Charged with DUI in April, retained attorney one week later

Question: Charged with DUI in Burbank. I received mail from DUI attorneys and ended up hiring a low budget DUI Attorney. He claimed that he would do everything that the more expensive DUI attorneys do…but I can already see that is not the case. I can’t even get a return phone call and have little faith that he is doing anything on my case. I don’t even know if he showed up at my hearing. My questions: What is my recourse if a retained attorney is not keeping me informed? How do I know that he is actively negotiating on my behalf or even working on my case at all? Doesn’t he have a duty to keep me informed?
Answer: You should try to contact your attorney by phone, email and fax to schedule a meeting or at least a phone call to get an update about your case and ask any questions you have. If you feel you have tried this several times and have not heard back, you may want to consider hiring a new attorney to take over your case. If you are not sure when your next court date is, then you should also contact the court to make sure you didn’t miss a court date, etc., or have your new DUI attorney do that immediately should you decide to hire a new DUI attorney quickly.
Sincerely,
Phil Hache
DUI & Criminal Defense Lawyer