<p>Ds met with the hall director, who handled it exactly as I would hope. That is, part recap of the events, part relating of consequences, part lecture about what to do next time because it’s unreasonable to expect that he’ll never encounter alcohol again in his three remaining years on campus. Academics-wise, there will be no real consequence in terms of contacting the Dean, academic probation, loss of scholarships/grants, etc. There will be some kind of notation in his student file, however, so that if there is another infraction this first offense will be taken into account. What isn’t clear is what the consequences would be if there is another issue. He seemed to indicate that’s because it would depend on what the infraction is, when it is, what the circumstances are. I guess that’s a good thing, but part of me wanted a clear, outlined consequence so that there is no question what would happen if there’s a next time. Well, what would happen at school. We as parents might have a whole other set of consequences.</p>
<p>Now, he’s down to what happens legally. Am I getting conflicting advice here? Should he or should he not contact the DA or police or the dean? He says there is no legal center on campus for students. He would like to contact someone there (what can I say? generally, we are law-abiding and have a lot of respect for cops and want to do the right thing, but we’re also naive a lot of the time). When he’s home for spring break, we talked about him talking to a friend here who is a judge. Maybe we should wait and just let things settle a bit?</p>
<p>crossposted with 32578233. That advice is crystal clear. Good idea to contact bar association.</p>
<p>I am a lawyer as well, although not currently practicing. As your son is in another state, he should contact a lawyer in that state for advice, as every state’s laws (and sometimes interpretations of the same laws) differ. How local jurisdictions treat various things also can differ.</p>
<p>I once suggested getting advice from a lawyer on another forum, and I was accused of trying to increase the stakes, “lawyering up,” etc. As a result, I’ll make clear that what I mean is that your son would show a lawyer the citation he received and ask for advice as to what he should do next. An initial consultation should not be too expensive; your son can probably save the lawyer some time (and himself some money) by typing up all the details so that everything is on paper for the lawyer. I am not suggesting the your son sue anyone.</p>
<p>In my view, he should not contact the DA or the police or the dean until he has contacted a lawyer. They are not on his side and have no duty of confidentiality; his lawyer would be, and has such a duty.</p>
<p>He should NOT contact the DA or the police. He should contact a local attorney who can advise him on his options and do so with your son’s best interests in mind. The local bar association is a good source. It may be that the attorney’s advice is to pay the fine and move on, but you really should get the full picture of available options. This should not cost much - I would expect a relatively short phone call outlining the consequences.</p>
<p>I understand the anti-lawyering up sentiment. It feels, perhaps unnecessarily, confrontational, and I in no way want him to avoid consequences but also don’t want this to potentially ruin further opportunities. I’ve also never been a “jump in and save the day” kind of parent. I will expect him to pay any and all court costs. That said, should we contact the lawyer or let him do it? I don’t want him to mess this up, but I don’t want to make this easy on him.</p>
<p>There may be a diversion program or continuance available for good behavior for a certain period of time and a lawyer should be able to tell him if this may be an available option.</p>
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<p>You can always make your advice available and then ignore the unhelpful comments.</p>
<p>My 2 cents:
Your first responsibility is to protect your son from law enforcement.They are not on your side , unless you are the victim of a crime.
You should engage legal representation for your son. If you have a personal lawyer in your home state , ask them to find you competent representation in the jurisdiction of the citation.Once you have legal counsel , have them contact the DA and look for pretrial intervention. Most states will allow for a plea bargain that allows for a fine and/or community service in exchange for dropping charges and expunging the record of the citation provided there is not a local repeat offense.
Do not have your son go this alone , do not contact the local police or DA office.
Getting the charge dropped and record expunged will become more important when your son is looking for employment or grad school.</p>
<p>This is not letting him off the hook , teach him the lesson post legal proceedings including reimbursing you for the legal & court fees /fine.</p>
<p>Step 1 is contact a lawyer, get a consultation.
There is no step 2, 3, or more until after the consultation.
As Skockolade has pointed out, many posters on this site equate consulting a lawyer with filing a suit. Not so.
I have consulted a lawyer many times for LL/tenant issues and 95% of the time I was able to continue confidently on my own with his advice, and did not require his further actions, time or costs. You may not need to engage a lawyer beyond the consultation.
Start with a consultation. “A lawyer’s time and advice are his stock in trade” is attrributed to A. Lincoln. good luck.</p>
<p>If the state is Pennsylvania, you need to get an attorney ASAP. It is the worst state for underage drinking violations. College police forces often work in “partnership” with local police forces to “drum up business” (those fines add up to big $$.) DS just lost his drivers lisense (issued in another state) for 12 months for an open container violation. He was walking home to his off campus apartment and allegedly carrying a beer, but was in a large group, many of whom ran. No video proof, no breathalizer or sobriety test…12 months of no driving for an offense that had nothing to do with a vehicle. This was a second violation. In his first year he was carrying beer and the campus cops stopped him at 2 am. The other 7 kids ran. he stopped. Passed 2 breathaliezrs but in PA carrying is as bad as drinking. Be careful and consider a lawyer…wherever your child is.</p>
<p>In short, some states and some campus copes are being predatory in their approach to handling alcohol on campus. Knowing what I know now, i would not send my kid to school in PA, or at least to this school. Two minor mistakes–for actions that literally thousands of other kids on his campus were doing at the same time but didn’t get caught for, have cost my kid his drivers license for a year. Crazy. There is no reasonableness in this stuff any more—mistakes can ruin a kid so easily.</p>
<p>Another reason to hire an attorney is the bad information on the citation. Failure of the police officer to record his D.O.B correctly and possibly his DL # (maybe it was his student ID) could put your son on the happy side of a dismissal with the right attorney at the helm. I had a speeding ticket dismissed a few years ago because the officer transposed the last two numbers on my DL #. The judge said he couldn’t uphold the ticket because the information was incorrect. And that my dear, was not my problem.</p>
You should be sure this incident does NOT appear on his transcript. A lawyer could confirm that and it’s worth a fight if it is there. These days, it’s not unusual for an employer to want to see a transcript.
<p>I am glad to see all the other posts with excellent thoughts on this very important issue. It is unfortunate that lawyers have such a bad reputation that advice to get a lawyer can be misinterpreted, but with so many bad lawyers out there, I can certainly understand it.</p>
<p>I agree with all the posters that S should have an attorney consulted in the state where he attends school. Most will only charge nominally for an initial consultation (some will have an initial consultation at no charge). I agree with everyone that he should NOT contact the prosecutor or police as they ARE NOT HIS FRIENDS in this matter and DO NOT have his best interests at heart.</p>
<p>I would also agree that the attorney should see what can be done about NOT having anything appear on his transcript (not sure what a notation on a student file is). Employers in the future MAY request and view transcripts, especially if he may want a government job.</p>
<p>It’s good that you are working with your S to have him consult an attorney. This is what they are trained to help with. Hopefully the attorney & family can impress upon your S that this was a serious & bad incident while still keeping him from having serious permanent consequences on him. Having him pay for the attorney’s fees out of his earnings and savings is a good thing. There are a LOT of VERY GOOD attorneys, many of whom are parents of young people who should not be branded with the few bad apples in the legal profession. Unfortunately, the bad ones grab more headlines than all the rest put together.</p>