If the police charge you with driving under the influence (DUI), you shouldn’t just accept the charge. It’s a criminal offense with severe consequences, including a criminal record.
Yet many people do just accept it in a way they probably would not for other criminal accusations. As with any criminal charge, there is always a chance to beat a DUI. Here are some possible ways to do so:
1. Challenge the stop and arrest procedures
The police must follow specific rules when pulling people over, operating a sobriety checkpoint or making an arrest. Yet sometimes, they don’t. Even one procedural mistake might be enough to invalidate the case against you.
2. Challenge the test results
Even the most rigorous science experiments are open to doubt. So are police DUI tests:
- Did you fail a breathalyzer test? What if you knew that these machines are not always accurate? If the police fail to get their machine calibrated on schedule, there may be enough potential for error with the reading that you could have been under the limit, despite reading over.
- Did you fail a field sobriety test? These are said to be pretty accurate when the results from the three standards tests are combined, but they are still open to interpretation by the officer that had you take them. There are also many reasons why even someone who is stone-cold sober might fail one or more of these tests – for example, a disability, nerves or not understanding the instruction correctly.
Knowing that these options exist is a long way from understanding how to choose the appropriate one and put it into action. For that, you should always seek legal help from an experienced DUI defense team.