renewed hope – gave me strength

I am writing this letter to describe my situation and hopefully help you work through legal problems you or your loved ones are facing. I am 55 years old and until last year I had never had any legal problems whatsoever. I have a degree in engineering and have held professional licenses working for blue chip corporations and two state agencies. I was a home owner with a family and was an active and well respected member in the community. 

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse a few years ago. I injured my back working in my yard. I became addicted to the pain medicine that was prescribed to me. My physical health deteriorated. I became severely depressed. My relationship with my wife deteriorated. My two sons became rebellious and one started using drugs. My wife filed for divorce. I attempted to represent myself in the divorce court and found myself unemployed (because of my back injury), broke and homeless. I literally went from being a happily married upper-middle class citizen to being addicted to prescription drugs, very sick and depressed; loosing my family, my home and everything that I knew in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

After several weeks of poor nutrition and almost no sleep, my state of mind had hit rock bottom with feelings of hopelessness. I went to the home I had previously lived in with my family and lit it on fire. When the police and fire department arrived I refused to come out of the house. The police eventually forcefully arrested me.

This was the lowest point of my entire life. I was in jail and charged with two serious felonies (strikes, in fact). As if my problems were not already bad enough, now I was facing an absolutely uncertain and very scary future. I had never even spent the night in jail before. Now I’m being treated like a serious felon.

Thankfully, my brothers and parents were there to support me. My brother hired Dan Koukol to represent me. The first thing that I really appreciated is that Dan gave me some hope. I think he actually helped me pull out of my mental funk. Within the first week things seemed to be moving in a better direction. I started physically and mentally doing better. I felt that he was representing me in a way that presented my strengths to the judge. Dan worked closely with a mental health professional to put together information the judge and the prosecutor would consider. I told Dan after my case was over that he is the only attorney I have ever met that I actually liked.

It took a couple months, but in the end things worked out. I got out of jail. My probation terms were fair and, I believe, appropriate. I moved into a transitional living situation. When I stopped by Dan’s office to say hi, I was amazed. Everyone there knew exactly who I was and was genuinely supportive and happy to see me moving in the right direction. It turns out that they were all chipping in doing things to help me out the whole time. 

When my case was closed I learned that I was the only person, this year, in Placer County that committed arson in a domestic violence setting that did not get sentenced to prison.

If you find yourself in trouble, without hesitation, I would recommend Dan Koukol and his team. 

~ Anonymous