Los Angeles DUI Lawyer Blog
When a person has been charged with Driving under the Influence in Los Angeles, it is highly recommended that they seek the help of a Los Angeles DUI Attorney to prepare their arguments and the possible defenses available to them. These strategies and defenses may be factual or legal.
Legal Strategies and Defenses
In order for a person to be convicted of a DUI, they must have been driving at the time of the arrest, and must have been intoxicated while driving. A legal professional will strategically asses the type of instrument used, the method in which the evidence against the client was obtained, and the accuracy of the date collected. These are legal defenses or strategies that are available to the client. Let’s consider an example that covers a few of these strategies.
David is driving home from a party when he is stopped for suspicion of driving under the influence. He only had a sip of a couple glasses of wine. He is no way under the influence, especially not enough to impair his ability to drive. David is stopped by officers for not having come to a complete stop at a red light, before making a right turn. David was in fact completely stopped prior to turning. Officers pull him over and start talking to David. They ask David questions as to where he is going ,and where he has been. They ask him if he has been drinking and David responds no he has not. Because he was not in fact drinking. David has perfect speech, is not slurring, does not smell of alcohol, nor does he appear to have any physical symptoms of a person who is under the influence. Officers ask him to step out of the car and administer an alcohol screening test and the test reads .10. This is nearly impossible.
There can be many legal strategies employed by a DUI professional in this case. First off, officers had no right to pull David over in the first place. He had not violated any traffic laws.
Secondly, officers did not have reasonable suspicion that David was drinking to ask him to submit to an alcohol test. He had no physical symptoms of being intoxicated, he did not smell of alcohol, and when he was asked if he had been drinking, he had said no.
Thirdly, the machine reading is clearly in error. There is no way that David’s blood alcohol was at a .1 when he had a few sips of wine. The machine would need to be analyzed be an independent company, and checked for accuracy and maintenance.
Legal strategies in a Los Angeles DUI are important. They can be the difference between a reduced or dismissed case and can be employed in your case if you seek the proper help and advice. If you are faced with this situation be sure to talk to a DUI expert as soon as possible!