When you meet with Joseph N. Gothie, Esq., or another attorney at Gothie Van Allen LLC, for your free, no-risk consultation, you should bring the following paperwork:

• Your current driver's license
• All paperwork you have received from the police or the courts

At the initial meeting, we will review the "Affidavit of Probable Cause" which is typically included with your notice of hearing before the local district court. It is generally stapled to the document titled "Police Criminal Complaint." The Affidavit of Probable Cause contains the arresting officer's version of the story in a concise summary form. It will usually list your BAC ("Blood Alcohol Content") and give important time information with respect to when you were first stopped and when your chemical testing was undertaken.

We will generally take about thirty minutes to an hour to discuss your case with you, including attempting to gather information about various issues:

• Were you stopped legally?
• Was your BAC tested properly?
• Were you tested in the required time frame?
• Do you have any prior criminal offenses?
• Have you ever been on ARD before?
• Have you ever had a DUI in Pennsylvania or in any other state?
• Did you do anything that disqualifies you from ARD?
• Were you actually in control of the vehicle?
• Is there an opportunity to ask for some or all of the evidence to be suppressed?

We will explain the likely penalties you would face if convicted or if you decide to apply for ARD, including mandatory minimum fines, possible jail sentence length, eligibility for ARD, work release, and employment issues. If it is obvious that the case should go to ARD, we will explain the steps necessary to get into ARD. If there are questions about whether the charge should be defended, we will talk about the criminal law procedures and timelines that will come into play. We will also tell you what our fee will be.

One of the benefits of the free consultation is that you get to meet the people at our office and you can make a determination at that time whether you would be comfortable working with us on your case. That is a benefit that you do not necessarily get from a telephone call or from reading an ad in the phone book or on the internet. You need to be comfortable with us and vice versa. 

If you choose to have us represent you, we will immediately begin the paperwork for the case upon receipt of payment . We accept cash, checks, money orders, and VISA and Mastercard . Under some circumstances, we may be able to work out a payment plan. 

 The next section you should review is Timeline for a DUI.

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