Chris Combs and Steven Waterkotte discuss DWI and DUI cases, and ways to protect your future.
- How does a DUI/DWI affect professional licenses or certifications?
- What should you look for when hiring a DUI/DWI attorney?
- Can you still drive for work if you have a DUI/DWI?
- How can a DUI/DWI affect your employment?
- Are there different penalties for first-time and repeat offenders?
- How long does a DUI/DWI stay on your record?
- Can you refuse a breathalyzer or field sobriety test?
Free book
Don’t “Blow” Your DWI/DUI Case: Key Mistakes to Avoid
Combs Waterkotte, Missouri’s leading DWI/DUI law firm, has handled over 10,000 cases successfully. This ebook guides you through the DWI/DUI defense process and helps you avoid key mistakes.
Interview Transcript
Scott Michael Dunn: One factor that a lot of questions have come up – Google questions, of course – but a lot of questions come up about how is this going to affect me, my professional life? And if I have certifications of sorts, what should I expect?
Steve Waterkotte: We kinda touched on this earlier, the first thing is the potential for losing your license.
As I said, we almost all rely on our ability to drive legally to and from work, right? Even folks that are working at home, you go to meetings, you have to go into the office periodically. you got to meet with clients, vendors, whatever the case may be. So that’s number one. is your ability to drive at stake in many of these cases, in virtually all of them. And so, that’s number one.
And then as far as – every job is different. We get this question often, “Well what about my background [check]?” It’s hard to answer that. Every job, obviously the higher you go up in society, the more thorough the background check.
So whatever somebody’s particular jobs or policies, that certainly could impact your employment with whatever business or agency you work with. Of course, you have professional licensing and things like that. Nurses, attorneys, doctors. We all have a professional licensing board to oversee our status.
In most of those professions, in many of them, they have mandatory reporting if you have ever been arrested, and then obviously the annual background checks. So all those things, that’s why it’s not simply a traffic ticket or traffic stop.
Chris Combs: And I would say there’s two big things to note here.
One, a common misnomer is people don’t realize that you have four records. You have a driving record, you have an arrest record, you have a criminal record, and you have DFS, CPS, Child Protective Services.
When you’re hiring a criminal defense lawyer, you are hiring them to protect your criminal record and then hopefully do a good enough job where you can go But the second you’re fingerprinted it’s in the system. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or who you hire, there’s going to be an arrest record.
What I often tell people on first offense DWIs is this is not a life ruiner, this is not a career ruiner. When I get the question of, “Do I tell my employer?” – and of course this is always very specific – but more often than not, I tell them, “If you think it’s going to come up, you ought to address it head on.” Because like we talked about earlier, all walks of life get them, people understand one night of poor judgment more so than they understand a liar or someone who’s kind of lying by omission.
Now those are first offense DWI. As you start racking them up it’s a whole different conversation. I’ve had friends of all walks of life get DWIs. There’s successful lawyers who’ve had DWIs. There’s judges, doctors. So again, a first offense is almost never a career or life ruiner.
Would you agree, Steve?
Steve Waterkotte: Yeah. If it’s handled appropriately.
Chris Combs: Yes, of course. With that caveat.
Steve Waterkotte: Can they spiral? Yes.
Chris Combs: Sure.
Steve Waterkotte: If you handle it appropriately, you have the right person in your corner, I 100% agree with that.
Even in the most difficult of professions, we’ve become a pretty forgiving society. What Chris said, I absolutely agree with. Can somebody forgive a lapse in judgment, a poor decision to get behind a wheel? If there’s an accident involved, an injury, that’s a whole different ballgame. But a standard run of the mill, first offense DWI, you address it head on. Many times an employer might put you in their employee assistant program or get some alcohol treatment and vet those things out.
I absolutely agree, we’ve become more forgiving. It’s a little different than other crimes in the sense of moral turpitude or burglary. Those things are a different ballgame. But I agree with that. We can generally get you out of this. You’re going to jump through some hurdles. This is kind of what I always tell clients. It could be the classes, it could be community service. In most cases, virtually all first offense, we can get you to the other side of this fairly unscathed.
It’s going to cost you some money, and you’re going to have to do these things. But, I can’t recall somebody saying, “Hey, I lost my job.”
Chris Combs: No, no. And in my entire career I’ve represented almost every profession except I have not represented a judge yet. But I’ve represented any other, high-end profession you can name.
I can think of one instance, and it was someone who wanted to work for Anheuser Busch and they have a no tolerance policy. He ended up becoming an investment banker and is doing quite well. He’s registered with the SEC and has all those licenses, federal licenses. So it didn’t stop him from that.
That is literally the only time. He kind of had a dream that he wanted to be a brewer and start his own brewery, and he wanted to start there to get experience. But you know, that’s the only time I could ever think of. And he didn’t have a job and lose it. He just wanted to work there and that was disqualified.
Scott Michael Dunn: Sure. It’s good to know [from] an ethics standpoint that’s not something they should spend a lot of time worrying about, especially on a first offense.
If you need Missouri’s leading criminal defense team to defend your rights and freedom, speak to a criminal defense and DWI/DUI attorney today at (314) 900-HELP or contact us online for a free case review.
