If you plead guilty to DUI (driving under the influence), or a court finds you guilty of it, then you will pick up a criminal record. That’s on top of the various penalties a judge could issue. Hence it is wise to explore your defense options to see if there is a way to beat a DUI charge.
There is often a way, even for those who were over the limit. Here are some to consider:
Testing errors
The DUI tests the police use are not infallible. Field sobriety tests, such as asking people to stand on one leg or walk in a straight line may be failed for many reasons that have nothing to do with alcohol. For example, nerves, a leg injury, a terrible sense of balance or misunderstanding the police officer’s instructions.
Chemical tests can also be wrong. Officers may administer them incorrectly, the machine used to test may read too high because it lacks calibration or a lab technician could confuse your sample with someone else’s.
Police procedural errors
The law expects officers to act in certain ways when stopping drivers and questioning or arresting them. Sometimes an officer will not comply with the correct procedure giving a defendant cause to challenge the charge. An example could be that the officer did not have a valid reason to pull you over. Another could be the officer cannot explain why they chose to stop you out of all the other drivers passing through a DUI checkpoint.
With legal help to explore these and other DUI defense options, you give yourselves the best chance of beating the charge.