Articles Posted in Criminal Law

By Kelly M. Neumann, a Michigan criminal defense attorney and Principal Attorney at Neumann Law Group. Last updated October 24, 2026. A first operating-while-intoxicated charge in Michigan is a misdemeanor, and it moves on two separate tracks at the same time. The criminal case runs through the district court covering the place of arrest, and…

By Kelly M. Neumann, a Michigan criminal defense attorney and Principal Attorney at Neumann Law Group. Last updated October 15 2026. Arraignment is the shortest hearing in a Michigan criminal case and frequently the one that decides the most. A defendant learns the charge, enters a plea, and finds out whether they are going home,…

By Kelly M. Neumann, a Michigan criminal defense attorney and Principal Attorney at Neumann Law Group. Last updated September 28, 2026. Michigan’s drug treatment courts offer intensive supervision and treatment in place of a conventional sentence, and for the right case they change the outcome substantially. The statute that creates them is equally clear that…

By Kelly M. Neumann, a Michigan criminal defense attorney and Principal Attorney at Neumann Law Group. Last updated September 26, 2026. Michigan lets a court take a guilty plea in a first domestic violence case, hold off on entering a judgment, and dismiss the charge if the person completes probation. The relief is real and…

By Kelly M. Neumann, a Michigan criminal defense attorney and Principal Attorney at Neumann Law Group. Last updated September 21, 2026. The Holmes Youthful Trainee Act lets a Michigan court accept a guilty plea from a young defendant without entering a judgment of conviction, and dismiss the case entirely if the person completes the term.…

By Kelly M. Neumann, a Michigan criminal defense attorney and Principal Attorney at Neumann Law Group. Last updated September 8, 2026. Michigan asks a driver stopped on suspicion of operating while intoxicated to blow into a device twice, at two different points, under two different statutes. Refusing the first carries a civil infraction. Refusing the…

By Kelly M. Neumann, a Michigan personal injury attorney and Principal Attorney at Neumann Law Group. Last updated September 8, 2026. Michigan’s no-fault act limits when an injured person can recover noneconomic damages from the driver who caused a crash. The limit is often described as a body of case law that has to be…

By Kelly M. Neumann, a Michigan criminal defense attorney and Principal Attorney at Neumann Law Group. Last updated September 8, 2026. Michigan’s DWI and sobriety courts exist because a second or third operating-while-intoxicated conviction carries license consequences that ordinary sentencing cannot soften. The program trades intensive supervision for a driving privilege that would otherwise be…

By Kelly M. Neumann, a Michigan criminal defense attorney and Principal Attorney at Neumann Law Group. Last updated September 8, 2026. Michigan’s Clean Slate legislation widened who can clear a criminal record and added a track that operates without an application at all. The word people reach for is expungement, and the statute’s word is…

By Kelly M. Neumann, a Michigan criminal defense attorney and Principal Attorney at Neumann Law Group. Last updated July 30, 2026. Michigan’s high-BAC drunk driving provision, known almost everywhere as the super drunk law, applies to a first offense at an alcohol content of 0.17 or more. The statute treats that reading as its own offense…