Top 4 Possible Defenses for DUI Charges

Top 4 Possible Defenses for DUI Charges

Have you been charged with a DUI offense? If you have, know that you are facing severe penalties and even a jail sentence.

A DUI is a criminal offense that can have lasting consequences. Besides losing your driver’s license, you will have to pay a fee. Worse yet, you may serve time in jail — especially if you have a past DUI offense.

Luckily, the above situations do not need to happen to you. With your DUI lawyer, you can defend yourself from charges. By successfully defending yourself from a DUI charge, you can go free and get behind the wheel again.

Strengthen your case with your DUI attorney with these five compelling defenses for DUI charges.

1. Inaccurate Sobriety Testing

On the road, a police officer can administer sobriety tests to determine impairments in coordination and balance. While there are standardized tests, these alone cannot determine the presence of alcohol in your system. After all, many things can cause disorientation, and not everybody can always display perfect balance and coordination.

These sobriety tests can be an area your DUI lawyer can question. Another area of sobriety testing your attorney can challenge is the breathalyzer test,

Most breathalyzer instruments have calibration settings that allow for a 10% margin of error. On paper, the margin of error seems negligible. However, it can mean the difference between being found intoxicated or not.

Knowing the margin of error will give you a ground to question a police officer’s breathalyzer reading. If the reading yields 0.08%, your blood alcohol concentration may, in reality, be 0.072%. 0.072% is below the legal BAC threshold in Atlanta.

2. Not Being Given Sufficient Chances To Call Your DUI Lawyer

As part of your Miranda Rights, you have a right to seek legal counsel — even at the time of your arrest. The police officer arresting you must ensure you have ample opportunity to call your DUI attorney.

If the police officer prohibits you from calling your lawyer, you can claim a violation of your Miranda Rights. You may also make a similar claim for a police officer’s failure to grant you the time and resources to make the call.

3. Unlawfully Being Arrested Even If You Weren’t Driving

In Atlanta, the law defines a DUI as the act of operating a vehicle after the ingestion of alcohol or any other prohibited substance in the state. Under this definition, two elements make up a DUI charge — your operation or driving of the vehicle and the presence of alcohol in your system.

The vehicle needs to have been moving under your operation if a police officer arrests you for DUI. However, if the vehicle was not moving, they cannot claim that you were driving. This is also true even if the keys were in the ignition, and you were in the driver’s seat.

An arrest for suspicion of DUI would then be unlawful even if you have alcohol in your system. After all, you may have just been taking shelter in your vehicle.

With the arrest being unlawful, you have a compelling defense against any DUI charge levied against you.

4. The Authorities Unlawfully Stopping You While You Were Driving

Under no circumstances can a police officer stop you for no reasonable cause. In Atlanta, police officers can only stop motorists if they have concrete evidence and sufficient reasons to do so. Also, police officers must be able to explain why they stopped you and demonstrate the cause.

Without any articulable reason, no police officer can stop or arrest you. Any arrest made without you knowing why would then be unlawful. It also becomes an area of your DUI charge your attorney can challenge.

Fight Your DUI Charges With a DUI Attorney That Fights for You

You can defend yourself from a DUI charge by hiring an experienced DUI lawyer in Atlanta. Reach out to us for a free consultation and get the legal representation that puts you behind the wheel.