Question: Please help me answer some questions I have about my daughter's DUI. I know she barely drinks, probably only a couple of times a year. I mean her brother loves drinking; he's an alcoholic, as far as I can tell, but she almost never drinks. And she almost never smokes marijuana. She told her mother and I that she smokes weed maybe once a month, and that's only to help relax after work, because her boss is a jerk sometimes.

So I was really surprised when she got arrested in Cobb County, in East Cobb, actually, for drunk driving and possession of marijuana. The Cobb County police arrested her. She told us that she might have a total of 4 beers a month. That's not a night or a week, but a month. Her pot smoking she said is like three times a year. So I guess it was just bad luck that she got arrested for both DUI and possession in the same night.

You came recommended as a great Cobb DUI lawyer and I was reading your website and wanted to ask a couple of questions.

First, I'd like to know if it will help if she says that she never really drinks, that she just drinks a little bit. I'd like the prosecutor to know that she's not some sort of partier or heavy drinker who gets drunk all the time and drives. Don't you think it will help if the prosecutor knows that she's a responsible person?

Also, it was just unlucky that she had pot in her car. Maybe we should let the prosecutor know that she's not some sort of pot addict. She's really not.

She barely has any police record. She's only had one other DUI arrest, but that was in Alabama, and she got in when she was in college in Mobile, and a lot of her friends got a DUI in college, too.

She never even had a pot charge before. The closest she came was a meth charge, but that was almost two years ago in Gwinnett.

I'd definitely like some help with these issues and I'd appreciate whatever you can do for her to help with a Cobb County DUI!

M.C. in Marietta, GA

Answer: It certainly doesn't hurt her if we tell the prosecutor that she rarely drinks. But the prosecutor (or solicitor) really only cares about the specific incident in question, not someone's claimed history. The prosecutor only cares if there is enough evidence for a DUI conviction. And certainly most people will say that they don't drink too much, whether it's true or not.

The same is true for the marijuana possession charge. The question, at first, at least, is whether there exists evidence for a criminal charge. If there is not enough evidence, the charge can be dropped. If there is evidence, then the question for a criminal defense lawyer is how to best handle the matter so that the client gets the best possible outcome under all the circumstances.

You mentioned that she has a prior DUI and a prior meth charge. These can certainly be relevant if the prosecutor finds them. We'd want to know when she got the DUI charge, and if she was ultimately convicted or not. And the same is true for the meth charge. Just because someone is charged with a crime does not mean they were convicted of that crime; the charge could have been reduced or dropped, or the person could have been acquitted after a trial.