A DUI can have a significant impact on your future, even if you don’t cause an accident and injure other people. It can affect your family life, your ability to secure and maintain a job, or your likelihood of getting into college or securing a lease agreement, and that doesn’t even factor in the monetary burden of a DUI in the form of fines and increased insurance penalties. If you are charged with a DUI, you need to defend yourself in the court of law. But what are some of the best legal defenses after a DUI? We explain your options below.
Best DUI Defenses
The state must prove that it is beyond a reasonable doubt that you were driving under the influence of alcohol. Here are some ways to create reasonable doubt after a DUI.
1. Challenge The Traffic Stop – In order for a officer to conduct a legal traffic stop, they must have probable cause to stop your vehicle. Seeing you drink out of an unidentified can or watching you leave a bar is not in and of itself enough to warrant a traffic stop. They must witness a driving violation in order to conduct the traffic stop. The ends don’t justify the means, so even if you were over the legal limit, if probable cause did not exist, you can get your charges dropped quickly by challenging the stop itself.
2. Bad Breath Test – Breathalyzers are not very reliable, and they need to be regularly serviced in order to ensure they are in proper working condition. Your lawyer can take a closer look at the breathalyzer results and the device to see if you have a case challenging the breathalyzer evidence.
3. Field Sobriety Tests – There have been cases where an officer has given confusing or downright incorrect instructions when conducting field sobriety tests. Your lawyer can review the recording of the traffic stop to see if the officer violated any of your rights or drew some incorrect conclusions from the interaction.
4. The Absorption of Alcohol – If your BAC is right near 0.08, your lawyer may be able to argue that you were under the limit when you got in the vehicle and only after you started driving did your BAC break the legal threshold. This isn’t all that common of a DUI defense, but it’s worth looking into if you were just barely over the legal limit.
5. Procedural Violation – Your lawyer will also look into the actions of the police to see if any procedural violations were made. For example, if they didn’t read you your Miranda rights or there was a problem with the chain of custody of the breath or blood sample, you can get the case dismissed.
All of these defenses are best presented by a professional who knows how to tailor the events to put you in a good light. Avery Appelman and his team have been doing just that for more than a decade. To learn more, reach out to Appelman Law Firm for a free case evaluation today.
