Dern, Doug:
25%
of the drunk driving convictions are actually innocent. It seems that
if you get arrested for drunk driving, you are guilty until proven
innocent. Breathalyzer machines are wrong 50% of the time. I hope no
one ever needs me. But if you do, and you want the State to prove their
case my mission is to provide affordable legal defense.
Drunk
Driving is serious business. If you get a first offense misdemeanor
drunk driving many times the punishment will be worse then a first time
felon. You would not go to a corporate lawyer for a divorce. Don't go
to a criminal lawyer or a family lawyer for a drunk driving. Drunk
driving defense work is a special area of the law that requires more
then a general knowledge.
There
are often things that go wrong in chemical testing. It could be you
were at the bar and had only a couple of drinks and you honestly
thought you were sober. As you drive home a cop stops you and arrests
you. If you have food in your teeth, or a small cut in your mouth, or
you are a smoker, or you burped before a breath test all these things
will give the illusion that you are drunk, when in fact, you were
sober. A lot of lawyers, who don't specialize in drunk driving, will
have you plead guilty. And once you have a drunk driving on your record
your insurance is raised, society frowns on you and quite frankly you
are treated like a common criminal.
If have been arrested for OWI or OUIL, or DWVI you should seek the advice of an attorney immediately. There could be serious consequences even for fist time offenders. Once you have a drunk driving offense on your record it never goes off. If you get three (3) within a lifetime it is a felony drunk driving. Even a first offense involves license suspension, heavy fines, and possibly jail. A second offense is mandatory jail time and a lifetime license suspension. A third offense is a 1 to 5 year prison felony. Do not take a drunk driving charge lightly. It is a crime. A crime that you could pay high insurance rates for a very long time.
SOS - The new definition of drunk driving in Michigan .08 -- Lower Limit. Tougher Law.
Are there defenses? Yes.
Just because you have been charged with a drunk driving doesn't mean you are guilty. It only means that the police officer had probable cause for an arrest. The Attorney for the State of Michigan must prove every allegation & element of the crime.
There are a number of defenses in a drunk driving case, not every case is an automatic guilty, a keen aggressive attorney will do a full investigation to discover every possible angle.
Defenses to drunk driving include:
Improper stopÑ The Police must have a reason to stop you. Have you ever been driving down the road late at night only to be stopped by a police officer. He walks up to the window and ask you if you been drinking? You say no and he checks you out to find out you have not been drinking and let you go??? This is illegal. Under the law there is what is called a Terry stop. For the police to stop you there must be a reasonable articulate suspension that criminal activity is afoot. A police officer can not just stop you just because he thinks you are drinking. But, often as the case is you are stopped for driving at night. This eventually leads to a drunk driving arrest.
Improper arrestÑ The police may have done something illegal during the arrest. The Police must have a probable cause for the arrest. Often times there is not enough evidence to arrest you, but they arrest you anyway so they can get you down to the police station and give you a Data master or a blood draw. If the arrest is not proper then your case could get dismissed. Improper handling of chemical testing. Administrative rules govern how police officers take breath and blood samples. For instance, testing instruments must be properly maintained and calibrated. If the police did not follow these statutes and administrative rules, the test results can sometimes be thrown out. This strategy is unlikely to lead to a dismissal. However, it often improves a defendant's chances for victory at trial.
Improper procedureÑ Anything from administrative mistakes to dirty police work, to bad blood work to faulty Data Master the possibilities are endless. You are not guilty. Sometimes the police make a mistake and arrest an innocent person. About 10% of people arrested for OWI are actually innocent.
The defenses on a drunk driving case are endless. It takes a aggressive attorney to look under every stone.