Arizona Criminal Laws

DUI Litigation Expertise

Steve, at AM Law, what is your experience in handling DUI cases? DUI cases are some of the most common cases that come up in the world of criminal defense. For me personally, while I was a prosecutor I handled hundreds of misdemeanor DUIs as a trial attorney and I finished my career at the Maricopa County attorneys office as a member of their vehicular crimes bureau, where my practice was dedicated solely to cases involving DUIs, or manslaughters, or homicides that involved an impaired driver. So, for me personally, I’ve handled thousands of cases involving DUIs and have focused my training and my practice as a prosecutor in handling those types of cases.

By: Steven Meyerand

Aggravated assault is a serious felony offense. It involves an assault under special circumstances are involving a particular person or party. Example would be, using a dangerous weapon or dangerous instrument during an assault, such as a knife or a firearm, can subject you to aggravated assault charges. Causing any sort of serious physical injury to another during an assault, such as broken bones or other disfigurement can also result in felony aggravated assault charges. In addition, simple assaults against a particular person, such as a police officer, or a firefighter, or an EMT can result in aggravated assault felony charges. Felony charges are serious business. It can impact your ability to get a job. It can impact your ability to have a firearm. It can also impact your ability to vote. If you or a family member have been charged with a serious felony aggravated assault, you need legal help today. Feel free to give me a call at (480) 994-8824 or you can contact me at my email.

If you’ve been charged with aggravated assault in Arizona, view a profile and complete a contact form.

By: Attorney Max Hanson

Whether you go to jail or face a prison term for a possession of drugs charge really depends on three different questions. One, what type of drug are we talking about? Are we talking about marijuana, are we talking about methamphetamine, are we talking about prescription medications? Two, how much of the drug are we talking about? How much have they alleged that you possessed at the time of your arrest? If we’re talking about a small amount, as opposed to a large amount, that’s going to have an impact on whether probation is available or how long a jail or prison term that you may face. The third question we need to find out is, was there any indications or anything that pointed toward you having an intent to sell the drug? Did they recover scales, did they recover grinders, did they recover the drugs from you in individual pre-packaged amounts, which would all indicate that you had these drugs for the purpose of selling them. Obviously, if you had the drugs for sale, you face larger penalties and more significant penalties than you would if it was just a simple possession. Until we answer all three of these questions, the penalties could range anywhere from probation or even having the charges dismissed after a diversion program for a simple possession of marijuana charge, to ten years in prison for selling methamphetamine. If you or a loved one is facing a drug possession charge, whether it’s simple possession or a possession for sale, feel free to give me a call at (480) 994-8824 or email me.

If you’ve received a possession charge in Arizona, contact a criminal defense attorney in your area.

By: Attorney Max Hanson

The legal limit to drive in Arizona without facing a DUI charge, as far as blood alcohol content, is a .08 or below. Then you’re within the legal limits if you’re a .08 or below. Above a .08, you’d be considered driving under the influence or DUI, but even if you’re under a .08 and within that safe range, you can still face a DUI charge if somehow alcohol or other drugs impaired your ability to drive in the slightest degree. So, if you’re involved in an accident after having a couple drinks, you can still be charged with DUI, even if your blood alcohol content is within that legal limit of .08. If you or a loved one have been charged with DUI, please give me a call at (480) 994-8824 or email me.

By: Attorney Max Hanson

Allen and Meyerand Law Firm

We are here with attorneys Jared Allen and Steven Meyerand of the Law Offices of Allen and Meyerand Law Firm. What I’d like to do is find out a little bit about each of you, then explore what you do as a law firm, getting into the practice areas you’ve chosen to specialize in.

What is the philosophy of your firm?

At AM Law, we try to live by the philosophy of providing our clients the defense you need and the service you deserve. For us, that entails providing our clients with a first class criminal defense, being able to provide them with two attorneys with years of experience in this area and providing it to them in a way that they actually get the personal service they deserve, taking the time to get to know our clients as individuals to be available to answer their questions and really work with them through the process of being arrested, charged with a criminal offense and then seeing it all the way through to the end with them. So, that’s the philosophy we try to lead our firm with is providing all of our clients with those two things.

By: Steven Meyerand 

Importance of Trial Experience in Phoenix

Is it important for a defense attorney to have actual experience in trial? I think it abolutely is. The shear volume of trials that we’ve done has provided us with tremendous experience, however, it’s really quality over quantity is how I look at it.

Both Steven and I have done very specific types of felony trials, misdemeanor trials, all the way down to citations and traffic offenses in our career as prosecutors and that’s translated to the same type of success that we had as prosecutors and now translated as defense attorney as well. When you’re familiar with how a courtroom is run, how juries respond to the type of information that’s being presented to them, that is valuable in not only presenting at trial, but in negotiating a resolution for your client.

One of the things we try to avoid at all costs is going to a trial, because we don’t want to put that decision in somebody else’s hands as to how this case is going to resolve. But, because we know how to do good trial work, we do good pre-trial work and we’re able to get the results we’d like to get after a trial at an earlier stage where the risk is much lower.

By: Jared Allen

Field sobriety tests refer to those tests the officers do during the course of a DUI investigation or driving under the influence investigation. They usually take place outside the suspect’s car. They involve the classic walk and turn while walking heel to toe, the one legged stand where you stand on one leg for a period of time, the touching your nose while your eyes are closed and those type of classic tests that we all have heard about before, as far as testing for sobriety or not. These tests are designed to give the officer evidence of your impairment by reason of alcohol of your ability to drive. These tests can be biased depending on your physical capabilities. You might not be able to perform certain parts of this test, like the one leg stand, depending on what your physical condition is. If you’re older or have back problems or something else that may impact your ability to actually complete the test whether or not you were impaired or you were completely sober. They’re not good indicators. You are not required to take these tests. The courts have held you are not required to take these tests. You could refuse and can refuse to take these tests with no ramifications either to your driver’s license or to your court case if you are charged with DUI. If you or a loved one have been charged with DUI, please give me a call at (480) 994-8824 or email me.

By: Attorney Max Hanson

Advantages of Criminal Law Practice

With that said, what in your view is the most rewarding thing about practicing criminal law. For me personally and I think for our firm, anytime you can get a client the result they want and for every case that’s going to be different. For some clients that means an acquittal after trial, for other clients it simply means the best deal they can get given their circumstances. But, when you get to that point in a case where you’ve been able to accomplish what the client wants and the client is not only happy with the result, but their relieved, their thankful, that as a criminal defense attorney is the most rewarding aspect, is knowing you’ve been able to walk hand in hand with someone through a process that is for many of our clients, something they’re experiencing for the first time and something that may be the most difficult thing they’ve ever faced. And to come through it on the other side with an outcome that they wanted, there is nothing more rewarding in the practice of law at all.

And speaking of cases, what kind of cases do you handle? At our firm, we handle a full range of criminal defense cases. Everything from speeding tickets all the way up to some of the most serious offenses you hear about on the news and everything in between. One of the areas we specialize in is DUI defense, but we also cover many other types of misdemeanors, such domestic violence offenses, violent crimes, drug offenses and all manner of felony offenses. So, we pride ourselves in being a full service criminal defense firm that can handle any type of criminal defense case that any of our clients might be facing.

By: Steven Meyerand