Law Firm Changchun represented a defendant sentenced to ten months' imprisonment at first instance in a case involving causing a traffic accident while intoxicated, injuring a person and then fleeing. We obtained not only a decision granting release on bail but also, on appeal, the setting aside of the judgment below and a suspended sentence. This was by no means an easy result to obtain, particularly as there had been no material change in circumstances between the first instance and appellate decisions.
Drawing on expertise built in part through service at the prosecution service, Law Firm Changchun contested actively the inappropriateness of the sentence imposed at first instance. In this case in particular the defendant's blood alcohol concentration was measured markedly higher than usual, but Law Firm Changchun submitted academic materials on the Widmark formula to the court and emphasized that "where a defendant's blood was drawn approximately ** hours after the accident and a blood alcohol concentration of 0.***% was measured, it cannot be said with certainty whether that measurement was taken during the rising or the falling phase" — securing a judgment setting aside the decision below on the basis that "the first instance court's sentence was excessively heavy and inappropriate."
Beyond this matter, Law Firm Changchun has obtained judgments setting aside decisions below in numerous criminal cases on comparable facts, and on the strength of that expertise undertakes to do its utmost to ensure our clients do not face unjust or unreasonable levels of punishment.