Mimi Coffey | Attorney at Law

St. Augustine said, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” The same goes for law. This past week I travelled to Missouri to speak at their annual DWI conference. It was held at the Tan Tar A Resort in Osage Beach, Missouri. On top of work, I spent weeks in advance preparing my talk entitled “DWI Defense- Texas Style.” Little did I know, I would be the one be learning. The Missouri lawyers were so hospitable even providing me with two of their kind lawyers personally taking time out of their schedule to provide me with rides to and from the airport (a two hour drive!) Their magnanimity was sweeping. If I wasn’t in my room fine tuning the speech, it was only to sleep and shower. They graciously hosted me to dinners, happy hours, late night parties. They even invited me to swim (they have a slide at their big pool). Travis Noble, one of the state’s most respected DWI lawyers approached me with a big bag of cigars informing me he knew of my taste for repose...

You decide you have had too much, and you feel the right thing to do is pull over and sleep it off. Is this a DWI? According to a Tarrant County judge in a bench trial in case number 1366316, decided on February 12, 2015- yes it is. Do I respectfully disagree with the decision? Yes.  Here are the facts: my guy (Mr. "H") was asleep in his legally parked car at a QuikTrip in Keller, Texas. No one saw him drive. No one called the police on him. The QuikTrip attendant had no idea as to how long he had been there, but it had been "a while." The seat was in recline with Mr. H fast asleep. After waking him up, the police interrogation went like this: Mr. H:    "I personally think I did the best thing." Cop:       "What's the best thing?" Mr. H:    "Where I'm at right now." Cop:       "Which is what?" Mr. H:    "Well, it damn sure ain't drinking, damn sure ain't pulli...