The number one biggest mistake that a person charged with drunk driving can make is to assume right from the start that there is no defense.
Barone Appointed Adjunct Professor to Teach First of its Kind
Drunk Driving Law and Practice Course at Cooley Law School
Birmingham, Michigan (February 28, 2008) – Birmingham, Michigan attorney Patrick T. Barone has been appointed to the position of Adjunct Professor at Thomas M. Cooley Law School where he will be teaching a ground breaking course entitled “Drunk Driving Law and Practice.” The inaugural class will be presented this May to second and third year law students at Cooley’s Auburn Hills campus.
Patrick Barone, who is the author of two books on the subject, including Defending Drinking Drivers (James Publishing), a leading treatise in the field said: “I am excited that this will be the nation’s first Law school course specifically and exclusively dedicated the law of drunk driving. The course combines criminal law, constitutional law, and forensic science into one course." Barone is excited to pioneer this curriculum, and hopes that other law schools across the country adopt it.
Cooley Associate Dean John Nussbaum said that “annually there are more than 1.5 million persons accused of drunk driving in the U.S., and the laws and penalties have been made so severe that there was clearly a need for specialized training in this area. This curriculum is an excellent first step in that direction and we are excited to be the first law school to offer it because the course fits so well into the School’s mission of preparing its graduates for entry into the legal profession by providing practical legal skills and scholarship.”
Cooley is the nation’s largest law school, and has three locations, including Lansing and Grand Rapids. Dean Nussbaum hopes to eventually offer the course at all three locations. The course will include instruction about the elements of the various drunk and drugged driving charges and the various defenses applicable to these cases. Course topics also include the science involved in drunk driving, such as alcohol metabolism, breath and blood testing, and field sobriety testing. Students will also have the opportunity to apply what they learn in a mock trial at the end of the semester. “Cooley is really on the cutting edge with this class. There is nothing like it offered at any law school anywhere in the country” said Mr. Barone.
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