The most useful questions to ask a DUI lawyer are not about how many cases they have won. They are about who will do the work, what that person will look at before advising you, what the fee covers, and which decisions stay with you. The list below is written so you can take it to any lawyer, including a public defender, and including us. It is part of our Montana DUI Guide.
Twelve Questions and What a Useful Answer Sounds Like
| Question | A useful answer includes |
|---|---|
| Who will actually handle my case and appear in court with me? | A name. If more than one lawyer may appear, you are told who and when. |
| How often do you handle DUI cases in the court my case is in? | A plain description of the lawyer's own work in that court, without a win rate or a promise attached. |
| What training do you have in field sobriety testing and in breath or blood testing? | Specific courses or certifications, and how they are used when reviewing an officer's work. |
| What will you review before you give me advice about a plea? | The reports, the video, the testing records, and your driving record, in that order or close to it. |
| Is there a license deadline in my case, and who is handling it? | A direct answer about the 30-day petition after a test refusal, and whether it is inside the fee. |
| What is the fee, what does it cover, and what does it not cover? | A written scope: which stages are included, and whether trial, the license petition, and an appeal are separate. |
| Which costs are separate from your fee? | Examples such as an independent analysis, an expert witness, or transcripts, and that you approve them first. |
| How will I hear from you, and how quickly do you answer? | A normal response time and the best way to reach the office. |
| What decisions are mine? | The plea, whether to waive a jury, and whether to testify are yours. The lawyer advises and then follows your decision. |
| What are the possible outcomes, including the bad ones? | A range, with the reasons the lawyer cannot yet narrow it. Not a prediction. |
| What should I do, and not do, between now and court? | Concrete steps: release conditions, what to write down, who not to discuss the case with. |
| If we stop working together, what happens to my file and any unearned fee? | You get your file, and any advance payment that has not been earned is returned. |
None of these has a single right answer. What you are listening for is whether the answer is specific, whether it matches what the written agreement says, and whether the lawyer is comfortable telling you what they do not know yet.
Questions About the Work Itself
A DUI case is built from a stop, a roadside investigation, and a breath or blood test. Ask how each will be checked. A lawyer should be able to tell you, in ordinary words, that they will compare the officer's report against the video, look at how the field sobriety tests were given, and obtain the certification records for the breath instrument or the laboratory file for a blood sample. Our page on what a DUI lawyer does lays out that work stage by stage, and Montana DUI defenses explains where cases are usually contested.
Ask about training too. At A&M Law, Misty Gaubatz is certified in NHTSA Standardized Field Sobriety Testing and has worked inside a local prosecutor's office. Whoever you talk to, ask what their training is and how it changes what they look for.
Questions About the License Deadline
If you refused a breath or blood test, your license is on a separate clock from the criminal case. A petition to challenge the suspension must be filed in district court within 30 days after the officer gave you notice of the right to a hearing (MCA § 61-8-1017(1)). Ask every lawyer you speak with two things: do you handle that petition, and is it part of the fee. If you are still deciding whom to hire as that date gets close, say so, because the deadline does not wait. See when to hire a DUI lawyer.
Questions About Fees
Montana's Rules of Professional Conduct do much of the work here. A fee must be reasonable (Rule 1.5(a)). The scope of the representation and the basis or rate of the fee and expenses must be communicated in writing in most matters (Rule 1.5(b)). And a lawyer may not charge a contingent fee for defending a criminal case (Rule 1.5(d)(2)), so no DUI defense fee can lawfully depend on the result.
That leaves you with practical questions: is the fee flat or hourly, what stage does it run through, and what is separate. Our pages on what a DUI lawyer costs and flat fee versus hourly go through each.
Questions About Who Decides
Rule 1.2(a) says that in a criminal case the lawyer must abide by the client's decision, after consultation, on three things: the plea to be entered, whether to waive a jury trial, and whether the client will testify. Rule 1.4 requires the lawyer to keep you reasonably informed and to explain matters well enough for you to make informed decisions.
So ask how plea offers will be communicated, and how much time you will have to think about one. You should hear that every offer comes to you, with the lawyer's advice, and that the choice is yours.
Answers That Should Make You Slow Down
- A promised result. No one can promise a dismissal or a reduction before reading the evidence. Rule 7.1(b) treats a communication likely to create an unjustified expectation about results as misleading.
- A fee tied to the outcome. That is a contingent fee, which Rule 1.5(d)(2) prohibits in criminal defense.
- No written scope. If you cannot tell from the paper whether trial or the license petition is covered, ask until you can.
- Pressure to decide on the spot. A real deadline, such as the 30-day petition, is worth knowing about. A manufactured one is not.
- No questions for you. A lawyer who does not ask about your record, your license, your job, or your citizenship has not yet learned what the case puts at risk.
What a Lawyer Should Ask You
A good first conversation runs both ways. Expect to be asked about prior DUI arrests in any state, whether you hold a commercial or professional license, whether you took or refused a test, what your release conditions are, and when your next court date is. Having your paperwork in front of you makes the conversation faster and the advice better. Our checklist of what to bring to a consultation covers it.
This page is general information about hiring a lawyer in Montana, based on the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct and the 2025 Montana Code Annotated. It is not legal advice about your specific case.