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What Makes You An Expert?

A quick "thank you" text in January 2020 from a young lawyer who Tom helped with a pending case. We get these quite often.

Lots of lawyers have diplomas, certificates and plaques hanging all over their offices.  A lawyer can spend his entire career accumulating paper credentials and press clippings. 

Here are some of Tom's credentials:

  • Board-Certified by the National College for DUI Defense since 2008.
  • Certified Instructor in DWI Detection and Standardized Field Sobriety Testing.
  • Trained as a Breath Test Operator, to operate both the Intoxilyzer 5000 and Intoxilyzer 8000, Florida's evidentiary breath test devices.
  • Faculty of the Summer Session of the NCDD since 2014.
  • Featured speaker on Field Sobriety Testing at NCDD Summer Session held at Harvard Law School in 2019.
  • Trained as a Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE).

But the real test of what makes an expert is a lawyer who gives his knowledge to other lawyers to help them help their clients. Tom Hudson has spent decades learning about DUI and has spent almost as long teaching other lawyers how to defend DUI cases. Drunk driving cases are some of the most complicated criminal cases there are: they involve biochemistry, separation science, driving regulations, plus all of the normal legal rules that apply to all criminal cases. Because Tom focuses on that one narrow area of the law, he has a mastery of those issues that most lawyers do not have.

It is a rare day at the Hudson Law Office which does not have Tom consulting with at least one other lawyer to help them with their cases. Some of these are lawyers from other states, whose clients may have a Florida drivers license, or have a prior conviction in the state. Others are young lawyers, who have spent time in law school learning how to think like a lawyer, but precious little time mastering the details of complicated cases like DUI. 

So to be sure, Tom has lots of plaques and certificates, too. But what makes a person an expert is being useful to other professionals in their quest to help citizens who are accused of crime. 

Why We're Different

Board Certification as a DUI Specialist by the National College for DUI Defense. Formal NHTSA Certification as an Instructor of the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests given by police in DUI cases. Formal training as a NHTSA Drug Recognition Evaluator. ("Drug Evaluation & Classification") Formal training to operate the Intoxilyzer 8000, Florida's official breath test instrument. Extensive experience in teaching other attorneys how to handle DUI cases. Hundreds of jury trials both as defense lawyer and as prosecutor.

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