DUI is a serious offense. If you are arrested and charged with DUI, you may face several penalties, fines, jail time, and maybe even lose your license. These charges will also stay on your record for a long time, and this can affect your career.
If you are facing DUI charges, you should hire a DUI attorney immediately to help you fight the charges. DUI defense attorneys understand how serious such charges are and will review the facts surrounding your case to come up with the right defense to fight the charges.
Here are some of the defenses that an attorney can use.
Illegal Stop by the Police
The police are not allowed to stop private citizens unless they have a reason to believe that they are breaking the law or flaunting traffic rules. As per the law, reasonable suspicion means that the police must have more than a gut feeling or a hunch before stopping somebody.
In a DUI case, the police have to suspect that the driver has done something wrong. For example, if you were speeding, swerving, or breaking traffic laws, the police have enough reason to stop you. However, if you were following all traffic laws, yet you were stopped, your attorney can argue that they did not have reasonable suspicion to stop you, and any evidence they have against you is inadmissible.
Inaccurate Breath Alcohol Testing and Field Sobriety Tests
Police use breathalyzers or breath tests to determine a person’s blood-alcohol content (BAC). A single test may not accurately determine the level of alcohol in your system. Other factors such as changes in body temperature during the tests can result in falsely high readings. The device itself has a 10% margin of error and can give falsely high readings.
Apart from the breathalyzer, the police can conduct other field sobriety tests such as the finger to nose tests, reciting the alphabet, or the Rhomberg-Modified balancing tests. However, these are not standardized tests. For the tests to be accurate, the tests must be given and performed the same way every time.
If the police arrested you after a single test or did not perform the test appropriately, your attorney can deem the test inaccurate and have the charges dropped.
Miranda Violations
According to the U.S. Constitution, the police have to read a suspect their rights and inform them that they are officially under arrest before taking them in custody. The Miranda rights, which include a suspect’s right to remain silent and right to an attorney or have the court appoint them one, must be read to the suspect during the arrest.
If the police failed to read the suspect their rights and uphold them, any evidence they have against them, such as the field sobriety tests, breathalyzer test results, and more, can be excluded.
Improper Storage of the Blood Alcohol Samples
After making an arrest, police should have the blood-alcohol samples analyzed by a trained and licensed phlebotomist as soon as possible. If the samples take too long before getting tested or are tested by an untrained technician, your attorney can use that to defend you.
The police should ensure that the samples are well handled to prevent mislabeling, contamination, or fermentation. If the integrity of the samples is questioned, they can be thrown out. This will leave the prosecution with very little to use as evidence.
Hire a DUI Defense Attorney
An experienced DUI defense attorney can use these defenses and more to try to beat your DUI charge. Depending on your case, the attorney can have several other ways to have the charge reduced or dismissed. If you are facing a DUI charge, get in touch with the right attorney in your area immediately.