What to Expect in the 48th District Court Bloomfield Hills Michigan

If you were arrested for DUI or OWI within the cities of Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake, or Orchard Lake Village, or the townships of Bloomfield or West Bloomfield, your case will be heard in the 48th District Court located at 4280 Telegraph Road in Bloomfield Hills. What happens in that courtroom depends heavily on which of the three judges is assigned to your case and how well your attorney knows this specific court.

The Barone Defense Firm has appeared in the 48th District Court hundreds of times over more than three decades,  and no firm in Michigan knows this court better. If you are facing a 48th District Court Bloomfield Hills DUI charge, the firm you hire should have appeared in this building hundreds of times, and the Barone Defense Firm has.

What Is the 48th District Court and Which Communities Does It Serve?

The 48th District Court handles all criminal and civil matters arising within the cities of Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake, and Orchard Lake Village, as well as Bloomfield Township and West Bloomfield Township. For anyone arrested in these communities, on a DUI charge, a misdemeanor, or a felony, this is the court where your case will be heard and where the first critical decisions about your freedom and your license will be made.

The Barone Defense Firm’s connection to this community runs deep. Founding attorney Patrick Barone grew up in Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, and the firm’s office has been located minutes from the courthouse for decades. Patrick began his legal career in 1991, and his first law office was in Sylvan Lake, where he shared space with Tom Ryan, a former city prosecutor in this very court who became an early mentor. That origin in this specific community is not incidental.

It means the firm’s attorneys have appeared before every judge and magistrate in this building, know the prosecutors on both sides of the aisle, understand the rhythms and expectations of this court at a level that takes years to develop, and have genuine roots in the neighborhoods these judges serve. That is the foundation of the home court advantage the Barone Defense Firm brings to every 48th District Court Bloomfield Hills DUI case.

What Happens After an OWI Arrest? Arraignment, Pretrial, and How Your Case Moves Forward

The 48th District Court in Bloomfield Hills will strictly follow the Michigan rules of criminal procedure. These rules provide that your first appearance will be your arraignment, conducted before a magistrate. This is where the formal charges are read, your rights are explained, and the conditions of your bond are set. Bond conditions in DUI cases in this court are routinely strict: alcohol and drug monitoring, travel restrictions, and periodic reporting are common. Having an attorney present at arraignment is important because the conditions set at this hearing govern your daily life until the case is resolved.

After arraignment, your case is assigned by random draw to one of the three judges under Michigan Court Rule 8.111. There is no way to influence the assignment. Once assigned, your case proceeds to a series of pretrial conferences before your judge. Most cases require multiple pretrials before reaching a resolution, and this is normal. Pretrials are where your attorney and the prosecutor discuss the evidence, any legal challenges to that evidence, and the potential terms of any resolution.

Who Are the Judges of the 48th District Court?

The three judges of the 48th District Court are the Honorable Diane D’Agostini, the Honorable Marc Barron, and the Honorable Kimberly Small. Each brings a distinct professional background and judicial philosophy to their courtroom. An attorney who has appeared before all three over many years understands those distinctions in ways that cannot be conveyed in a brief description — but what follows reflects the Barone Defense Firm’s experience over more than thirty years of regular practice in this building.

Judge Diane D’Agostini

Judge D’Agostini has served on the 48th District Court bench since 2000 and has been appointed Chief Judge by the Michigan Supreme Court for four terms, a distinction that reflects the confidence the state’s highest court places in her administrative leadership and judicial temperament. She has won every election she has contested, carrying all precincts in her first election and winning decisively in every subsequent campaign.

Before taking the bench, Judge D’Agostini earned her law degree cum laude from the Detroit College of Law, now Michigan State University College of Law, and furthered her legal studies at Oxford University. She served as an Oakland County assistant prosecutor for nine years, progressing through the Warrants Division, the District Court Division, and the Circuit Court Division before serving as Chief of the Parole Appeal Section. Her prosecutorial career was defined by rigorous attention to the record and a deep commitment to community safety.

In her courtroom, Judge D’Agostini expects defense counsel to know the evidence, understand the applicable law, and come to each hearing prepared to move the case forward. She has developed innovative court programs focused on youth education and prevention, including a DWI/Drug Treatment Court initiative, reflecting her broader view that the court has a role in addressing the root causes of criminal conduct, not simply processing cases. Attorneys who present credible, well-prepared arguments earn a genuine hearing from her.

She will not tolerate bond violations or excuses for non-compliance with court orders, and she responds swiftly and significantly when defendants fail to meet their obligations while on pretrial release.

Judge Marc Barron

Judge Marc Barron was elected to the 48th District Court in 2004 and was appointed by the Michigan Supreme Court as Chief Judge in 2010. Born and raised in Oakland County, he attended Andover High School before earning an honors degree in economics and finance from the University of Arizona and his law degree from American University’s Washington College of Law. He clerked at the United States Department of Justice before returning to Michigan, where he spent twelve years as an Oakland County assistant prosecutor, including seven years in the Major Crimes Section handling only the most serious felony cases.

That background, honors academic training, a federal clerkship, and nearly a decade prosecuting the most complex criminal matters the county could bring, explains the intellectual seriousness Judge Barron brings to every case before him. He approaches legal questions with genuine curiosity and responds well to defense attorneys who present carefully researched arguments, particularly on novel or challenging issues.

He has taught at the Oakland County Police Academy for ten years, continues to mentor younger attorneys through the Oakland County Bar Association’s Inn of Court program, and brings an educator’s instinct to the bench: he wants to understand the legal question fully before ruling on it.

What this means in practice is that preparation is not merely expected, it is the price of admission. He will identify immediately when a legal argument is not fully supported by the record, and he will engage counsel directly when he finds a gap between what is argued and what the evidence actually shows. Attorneys who have done the work are treated with genuine respect.

The firm has had many productive appearances before Judge Barron over the years, and the relationship that develops between thoroughly prepared defense counsel and a judge who genuinely engages with the law is one of the genuine rewards of regular practice in this court.

Judge Kimberly Small

Judge Kimberly Small has served on the 48th District Court since 1996, making her the longest-tenured member of the bench. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and her law degree from the Michigan State University College of Law, attending night classes while working full time, a path that reflects the discipline and self-sufficiency that define her on the bench.

Before joining the court, she served as a law clerk to a federal judge, an experience that left a clear mark on the precision and depth with which she analyzes the record and the arguments placed before her.

Judge Small’s reputation in OWI cases is well established among Oakland County attorneys. She believes that the court’s response to drunk driving serves a purpose beyond the individual defendant’s circumstances: in her view, even a first-offense sentence carries a message to the wider community about the seriousness with which this court treats impaired driving. This is not arbitrary severity, it is a coherent judicial philosophy rooted in deterrence, one that defense counsel must understand and address directly rather than simply expecting that a clean record or remorse will carry the day.

At the same time, Judge Small is a genuine believer in recovery and in the twelve-step process. Sincere, early, and well-documented participation in Alcoholics Anonymous or a comparable recovery program before sentencing carries meaningful weight with her, in ways that differ from many other courts in the county. The key word is sincere. She is perceptive enough to distinguish a client who has genuinely engaged with the recovery process from one who has attended a handful of meetings in the weeks before sentencing.

The earlier that participation begins after an arrest, and the more consistently it is documented, the more credible it becomes. This is one of the reasons the Barone Defense Firm begins sentencing mitigation preparation from the first consultation in cases before Judge Small, not from the week before the sentencing hearing.

Judge Small also strongly prefers to conduct hearings by Zoom, including arraignments, pretrials, and in many cases sentencing. Your attorney will manage the logistics of appearing in her courtroom and prepare you for how these hearings operate.

Three decades of practice in a single court produces a quality of institutional knowledge that is genuinely difficult to replicate. Patrick Barone has appeared before all three of these judges more times than most attorneys will appear in any single court over an entire career.

He knows how each judge weighs the quality of sentencing mitigation evidence, what level of preparation is required to earn a genuine hearing on a suppression motion, and how the relationship between defense counsel and the court in this building is built over years of consistent, thorough, professional appearances. The same is true of Mr. Barone’s partners, Michael Boyle and Ryan Ramsayer.

Barone’s board certification in psychodrama, sociometry, and group psychotherapy, the only such credential held by any attorney in Michigan, directly informs the firm’s sentencing mitigation work. Helping a client find and articulate their authentic story in a way that is credible to a judge as perceptive as Judge Small is a skill that goes beyond legal training, and it is something the Barone Defense Firm brings to every case in this court.

Most people assume that because this court serves Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, some of the most affluent communities in Michigan, defendants are treated leniently. The opposite is closer to the truth. The 48th District Court is widely regarded among Oakland County criminal defense attorneys as one of the most demanding venues in the state for OWI defendants.

The fact that most defendants here are professionals and first-time offenders with clean records does not produce automatic leniency; if anything, it raises the court’s expectations for what a credible expression of accountability and mitigation looks like. What it means is that the range of possible outcomes in this court is wide, and that the quality of legal representation and sentencing preparation has a significant impact on where within that range your case lands.

What Are the Prosecutors Like in the 48th District Court?

Depending on the jurisdictional details of your arrest, your case will be prosecuted either by the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office for a State case, including some misdemeanors and all felonies,  or by a municipal prosecutor retained by contract for the relevant city or township. The Barone Defense Firm has worked alongside both prosecution offices in this court for more than thirty years and knows what to expect from each.

The prosecutors in the 48th District Court are professional and know their cases. They are not easily moved by arguments that are not well supported, and Oakland County prosecutors in particular have restrictive policies on charge reductions that require a defense attorney to present a genuinely compelling legal or factual basis before a meaningful plea offer will be extended. The relationship that an attorney develops with this prosecution office over years of consistent, thorough, and professional appearances matters — and the Barone Defense Firm has cultivated exactly that relationship over three decades.

Will I Go to Jail for a 48th District Court Bloomfield Hills DUI?

Nothing about a DUI case in the 48th District Court is automatic, including conviction, jail, or any specific penalty. Outcomes depend on the lawfulness of the traffic stop, what the officer observed and documented, how the field sobriety tests were administered and scored, the chemical test results, your prior record if any, and,critically, how thoroughly your attorney has prepared both the legal defense and the mitigation case.

Even in this court, most first-offense DUI cases do not result in additional jail time beyond any time served at arrest. Michigan law creates a rebuttable presumption against incarceration for most misdemeanor OWI offenses, meaning a judge must articulate specific grounds to impose jail rather than treating incarceration as a default.

That presumption does not eliminate the risk, particularly before Judge Small. But it creates a framework within which an attorney who has prepared the case thoroughly, challenged every challengeable element of the evidence, and built a compelling mitigation record can argue specifically and on the record against incarceration.

One of the strategies the Barone Defense Firm regularly uses in this court is a challenge to the lawfulness of the traffic stop or the arrest. In cases where the stop lacked reasonable suspicion or the arrest lacked probable cause, the result can be dismissal rather than negotiation. The firm has obtained dismissals in the 48th District Court, including in matters before Judge Small, when the constitutional foundations of the prosecution did not withstand scrutiny.

Why Does Attorney Experience in the 48th District Court DUI Process Matter?

In a court known for demanding preparation, exacting judicial standards, and a wide range of possible outcomes, the choice of defense attorney has a larger impact on your case than it might in a more predictable venue. An attorney appearing in the 48th District Court for the first time is at a material disadvantage compared to one who has stood before these judges hundreds of times and understands, at a granular level, what each of them requires.

The Barone Defense Firm handles dozens of cases in this court every year and has done so continuously since 1991. The firm’s track record here includes acquittals after trial, meaningful charge reductions, and no-jail outcomes across all three courtrooms, including cases before Judge Small. These successful outcomes in DUI cases and other crimes reflect thorough preparation on both the legal defense and the sentencing mitigation side, and they reflect the kind of institutional knowledge that only comes from years of consistent practice in a single court.

They are the result of thirty years of dedicated practice in this court, brought to every 48th District Court Bloomfield Hills DUI case the firm handles.

Frequently Asked Questions About the 48th District Court Bloomfield Hills DUI Process

Which cities and townships does the 48th District Court serve?

The 48th District Court handles criminal cases for the cities of Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake, and Orchard Lake Village, and for Bloomfield Township and West Bloomfield Township. If you were arrested for OWI anywhere within these jurisdictions, your case will be in this court.

How is the judge assigned to my case?

Cases are assigned by random draw at the time of filing under Michigan Court Rule 8.111. Neither you nor your attorney has any ability to influence which of the three judges receives your case.

Is the 48th District Court harder on DUI cases than other Oakland County courts?

It is widely regarded among Oakland County defense attorneys as one of the most demanding courts in the state for OWI defendants. All three judges take drunk driving seriously, and first-offense defendants with clean records should not assume that their circumstances will produce automatic leniency. The range of possible outcomes here is wide, and experienced representation makes a significant difference within that range.

Does voluntary AA or recovery program participation help in this court?

Yes, particularly in cases before Judge Small. Sincere, early, and well-documented participation in AA or a comparable recovery program carries meaningful weight at sentencing and can significantly influence the outcome. The earlier it begins after the arrest and the more consistently it is documented, the more credible it will be. Nevertheless, the decision about whether to go to AA after a DUI arrest should be made in concert with your lawyer who may recommend a substance use evaluation.

What happens if the traffic stop leading to my arrest was unlawful?

A stop without reasonable suspicion, or an arrest without probable cause, is a constitutional violation that can result in suppression of the evidence and dismissal of the case. The Barone Defense Firm regularly challenges the legality of stops and arrests in the 48th District Court and has obtained dismissals on this basis.

Can I Contest My Breath or Blood Test in the 48th Bloomfield Hills District Court?

Yes, when there are reasons to believe the test is unreliable or was collected contrary the appliable legal requirements. Patrick Barone has written extensively on these topics, for example, the Barone Defense Firm’s published scholarship on these scientific issues includes a February 2026 Michigan Bar Journal article documenting Michigan’s transition to the Intoxilyzer 9000, a 2015 Michigan Bar Journal article establishing that breath and blood test results are inadmissible without a reported uncertainty range, an August 2003 Michigan Bar Journal article setting out the full foundational requirements for challenging blood test evidence, and a July 2005 Michigan Bar Journal article documenting the error rates and methodological shortcomings of the standardized field sobriety tests used in Michigan OWI arrests.

Does the 48th District Court have a sobriety court program?

The 48th District Court does operate a sobriety court program. The court considers alternative sentencing frameworks including delayed sentencing under MCL 771.1, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s First Offenders Program, and other available mechanisms. Some of these programs may not be available for a DUI charge, and will depend on your Judge too. Your attorney can advise you which of these approaches, if any, may be available in your specific case.

How soon after my arrest should I contact an attorney?

Immediately. If you refused the post-arrest breath test, the 14-day window to request your implied consent hearing is already running and cannot be extended under any circumstances. Evidence must be preserved. And the sentencing mitigation work that is most effective in this court begins at the first consultation — not in the final weeks before a hearing.

If you are facing a DUI or OWI charge in the 48th District Court in Bloomfield Hills, the Barone Defense Firm is the firm that knows this court. We have appeared before all three judges in this building more times than we can count, over more than thirty years of continuous practice in the communities this court serves. Call 1-877-ALL-MICH (877-255-6424), available 24 hours a day, for a free confidential consultation.

About the Author

Patrick Barone is the founding attorney of the Barone Defense Firm and has likely appeared in the 48th District Court in Bloomfield Hills as many or more times than any other OWI defense attorney in Michigan. He grew up in Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills and has practiced within minutes of this courthouse since founding the firm in 1991. He is an IACP/NHTSA-certified standardized field sobriety test instructor and practitioner and is believed to be the only attorney in Michigan ever to have been judicially qualified as an SFST court expert.

He is the author of five books including Defending Drinking Drivers, a national DUI defense treatise published by James Publishing, and has published more than 130 articles in peer-reviewed legal journals on topics ranging from breath and blood testing science to field sobriety test methodology and trial advocacy. He has been named a Michigan Super Lawyer continuously since 2007 and is recognized by Best Lawyers in America.

He holds board certification at the highest level in psychodrama, sociometry, and group psychotherapy through the American Board of Examiners, a credential held by no other attorney in Michigan,which shapes how he and his team approach every client relationship, including the critical sentencing mitigation work that often determines outcomes in the 48th District Court.