DWI Stories

December 22, and it has gotten cold in Ithaca, NY. The winter winds are starting to blow, and thermals are becoming a necessary part of my morning prep. Holiday parties are in full swing, and my phone has been ringing.

I listen to stories. In truth, everything is a story. Is there really an objective reality? Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. If someone believes that is what happened, is it a lie? There are the stories that my clients tell me, and then there are the stories that the police write in their reports. Often my clients tell me, "that never happened! or I don't remember saying that!"

I give my client's a long questionnaire to fill out, and also ask them to supply me with a narrative of the day of their arrest. That will begin to give me the best (most complete) view (story) of the DWI. Combining that story with the police reports, and records puts me in a good position to gauge the potential defenses, strategies, and issues within the case. BUT what happens if my clients DISTORT their memory, and then I am left with a faulty story of the event.

I believe as a DWI defense lawyer that One of the most important stories is my client's way of "seeing" this event.

I am not a psychologist but I love understanding how people think. Psychologists use the term

Cognitive Distortions to describe a person who takes an event, and sees it in unhealthy ways.

1. Absolute thinking (the all or nothing pattern): Seeing your DWI as black or white. Using words like always, never, and every paint you into a corner mentally. DWI cases, and their defenses have degrees of gray, rarely are they in clear cut black or white categories. You are not a total failure because of this DWI.

2. Overgeneralizing: This DWI is not a never ending pattern of bad news or your life's direction.

3. Using Mental Filters in the negative: You pick out everything you did that was wrong, improper, and focus on that to the exclusion of everything else. Are my clients blocking out the truth (the good things they did) at some unconscious level? Are they blocking out their memory of normal, sober, and appropriate behavior patterns?

4. Negate the Positive: You downplay your positive experiences. You put down your ability to follow directions accurately, to follow the officer's directions under pressure, and to walk on a straight imaginary line in the dark at 2:00AM.

5. You Jump to Conclusions and Interpret Negatively: Just because you are not coordinated doesn't mean you were drunk, do you have two left feet?, just because you were speeding doesn't mean you were driving drunk, drunk is a conclusion, intoxicated is a conclusion, impaired is a conclusion, you can look for and see things any way you choose to convincingly support a conclusion. My tie may be red I(a fact), whether it matches my pants or is ugly is a conclusion. Give me the facts, not your conclusions about the facts.

6. Magnifying or Minimizing: Are you exaggerating or minimizing the importance of any part of this event or the event itself? Are you inappropriately making things smaller or larger than they are or need to be? Is this goof up the end of your life? your marriage? your job?

7. Emotionalizing: Are you emotionalizing (feeling it to be) the DWI? I feel it is..... so it is. Things and events are devoid of emotions and feelings, if you choose to attach negative emotions to this event it will reflect back to you as "truth" when in fact it is only a version of the events.

8. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, I must, I have to: These are the words of guilt. This behavior pattern will not help you or your case. Guilt is lopsided, it means imagining more negatives than positives in your past.

9. Mislabeling the event: Describing the DWI by putting a negative label on yourself, as in " I am a loser" or "I am an idiot"

10. Personalizing the DWI: This means "I am a horrible person, I am irresponsible" You are not your DWI case. You are not crime, or a criminal charge.

All these "Distortions" will hinder your getting past this event, and your DWI defense. They cloud your mind, your judgment, and your remembering the event clearly. To be the most help to your attorney you need a clear head.