persons criminal history. Let’s consider some examples.

When you have been arrested on suspicion of a Hit and Run, having an attorney prior to your first court date can potentially help dismiss your case altogether without ever having to go to Court.

A person can be arrested for suspicion of Hit and Run but that does not mean that they have been charged by the Prosecutor yet, nor does it mean that they have been convicted. There are steps an attorney can take in order to get the issue resolved before the Prosecutor ever even files charges against you. The way an attorney achieves this is through a Civil Compromise. A Civil Compromise is a compromise between the driver and the person who suffered injury. The compromise allows for the driver to provide restitution to the injured party so there is no further need to seek criminal prosecution.

Let’s consider the example of David. David was driving home one night and fell asleep while driving and hit the fence in front of a person’s home. The fence had cost the owner of the home $1500 to put up. Not having any money at the time, David drove off without leaving his contact information. Officers were able to arrest David based on some eyewitnesses and immediately brought him into custody. At this point, there were no charges brought against David, he had simply been arrested. The District Attorney’s office now has a year to make the decision of whether they would like to bring formal charges against David or not.

Recently there was a story about a California woman who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI), among other things. The story read like a casebook study of facts and circumstances that prosecutors dream about.

The Torrance, California lady, Sherri Wilkins, 51, was allegedly driving her vehicle while drunk. She struck a pedestrian, Phillip Moreno, 31, while he was attempting to cross a street. The accident occurred on November 24, 2012 at roughly 11:30 p.m., according to the Torrance Police Department.

Apparently, Wilkins was so intoxicated that she failed to realize she had hit someone. Not only did she not remember hitting Moreno, she failed to notice that he had been thrown up onto the hood of her car and was lying on her windshield. Wilkins’ employer said that she was a recovering addict who worked as a substance abuse counselor.

Following the impact, Wilkins continued on her journey for a couple of miles with Moreno attached to the hood of her car. Finally, witnesses and other pedestrians made her stop the vehicle so they could help the man. Emergency responders arrived to discover that Moreno was still alive and unconscious. He was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died.

Investigating officers determined that Wilkins’ blood alcohol content (BAC) was more than twice the legal limit. In California, any person with BAC of .08 or higher is legally intoxicated and will be charged with a DUI.

Officers arrested Wilkins at the scene where she had been forced to stop, some two miles away. She was booked for DUI, vehicular manslaughter and felony hit and run.

Unfortunately for Wilkins, this isn’t her first experience with DUI. She was charged with another DUI and leaving the scene of an accident in 2010. That accident apparently only involved damage to another vehicle or property. Records show those charges were dropped in 2011.

Vehicular manslaughter is an extremely serious charge and results from driving a vehicle while intoxicated in a negligent or reckless manner and killing another human being. A couple of factors that could enhance the punishment for Wilkins are the fact that she had an extremely high BAC of more than .15, a prior DUI arrest following an accident and damage to property within ten years.

In any event, she is going to be facing as much as four years in the California state prison and fines of up to $10,000. Given the specifics of this case, it would be expected that the punishment could escalate exponentially.

Driving your car after drinking at a bar or restaurant is never a smart thing to do, if you feel the least bit tipsy. Catch a ride with a friend who is sober or call a cab. Just remember, it does not take that many drinks to cause you to have a BAC of .08 or greater.

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Many of our clients come into our office after having been charged with a Los Angeles Hit and Run asking about the potential consequences and what legal advice they should take. There are many things you can do with the help of legal counsel that will help mitigate the consequences even before the first scheduled court appearance.

Lets consider an example to help explain what steps can be taken to mitigate the consequences of a hit and run. David is driving home one night and accidentally hits a parked car. Because David does not have insurance, he does not want to deal with the consequences and so he drives off without informing the driver of the parked car of his contact information or the fact that he accidentally hit it .The driver of the parked car, Victor, contacts the authorities and it is determined that David was the one who caused the accident. David is charged with a hit and run and hired an experienced Los Angeles Hit and Run lawyer.

The lawyer immediately gets to work preparing David’s case. It is important that the professional demonstrates to the court that David is not a bad person, that he is a good citizen and a positive person in his community. In order to do this, the attorney will have David’s friends and family prepare letters and testimonials attesting to David’s character. Additionally, the attorney will want to give the court David’s resume that shows he is employed and working, and if not, he is working hard to obtain employment.

When a person has been charged with a Hit and Run, they are being charged by the State. It is a criminal charge under the California Penal Code and other relevant code sections. Many times in a Hit and Run case, an experienced Los Angeles Criminal Defense attorney is able to negotiate with the injured party so that the criminal case may be dismissed.

This is done through the use of a civil compromise. For example, Daniel is driving home late at night and falls asleep at the wheel. He ends up driving his car into someone’s fence. Daniel is scared that his insurance will go up and he cannot afford it, so he takes off and leaves the damaged fence. Eventually, Daniel is caught and charged with a Hit and Run. The owner of the fence learns that Daniel is the one who damaged his property. Daniel hires a Criminal Defense attorney that speaks to the owner of the fence who agrees that they will sign a civil compromise allowing Daniel to make full amends. The civil compromise will then be used in Criminal Court as a good faith gesture and to demonstrate that the injured party is no longer injured and all amends have been made and therefore the criminal case should be dismissed.

In contrast, consider a second example, with somewhat similar facts. Daniel is driving home and he is tired late at night. He falls asleep at the wheel and hits a fence. Not being able to afford higher insurance rates, he drives off. Eventually, Daniel is linked to the damage and a hit and run case is filed against him. The owner of the fence is informed of Daniel’s information and he is named as the person who caused the damage. Daniel’s criminal defense attorney attempts to negotiate with the fence owner to make amends for the damage, but the owner is adamant that the amount being offered will not be sufficient to fix the damage. Daniel refuses to settle because he is certain that the fence owner is asking for more than the damage is worth. As a result, the parties cannot agree on a settlement and the fence owner refuses to sign a civil compromise.

On May 4, 2012, young actress Amanda Bynes sideswiped a car as she was making her way through Hollywood. Bynes continued to keep driving, even after the hit car signaled for her to pull over. The alleged victims reported the incident to officers who followed in pursuit of Bynes in six squad cars and a police helicopter.

The young starlet has previously been arrested for driving under the influence and has evaded an officer while being cited for driving while using her cell phone. All these incidents added together do not seem to look favorably upon her driving privileges.

The recent incident, however, was not filed as a hit and run. After questioning the young driver, she admitted that she had not even realized she hit a car and therefore had no knowledge of the incident. After surveying the damage done to the alleged victim’s car, the officers concluded that the damage was minimal enough that Ms. Bynes could have not been aware of the damage.

Following a hit and run arrest, a person has two separate windows to negotiate with the government to reduce or have their case dismissed.

When a person has been arrested, the citation and police report are taken and filed with the police station. The officers are then the ones who review the case and turn it over to Prosecutors for filing. It is at the officer’s recommendation that the case goes to the courthouse. The Prosecutors then review the case in their office and make the decision of whether they are going to file a case against the defendant.

Many times there are negotiation tools that can be used when speaking to officers that prevent the officers from sending the case to Prosecutors in the first place. This not only helps the person avoid any kind of criminal prosecution, it helps the person avoid the hassle, time and expense of a criminal case being filed against them. It also prevents a conviction from going on their record.

Lindsay Lohan is being accused of Hit and Run in Los Angeles. Lohan denies any allegations of a hit and run, saying that she did not hit anyone. On March 14, 2012, the young actress wanted to stop by at a friend’s birthday in Hollywood, but was swarmed by paparazzi and decided against it, driving herself home.

A 26-year old nightclub manager attests that he was hit by the starlet’s car and was taken to the hospital and claiming that after Ms. Lohan hit him, she did not stop to check if he needed medical assistance, as is required by law.

California Vehicle Code §20001 makes it unlawful for a person to strike another person causing injury without stopping to provide medical assistance and a proper name and contact information. If there is no injury to another person, the person could possibly be charged under California Vehicle Code § 20002 as a misdemeanor. It is a misdemeanor hit and run when the damage is to property and not another person.