DUI Defenses and Evidence

Successful DUI Defenses

Attorneys can use many different defenses to fight these charges, but DUI case law is very complex. Many DUI defenses are only applicable in a limited number of scenarios. Because what you say to the police could be used as evidence that could negate a good defense, it is vital that you remain silent and never say more than you are legally required to without a lawyer present. If you did speak to the police during a DUI arrest, write down everything you can remember after your release because any small detail may help you build a strong defense.

Challenging Chemical Test Results

One of the main pieces of the state’s evidence in a DUI trial is the chemical test. If you can prove it was improperly performed or that the results were otherwise falsely high, you may weaken the state’s case enough for you to win your case.

One of the most common reasons people get a falsely high breathalyzer result is that they had alcohol in their mouth when they took the breathalyzer. Mouth alcohol commonly occurs due to vomiting or burping, which can result in alcohol in your stomach going back into your mouth, inflating your Breathalyzer results accordingly. 

California state law requires law enforcement officers to watch suspects for 15 minutes to ensure this does not happen. But many officers fail to observe suspects this whole time. The entire breath test is compromised if the suspect burps or vomits when the officer looks away. You should tell your lawyer if you noticed this, as many DUI cases are thrown out for this exact reason.

While chemical tests are rarely exempted as evidence, if your case goes to trial, your defense lawyer may be able to question these factors enough to win the jury over, which is why challenging this evidence is one of the most successful DUI strategies.

The Initial Traffic Stop Was Illegal

California DUI laws state that police must have a reasonable suspicion you committed a Vehicle Code violation or are driving impaired before stopping a vehicle. They must also not prolong a detained driver longer than reasonably necessary if they don’t suspect driving under the influence or committing another crime.

If an officer stopped you for an infraction unrelated to your driving and had no cause for reasonable suspicion, he would have no grounds to ask you to take a field sobriety test or breathalyzer. While it can be difficult to successfully argue that the officer had no grounds for reasonable suspicion because so many things meet this legal requirement, people are still occasionally subjected to a DUI arrest without the officer meeting this standard and cleared of the charges as a result.

The Black and White Fever Defense

A common defense used to question the officer’s observations regarding a defendant’s erratic driving behavior is known as “black-and-white” fever. This condition occurs when someone notices that a police vehicle is following them, and they start looking in their rearview mirror more and more often until it affects their concentration and ability to drive. Many jurors will relate to this feeling and recognize that it is entirely possible that someone would start to drive poorly, frequently changing speeds or weaving from one side of the lane to another, when they are too focused on a police vehicle that is following them.

The Rising Alcohol Defense

Practically everyone would eventually be over the legal limit to drive after taking 5 shots of vodka at once. But the reality is that it will take anywhere from 20 to 90 minutes for the alcohol to take effect, meaning if someone drove before that time, they were not yet drunk. The rising alcohol defense argues that you drank alcohol shortly before you were stopped and that it did not yet enter your system when you were pulled over -although it did enter your system by the time you took a chemical test. Since you are only guilty of DUI if you are under the influence while behind the wheel, you did not technically commit a crime if the alcohol did not yet take effect.

This defense will not work if you took a breathalyzer on the spot when you were pulled over unless that test showed you were under the legal limit at the time and then failed a test taken later on.  For people well over the limit, this defense can sometimes work to lower the amount of alcohol to argue that they should be sentenced to basic DUI penalties, rather than facing enhanced penalties for having a high blood alcohol level.

The DUI Checkpoint Was Operated Illegally

While DUI checkpoints are legal, they are only permitted if performed under a specific set of rules. Some courts insist that police must allow drivers the opportunity to turn away and leave the checkpoint rather than pass through it, although some courts do not require the police to allow for a way to opt out of sobriety checkpoints. If not every car is stopped, then the vehicles must be stopped at set intervals —meaning they cannot stop a specific car based on how it, or its driver, looks. Even if a driver has slurred speech, they cannot be stopped if they do not fit into the pre-determined pattern.

If your rights were violated at an improperly operated checkpoint, a DUI attorney could help get the charges against you dropped or reduced according to the law.

The Medical Emergency Defense

Those seeking help in an emergency with no other options have a solid defense against DUI allegations. While only applicable in a handful of cases, it is a total defense, meaning that when successfully argued, you cannot be convicted for a DUI charge no matter how drunk you were at the time.

This defense applies only during true, immediate emergencies when there is no other alternative. To effectively use this criminal defense, your attorneys must show that a reasonable person would have acted the same way. For example, suppose a parent discovers their infant has stopped breathing and cannot call an ambulance because their cell phone has no service. In that case, the law allows them to respond to this sudden, imminent emergency.

While most cases using this defense involve medical emergencies, other emergencies also qualify, but only if a person believes the life or that of another person is at risk. For example, while a fire at your home while your children are home is an emergency, driving there will not help you save their lives, so you would likely not be able to argue the emergency defense for drunk driving home in this case. On the other hand, if you were drinking at someone’s house and they started chasing you with a knife, you could drive to escape the person, but even then, only enough to get away. If you lived across town, you could go somewhere far enough that they could not catch you, but not back to your home.

DUI Plea Bargains

Even in cases where you may not be able to fight your charges entirely, a skilled DUI attorney may be able to negotiate a beneficial plea bargain so you have the minimum sentence possible or alternative sentencing, sometimes even reducing the charges to wet reckless rather than drunk driving.