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DUI Lawyer Wiki
DUI - [Hiring a DUI Attorney] is a serious crime that carries a high penalty. The purpose of DUILawyerWiki is to gather all available information and knowledge about DUI law, DUI lawyers and other related subjects in one place. Knowledge is power, and if you or someone close to you are facing a DUI charge, or if you just want to understand more about DUI law, we hope that DUILawyerWiki will be useful to you.
What to do if you are facing a DUI charge
Depending on your circumstances, it may be possible for you to be acquitted entirely. It is important that you act quickly, and what follows are what we believe should be the first steps you take after having been charged with DUI.
Hire a specialized DUI lawyer
Your first step should be to hire a [good DUI lawyer to represent you]. A DUI conviction can be costly at best, or yield a lengthy stay in jail or worse, so professional legal representation is highly recommended. Finding and hiring a good DUI lawyer is however not always an easy task. Here is a guide to help you find the right DUI legal representation for you, which also shows what you should expect to pay for the service.
Understand the law
Understanding your predicament and the law may be worth even more than good legal representation.
If you hire a lawyer to represent you, you will do well to understand the law yourself, so you can make sure your lawyer stays on top of your case.
If you are planning on defending yourself in court or at the DMV hearing, you absolutely must know and understand DUI law.
We'll arm you with knowledge about DUI law, DUI lawyers and what strategies other defendants who have faced DUI charges, or their lawyers, have used to minimize their fines and penalties, or in many cases even acquit themselves completely.
Learn common DUI defense strategies
- Attack the arresting officer's observations, and question his or hers opinions.
- Call into question the witness testimony of the person that administered the defendants BAC test.
- Bring in a witness that can testify that the defendant was sober, or had a permissible BAC at the time of driving.
- Question the accuracy of the breathalyzer BAC reading.
- Necessity excuse - prove the defendant had to drive to prevent a greater evil.
- Police Entrapment - prove an officer requested or tricked a person into driving drunk.
- Mistake of fact - prove the defendant honestly believed that his or her BAC was below the legal threshold.
- Involuntary intoxication - prove the defendant ingested alcohol without his or her knowledge.
- Lawfully prescribed medication - prove the defendant only had lawfully prescribed substances in the body, without being advised not to drive after taking it.
- Rising blood alcohol defense - prove the defendants BAC was in the permissible range while driving, and only went above the limit a significant amount of time after the arrest.
Not all these strategies are available in every state. See the specific page for your state for more information. Each defense will require tangible facts to back it up in order to stand a chance in court.
The 0.8 BAC Per Se laws
Central to current DUI law is the federally mandated BAC Per Se laws. In short these laws makes it a criminal offense in and of itself to driver or operate a vehicle with a BAC of 0.8 or higher in any state, regardless of whether the driver exhibits visible proof of impairment or intoxication.
If you are found to have had a BAC of 0.8 or higher at the time of driving, the BAC Per Se laws compels the courts to automatically consider you guilty of Driving Under the Influence.
Contribute to DUI Lawyer Wiki
We want to be the best, most easily accessible and of course completely free source of information regarding DUI laws and lawyers in the US. We welcome contributions, as long as they are compatible with our Creative Common's ShareAlike license. It is the same license that Wikipedia uses, which means that anything you write yourself is welcome, and anything that you have permission from the original author to post is also welcome.
