If you are arrested for driving under the influence, it will most certainly be one of the most embarrassing and troubling experienced of your life. Please read on to learn more.
If you are arrested for driving under the influence,
it will most certainly be one of the most embarrassing and troubling experienced of your life. It can also be one of the most costly, so it is important to have someone fighting for you in court who can put you in position to weather the storm.
Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is considered to be one of the most significant crimes in the 21st century, and a DUI defense attorney understands this better than anyone.
Why is this important? Because if you find yourself in court after being arrested for driving drunk, the court will be looking to throw the book at you to make an example. Without someone who knows and understands the ins and outs of the laws and procedures that govern the related proceedings, you could find yourself in more trouble than you can imagine.
In all 50 United States and the District of Columbia, an operator of any motor vehicle is considered drunk if his or her blood alcohol content, or BAC, is .08 or higher. While this statute is standard across the board in the U.S., individual state laws can vary greatly and that is where a DUI defense attorney comes in.
Many individual states govern their alcohol laws differently, and this applies to drunken driving regulations as well. For instance, individual states can include anything from boats and airplanes to lawnmowers, bicycles and horse-drawn carriages under such statues. In addition, if the operator of such a vehicle is below the legal drinking age of 21 years old, zero tolerance laws in various states can set the point of impairment anywhere from between .01 and .05.
If you are arrested for such a crime, a DUI defense attorney will also want to know the process in which you were stopped, questioned and determined to be impaired by the arresting officer.
In many cases a field sobriety test is performed to make such an assessment. The methods by which these tests are performed are govern by individual state regulations as well as by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, and if they are performed incorrectly or illegally it could have a significant effect on your case.
Another important aspect of an arrest for impaired operation is a test for an individual’s blood alcohol content. Most commonly this comes in the form of a Breathalyzer test, which is performed by having the subject breathe into a tube connected to a device that measures BAC from the subject’s breath.
In some states, law enforcement officials are not legally allowed to force a subject to take such a test and the results can be thrown out in court if obtained illegally. In others, blood samples are allowed to be drawn following accidents that are suspected to be alcohol related, while in others they are not.
Because of the many variables, loopholes and potential confusion over the regulations that govern drunken driving, a DUI defense attorney can mean the difference between you being able to survive the fallout from your arrest and potentially life-altering penalties. If you find yourself in such a position, do yourself a favor and don’t fight it alone.
