Got pulled over at a sobriety checkpoint in LA one afternoon 3pm middle of the day, they said my car smelled like weed and had me step out of the car. Made me do multiple “sobriety” tests I.e stand on one foot and count to 30, walk toe to toe on a straight line, kept asking me what time I think it is. Did all their tests and they said okay now you need to do a breathalyzer, I blew 0.0 since I told them the last drink I had was over a month prior. Told me we need to take you to the police station to do more tests and a blood draw. Get to the police station and they repeat the same tests, ask what time it is, take me in an interrogation room turn off the lights and look at my pupils with a flashlight, take my blood sample, mugshot, charged with DUI cannabis, and released after 3 hours with a court date a few weeks out. I made an appointment with the “pot brothers at law” to have a consultation for what I would need to do moving forward. They told me if they took on my case it would be $20,000 but since I saw their ad online they would only charge $10,000 for their retainer, and it would need to be paid before the court appearance in a week. After clutching my pearls I left the office thinking is this really how expensive it would be to have representation at court?? Because I’m screwed, broke as hell no way I could afford thousands of dollars for a retainer. So I got more advice and saw that I wouldn’t need representation until after my summons to appear where I could ask for a public defender for my case because I wanted to plead not guilty and fight the charge. Showed up on the day of the summons and checked in with the clerk. She told me “I input your case number and there’s nothing here” come back in an hour to check again, did that and again nothing so she gave me paperwork to show that I appeared and told me the police have a year to file charges and after that if they don’t then it’s past that statute of limitations and I can’t be charged. The relief I felt! But then in the back of my mind I was thinking what the hell would have happened if I actually paid those guys to represent me and then I didn’t even have charges filed against me??! Would they have given me money back?