‘Lady DUI’ Defends Drunken-Driving Clients and the Billboards that Snag Them
Huge billboards are promoting a Connecticut criminal defense lawyer who calls herself “Lady DUI.”
The billboards sport a large picture of 29-year-old lawyer Teresa DiNardi and list her website, LadyDUI.com, and phone number, 888-Lady-DUI, the New York Times reports. DiNardi is a lawyer with Ruane Attorneys, hired out of law school in 2006. Her firm now handles 400 cases of driving under the influence each year, the story says.
DiNardi has something of a background in marketing, having sold health club memberships, according to a profile in the Hartford Business Journal.
DiNardi’s father is a retired police officer, but he’s proud she went to law school and he likes seeing the billboards, DiNardi told the Times. “Most of the cops understand that the people they arrested are entitled to a defense,” DiNardi said. Some drunken-driving opponents are criticizing the billboards, but DiNardi defends her work.
“DUIs happen to everyone across the board,” she told the newspaper in a live Internet chat on Skype. “Politicians, judges, cops, prosecutors, your next-door neighbor. It’s not the same as having clients that are burglars, robbers and murderers. You feel that you can actually help people that are productive members of society.”
She believes offenders need substance abuse treatment rather than jail time, and also likes the idea of court-ordered ignition lock devices that won’t allow the car to start if a driver has had too many drinks. Jail, she said, ruins lives. Offenders “can’t work, pay their bills, support their family,” she told the Times.
DiNardi is seeing a trend this year—lots of repeat offenders—and wonders if it has anything to do with the troubled economy. Her firm is busiest in Fairfield County, where many financial industry workers have homes.
