A DUI conviction can be absolutely debilitating to a person and even their family. A conviction for a DUI can mean much more than just a license suspicion for a year or a year and a half. DUI basics A conviction for a DUI can mean a state conviction depending upon the specific circumstances of the dui and the number of previous dui convictions that an accused has. Rather than exploring the actual crime of DUI and the possible penalties that an accused can face, in this blog we will explore the various defenses that an individual may have.
The first question to ask when defending a dui case is did the police have a legal basis to stop my vehicle. In order for the police to stop a vehicle for a traffic violation, they must have probable cause Read about Probable Cause here to believe that the accused committed a traffic violation. A traffic violation can be anything from driving through a stop sign or a traffic light to driving over a fog line several times. If the police stop a vehicle which results in a dui charge and a judge decides that the police officer did not have probable cause to believe that the accused committed a traffic violation then the dui charge would be dismissed.
The second question to ask when defending a dui case is did the police have a basis (reasonable suspicion), to administer field sobriety tests to the accused. Typical ways that the police can obtain reasonable suspicion to believe that an accused might have been Driving Under the Influence is if the accused has blood shot eyes, alcohol on his breath and slurred speech.
The final question which is generally asked in these cases is did the police have probable cause to arrest the accused for DUI. Factors involved in this calculation is did the defendant fail his field sobriety tests and was their an accident.