What You Should Do If You Are Stopped for Drunk Driving (Part 1)

Suppose you are driving home from a nice dinner or from a bar where you had a few drinks and a police officer pulls you over on the pretext that you back light is out or that the officer saw you weaving from side to side. The officer smells alcohol on your breath and asks you to step out of the car. The officer asks you whether you have been drinking that evening, and you apply in the affirmation. The officer then asks you how much you had to drink and you reply “two or three beers.” (Everyone stopped for suspicion of drunk driving tells the officer they had only two or three drinks.) The officer says that he or she suspects that you are driving under the influence and then tells you that he or she is going to conduct a field sobriety test on you. Should you comply with the officer’s request? Many lawyers who specialize in defending motorists accused of drunk driving advise that you do not comply, because the field sobriety tests are difficult to do even if you are sober. And if you fail the field sobriety test, this will not look good in the eyes of the jury if you end up fighting the case.

Rather, these expert lawyers advise, calmly and politely tell the officer that you refuse to perform the tests. The officer tells you that if you refuse to take the field sobriety tests, he or she will arrest you immediately on suspicion of drunk driving and take you down to the station for a breath or blood test. The officer may have a portable breath test devise he or she want you to breather into. Again, experienced drunk-driving defense lawyers advise drivers against doing this type of breath test, as it is not reliable.

Instead, seasoned drunk-driving defense lawyers advise that you only submit to a breath test administered down at the police station. By the time you get there, your blood alcohol level is like to be higher than when you were stopped by the police officer, as the alcohol has had more time to be absorbed into your bloodstream. A good drunk driving defense lawyer may be able to convince the jury that when the police officer originally stopped you, your blood alcohol level was well within .08 level. This is the time that counts to determine your guilt for drunk driving – your blood alcohol content at the time you were stopped, not at the time the breath test was administered.

DUI law is complicated and must be handled by an experienced Sacramento DUI lawyer. If you have been charged with a DUI, contact a Sacramento DUIattorney at the Law Offices of Choyce & Crowell today.

CHOYCE & CROWELL
980 9th Street, 16th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
Office: 916-449-9636
Fax: 916-449-9637

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