Attorney Who Raised the Bar on Drunk-Driving Defenses
"I hate drunk driving," Richard Essen once told The Wall Street Journal. Yet he was also one of the nation's leading defenders of those accused of it.
Mr. Essen, who died Nov. 30 at age 70, was among a handful of lawyers who in the early 1980s developed what became a legal specialty with practitioners across the nation.
"He was one of the first attorneys to recognize the need for aggressive defense for people charged with drunk driving," says Patrick Barone, a Michigan lawyer and editor of the legal publication DWI Journal.
Thanks in part to a federal initiative in 1983 that encouraged states to adopt a more stringent approach to drunk driving, laws were tightened, mandating jail time and license suspensions for first offenses.
Mr. Essen, a Miami-based defense attorney, developed strategies for defending against the new laws by filing reams of pretrial motions challenging police conduct and the accuracy of breathalyzers.
"He was the king of the pretrial motions," says William Head, an Atlanta, attorney who specializes in DUI law.
In 1986, during one three-month period, Mr. Essen handled dozens of cases without a single one going to trial, according to a Wall Street Journal article. At one point, he claimed his firm had handled 1,800 straight cases without a loss.
Read entire article at WSJ
Mr. Essen, who died Nov. 30 at age 70, was among a handful of lawyers who in the early 1980s developed what became a legal specialty with practitioners across the nation.
"He was one of the first attorneys to recognize the need for aggressive defense for people charged with drunk driving," says Patrick Barone, a Michigan lawyer and editor of the legal publication DWI Journal.
Thanks in part to a federal initiative in 1983 that encouraged states to adopt a more stringent approach to drunk driving, laws were tightened, mandating jail time and license suspensions for first offenses.
Mr. Essen, a Miami-based defense attorney, developed strategies for defending against the new laws by filing reams of pretrial motions challenging police conduct and the accuracy of breathalyzers.
"He was the king of the pretrial motions," says William Head, an Atlanta, attorney who specializes in DUI law.
In 1986, during one three-month period, Mr. Essen handled dozens of cases without a single one going to trial, according to a Wall Street Journal article. At one point, he claimed his firm had handled 1,800 straight cases without a loss.