Your personal lifestyle and its consequences has nothing to do with defending a criminal charge, nor is your fear an excuse for not properly dealing with cases. Your post is not clear, but if you are saying you have a prior DUI conviction and a new DUI that you never went to court on, then you have an arrest warrant out for you. If you are also saying you are an illegal immigrant, you face potential deportation upon conviction of any crime. To handle a warrant, you must turn yourself in to the issuing court, with or without an attorney. On felony charges, the defendant must be personally present at every court hearing and appearance. You'll try to negotiate a recall of the warrant[s] and bail reduction or OR release. You'll try to negotiate a plea bargain on any Failure to Appear charge. You'll try to negotiate a plea bargain or take to trial the outstanding charge that caused the warrant. Effective plea-bargaining, using whatever legal defenses, facts and sympathies there may be, could possibly keep you out of jail/prison, or at least dramatically reduce it. Unless you're competent to effectively represent yourself in court against a professional prosecutor trying to put you in jail, most people hire an attorney who can.
Answered on Sep 21st, 2012 at 10:31 PM