A few years ago, I was in a pretty serious car accident. During the aftermath, I became really familiar with a lot of different types of lawyers. I worked with personal injury lawyers, insurance lawyers, and many others. Perhaps the most important, though, was the estate planning lawyer. I was really young, and neither my wife or I had thought about starting a will. But the accident kind of scared us into it. What would happen if one of us were to die? Even when still in the hospital, I was working with the lawyer to draw up a will. Now, I have some peace and security about what the future will be like if something should happen to me. And I have a lot of experience working with various types of lawyers! The accident was kind of a blessing in disguise in that way.
When a person is caught driving with a blood-alcohol content (BAC) level of 0.08 or higher, he or she could get arrested and charged with a driving under the influence (DU) charge. If this happened to you recently, you might wonder how you can get out of the charge. While there are several strategies criminal lawyers use to help their clients, one common strategy involves challenging the BAC test that was conducted just before the arrest.
How this defense works in some cases
To get arrested for a DUI, the police officer making the arrest must have proof that you were drinking while driving. One of the main methods police officers use for this purpose is a breathalyzer. This involves breathing into a device, and the device then registers an amount that represents what your blood-alcohol content is. When an officer administers a breathalyzer, he or she must follow certain laws and protocol. If the officer fails to do this, you could challenge the results of the test or the methods used by the officer when giving you the test.
Ways to challenge the BAC test results
There are several common challenges people use when fighting a DUI charge with this strategy. For one, you could get the charges dropped if you have proof that the breathalyzer was not an approved type; however, this can be a difficult thing to prove. Another way to fight it is by using the defense that the breathalyzer device was not calibrated properly before use. If a breathalyzer was not calibrated before use, the results of the test could be inaccurate or invalid.
You could also fight the charge by using the defense that the officer did not have a probably reason for giving you the breathalyzer. For example, if you were not swerving on the road or speeding, and if you were not slurring your speech or acting intoxicated in any way, the officer might not have had the legal right to issue the breathalyzer.
What this could mean for your case
If you use this strategy and can get the court to drop the breathalyzer results, the court may then be forced to drop your charges. This is just one of many defenses DUI lawyers use when helping people who are facing DUI charges.
Fighting a DUI charge is not easy on your own, and that is why you should hire a lawyer that specializes in DUI cases. To learn more, call a DUI lawyer, like Kevin T Conway Esq Pc.
Share10 March 2018
