I am not satisfied with the service I get from my current insurance company here in East Seattle, Washington. My auto insurance and other coverage are ending soon so I’ll just cancel my policies altogether. If I don’t pay anything after the end of the coverage, it means that my insurance is canceled, right?

Bo

East Seattle, WA

You could opt to cancel your automobile insurance policy for several causes, and dissatisfaction is one of them. Be careful, though, that if you don’t give enough notification to your insurance provider, you may spend more or worse, it could have an effect on your credit rating. It has been a tradition for the majority of insurance providers to let their customers drop their policy at any time in the course of the policy term. All they need to do is to send a written notification that includes the exact date of termination.

Your auto insurance policy in East Seattle, Washington would not automatically be cancelled at the end of the coverage, so don’t assume that you could drop your policy by taking for granted the next bill. In case you don’t send them a notification that you’re terminating your policy, they would consequently send you a bill in advance for the following policy term’s premium payment. If you ignore it, they would drop your policy and it would go against your credit history. These details are not clearly explained in your policy; auto insurance providers always tell us that we can cancel our policies at the end of the coverage by not paying the next premium, but they never tell us about the consequences for not giving them any notification.

My cousin was arrested for DUI here in East Seattle, Washington and he told me that his lawyer visited the place where he was arrested. Is it necessary for the lawyer to personally check out the arrest location?

Brynn

East Seattle, WA

Visiting the arrest location can be exceedingly crucial in your cousin’s DUI case in East Seattle, Washington. A good DUI defense lawyer usually takes pictures of the spot where the tests were given. The reason behind this is to point out that the particular location made the field sobriety tests difficult to perform. An example is that if there was a heavy traffic speeding by on a highway or if the of the road used for the roadside test is slanted because a slanting road automatically make the field sobriety tests more difficult to perform. Another thing is that a winding road may be able to explain erratic driving.

Seeing and knowing these things would make it much easier for your cousin’s DUI lawyer to ask probing questions about the field sobriety tests and in some cases, point out a physical impossibility to the jury. Another example is that the officer may testify that your cousin wove too many times on the road but there could not have been enough time for him to weave many times in a given stretch of road. There also could have been obstacles preventing him from driving with two wheels on the sidewalk.

I was charged with DUI here in Washington. They say that I don’t need to hire a lawyer because this is just my first offense and it was just a minor one. But I still want to have a DUI help to make sure that I would be equipped with everything I need to get out of this or at least have a lower sentence. What are the ranges of fees and how do DUI lawyers charge their clients?

Jonathan

East Seattle, WA

A DUI in Washington State is a serious offense and must be taken seriously. Consequences of DUI may include loss of driver’s license, fines, vehicle immobilization, increase of insurance rate, community service and even imprisonment. Your decision of consulting and hiring a DUI lawyer would be a smart move.

Fees just go up depending on how severe your DUI violation is but they are sometimes minimal. The fees could range low as $500 dollars to thousands in cases of repeat offense.

DUI attorneys charge their clients differently. Some of these lawyers charge by the hour. Some lawyers will charge an initial fee to cover all the initial legal steps like reviewing the police report and the file from the district attorney and appearing on the first hearing. The fees end as well if at that stage that the DUI charges are dropped against you. Additional hearings, of course, would mean additional charges.

Other lawyers charge a fee to handle your case all the way to trial. Anyway, you pay them for everything if they are able to negotiate and dismiss the case.