If you have been arrested and indicted with Driving Under the Influence (DUI) or Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), you are well aware that you face a serious misdemeanour. You risk losing your licence, as well as facing required penalties and a prison sentence. Although the task may appear overwhelming, DUI charges are defendable. A professional DUI attorney can assist you in identifying unique issues in your situation and finding the finest DUI defences possible. A list of some of these defences is provided below to understand how legal and technical concerns form the foundation for various kinds of DUI defences.
Defendant Not Allowed An Attorney
The suspect has the right to speak with a counsel before or after being detained during any criminal inquiry. This right is essential in DUI investigations because the time constraints of a DUI investigation are crucial in deciding to collect incriminating evidence. Denial of such right may result in the dismissal of a DUI charge.
The accused in a DUI investigation has the right to speak with a lawyer if doing so would not unduly delay or obstruct the DUI investigation. If the defence files a motion to dismiss evidence based on denial of the right to an attorney, the state bears the burden of proving that the right to counsel would have impeded the DUI investigation; otherwise, the solution is suppression of evidence and dropping the charges. Any evidence obtained resulting from a breach of an accused’s right to a lawyer must be ignored. When the state compromises a defendant’s right to speak with their lawyer, the result is usually a dismissal of the charges.
Inaccurate Breath Alcohol Tests
Breath tests, also known as breathalysers, identify alcohol particles in your lungs and provide your blood alcohol level value. This indirect assessment of your blood alcohol concentration may result in an erred reading since one test is insufficient to ascertain the amounts of alcohol in your system.
Breath alcohol testing is based on the assumption of a single partition ratio value. The partition ratio is the proportion of alcohol levels in the blood to alcohol levels in the lungs or breath. Variations in individual physiology can result in people having different partition ratios than the ratio used as the foundation for the breath alcohol test.
Illegal Stop
A driver cannot be stopped or detained unless the police have a substantial and articulable cause to suspect that traffic or other law has been violated.
The burden is on the prosecution in all criminal proceedings to establish that all evidence was collected lawfully and per the right to be free from arbitrary searches and seizures. A police officer cannot stop a driver based on a hunch. Driving a car late at night or just leaving a bar is not an offence. To justify any later arrest or evidence acquired, an officer must establish an objective basis for doing a traffic stop.
Invalid Field Sobriety Tests
To be regarded as an accurate indicator of cues of impairment, the test must be informed, administered, and done in the same manner every time. These tests are only 60% – 70% accurate, and they are entirely invalid when done on people with disabilities, who are overweight, or who are elderly.
Field Sobriety Tests are not entirely standardised. Finger to Nose tests, ostrich balancing tests, and reciting the alphabet are not recognised by the Federal Government as standardized field sobriety tests for DUI. Some of the tests are not even accepted by all police departments. Their use in demonstrating impairment at trial is questionable at best.
For help with your DUI or traffic case, please contact our office. With over 75 years of combined legal experience, Attorneys David B. Franks, David N. Rechenberg and James H. Andrle have helped regular people overcome extraordinary obstacles.