DUI is a serious charge that can have a lasting impact on your life. It can cost you time in jail, loss of driving privileges and diminished job prospects, among other negative consequences.
A skilled defense lawyer can help you minimize the impact of a DUI on your life. He can fight for you against a tough prosecutor to protect your rights. Learn more.
Time Sensitive
If you’re facing a DUI charge, you need to get in touch with an attorney as soon as possible. A skilled attorney can help you challenge your license suspension, obtain treatment, and reduce or eliminate the penalties associated with a DUI conviction.
A skilled attorney can also evaluate the facts of your case and identify any legal errors. This could lead to a successful defense in court.
Often, the key to a successful DUI defense is a thorough investigation of the incident that led to the arrest. This includes investigating the details of the traffic stop, field sobriety tests, breath test results, and other evidence.
A good attorney can also explain the law to you, a skill that can be difficult for some people to grasp. Many attorneys offer free consultations where you can ask questions and learn about your options.
Collateral Consequences
DUI crimes are very serious, involving criminal penalties including jail time, fines, license suspension or revocation and drug counseling. While all of these consequences are important, sometimes the collateral consequences that follow a conviction are much more damaging than jail time and court costs alone.
Collateral consequences are repercussions imposed by society, and can affect a defendant long after the court has issued its judgement. Typically, these repercussions are civil and administrative in nature and do not directly relate to a defendant’s criminal conviction.
The collateral consequences of a DUI conviction can range from loss of license to problems with employment and the loss of educational opportunities. They can also have a far-reaching impact on social life, especially with respect to a person’s reputation and relationships.
It is important to be aware of these collateral consequences and make sure that your attorney is informed about them. A DUI lawyer should take the necessary steps to mitigate these repercussions for you.
Improper Stops
When a police officer pulls you over for suspicion of DUI, it may seem like the beginning of a scary situation. However, if you hire a skilled Stanwood, WA DUI attorney, your attorney can review all of the facts surrounding your arrest and determine if it was legally made.
If the police stopped you without a substantiated reason, it could be unlawful and all evidence obtained from that stop may be suppressed at trial.
For instance, a traffic stop in Georgia must be justified by articulable and specific facts that lead to the conclusion that a driver is in violation of a law. Weaving within your lane, driving too slowly, erratic braking, or using your turn signals without turning are all examples of reasonable suspicion that would warrant the stop.
The same is true of a traffic stop that is based on an anonymous tip, such as someone seeing you drive erratically. Challenging the reliability of this information can be a successful defense to your stop, and your DUI lawyer may even be able to get it thrown out in court.
Inaccurate Test Results
If your DUI attorney can show that your breath or blood test results were not administered properly, this could have a significant impact on the outcome of your case. Inaccurate BAC results can result in a reduced or even dismissed charge.
Police are required to follow certain procedures when administering breath, blood, and chemical tests in order to ensure that they are accurate. However, in some cases, these procedures aren’t followed or other factors could skew the results.
A faulty test may be caused by human error, or a machine might not be calibrated correctly. This could lead to inaccurate results that aren’t reliable enough to be used as evidence against you at trial.
