The Best Advice is Don't Drink and Drive
Almost all of the articles that I write are directed at people who have already been arrested. This article is directed to people who have not yet been arrested by providing them with knowledge in how to reduce the odds that a DUI arrest will translate into a DUI conviction. The best advice regarding drinking and driving is do not do it. Driving while intoxicated is even less excusable in today's world where there are numerous ride share apps available which offer a much safer alternative for travel when heading out to a place where alcohol may be consumed. However, despite the dangers and the statistics supporting danger of drinking and driving people still do it unfortunately. People make mistakes. I know because it is my job to minimize the impact of people's mistakes on their lives.
Driving while intoxicated leads to an estimated 120 million occurrences of impaired driving per year. Driving after having a few drinks in not not something than anyone should do. It is a well settled fact that alcohol significantly impairs a person's judgement, coordination and control over the fine motor skills that are required to safely navigate a motor vehicle.
The Foundation For Advancing Alcohol Responsibility reports that as of 2017 the rate of alcohol-impaired driving fatalities accounted for 29% of all motor vehicle traffic fatalities in 2017.
The National Department of Highway Safety 10, 784 people died in alcohol related traffic accidents in 2017. Drinking and Driving is dangerous and I strongly caution against doing it under any circumstances. Aside of all of the safety considerations which should be taken into account when deciding whether or not to get behind the wheel of a car, it is also important to always bear in mind the potential personal, financial and professional consequences of a DUI conviction. The consequences of being convicted of DUI can be devastating. A DUI conviction can lead to loss of employment, difficulty in obtaining employment, difficulty in obtaining an education and of course all of the expenses associated with a DUI conviction such as legal fees and insurance premium increases. As a DUI attorney, I speak with people every day who have recently been arrested for DUI in Florida and I have found that the people come in all shapes and sizes and from all walks of life. Some are old and some are you. Some are responsible people in their daily lives and some are not. Some are professionals, some are students, and some are retired. The only thing that I have observed that everyone who has come into my office for a DUI consultation has in common is the fact that they made a mistake. The vast majority of the clients whose DUI cases have been handled by my office have had little to no contact with the criminal justice system prior to their DUI arrest. For most people getting a DUI is the first time that they have ever been arrested and they are often not accustomed to being the subject of a criminal investigation and do not know their rights nor how to handle the investigation in a manner that will make a charge of DUI harder to prove in court. All of the DUI clients who contact my office do so after they have already been arrested for DUI, so my job is always to minimize the damage that has already been done in order to achieve the best result that is possible under the given the circumstances of each case. This article is intended to guide people who have already made the mistake of getting into a car after drinking alcohol in how to minimize the damage and give your lawyer the best chance possible of having the charge of DUI dismissed by the court.
Always be Courteous, Cooperative and Respectful to the Officer
For starters, it is important to remember that no matter what your knowledge of the law may be and no matter where you work or who you are, the police officer conducting the DUI investigation is the person with all of the control during any roadside stop situation. Arguing with the police officer regarding why he pulled you over, being discourteous or being uncooperative will never under any circumstances help your situation. Police officers are trained to conduct themselves as professionals but they are human and they become angry and frustrated just like anyone else. You do not want an angry and frustrated cop conducting your DUI investigation both for your personal safety as well as for minimizing the damage from a legal perspective. Always be courteous and respectful. If an officer makes observations consistent with impairment during the initial contact in a traffic stop he may ask the driver to exit the vehicle in order to conduct a DUI investigation. A police officer is required to have made observations sufficient to provide him with a reasonable basis for which to believe that you may be impaired in order to begin a DUI investigation, however the existence or lack thereof of reasonable suspicion to initiate a DUI investigation is an issue to be taken up by your lawyer if you are arrested for DUI and not on the side of the road with the police officer.
Know the Law: The Implied Consent Law DOES NOT Require a Driver to Submit to Field Sobriety Exercises It is important to remember though that being cooperative and respectful does not require you to do everything that you can in order to assist the officer in arresting you for DUI. In Florida when conducting a DUI investigation, the officer will want the driver to perform a series of field sobriety exercises in order to observe any possible signs of impairment. The standardized field sobriety exercises can be difficult for some people to perform even when they are stone sober. They are intended to be difficult to perform and there are all types of reasons other than impairment which may cause a person to perform poorly of field sobriety exams. Injury, illness and being tired or having weak muscles are just a few examples. Environmental factors such as uneven pavement, poor street lighting, or flashing lights to name a few can also negatively affect a person's performance on field sobriety tests. Florida's implied consent law provides to driver's an affirmative obligation to submit to have their blood alcohol content measured through a breath test, urine or blood test however the implied consent law does not place upon driver's the same obligation with regard to field sobriety exercises. A police officer cannot force a person to submit to field sobriety exercise and since the results are very subjective and since the exercise can be tricky and difficult, it is almost always going to be in a driver's best interest to
refuse to perform field sobriety exercises. In my experience as a DUI attorney, I have observed that once an officer asks a driver to step out of a vehicle for the purpose of conducing a DUI investigation, they have almost always already made up their mind that they are going to be arresting the driver for DUI. Further, the officer is not at all unbiased in making observations during FSTs because they usually have a vested interest in arresting a driver for DUI and in gathering as much evidence as possible which tends to show that they were operating a vehicle while impaired. The purpose of conducting field sobriety exercises is almost always in order to gather evidence which will assist the State Attorney in convicting the driver of DUI. By refusing to conduct DUI exercises, a driver gives the prosecution less evidence to work with which will make your attorney much more likely to be successful in having a charge of DUI dismissed.
Breath Test Refusals
While
Florida's Implied Consent Law
does not require a driver to submit to field sobriety exercises, it does require a driver to submit to a breath or urine test and there are legal implications in refusing a breath or urine test. However, despite this it may still be advisable for a driver who has had an alcoholic within the past few hours to refuse a breath test nonetheless. The implied consent law is required to be read to a driver who is arrested for DUI and from whom a breath, blood or urine test is sought.
The Implied Consent statute provides for an automatic 1 year driver's license suspension for a person who refuses a test of their blood alcohol content (BAC) or for a period of 18 months for a second refusal. A second refusal is also a misdemeanor offense in and of itself under Florida Law. Bearing these sanctions in mind, depending upon the circumstances, it may still be legally advantageous to refuse to have your BAC tested. Depending upon a number of factors, if a person is convicted of DUI in Florida, they are going to be facing a term of between 6 months and 1 year of a driver's license suspension anyway. So it follows that if a person is in a condition where giving a breath sample is likely going to reflect a BAC which is over .08, then it is legally going to be in that person's best interests to refuse to give a sample. Evidence gathered during a breath, blood or urine test is admissable in court and it is much more difficult to win a "not guilty" verdict from a jury when a properly administered test reflects a BAC which is over the legal limit.
A one year driver's license suspension is always going to be preferable to a DUI conviction. By the same token, if a person has been arrested for DUI in error when they are not impaired, then they have little to lose in providing a BAC sample because if the sample shows a BAC of zero then it is highly unlikely that the state will decide to file formal DUI charges despite the DUI arrest. I only mention this because I have tried a case before where the client was stone sober but refused a breath test and while the charges were ultimately dismissed, the case cause the individual much more stress and expense than was necessary under the circumstances. It is also important to bear in mind that evidence regarding a person's refusal to provide a breath, urine or blood sample is admissable in court for the purpose of proving guilt. The hardest DUI cases for the prosecution to prove are ones in which the driver refused to perform field sobriety exercises and also refused to provide a BAC sample. With no FST observations and no test results, the prosecution is left with very little evidence to use in court.
Hire an Experienced DUI Attorney
Even if a person conducts themselves perfectly during a DUI investigation, once there case goes to court the only way that they are going to avoid a DUI conviction is by retaining an attorney who devotes a substantial portion of their practice to DUI defense. All DUI cases are very complex because there are many components and legal requirements for a DUI investigation in Florida. There are many legal and scientific issue which arise in DUI cases that do not arise in other DUI cases. The key to attaining a desirable result in a DUI case is almost always knowledge of the law. An assistant public defender who is fresh out of law school or an otherwise seasoned attorney who does not focus on DUI cases are far less likely to be aware of the specialized knowledge which is required to successfully and competently handle a DUI investigation. My advice to anyone thinking of drinking and driving is do not do it. I can say this with confidence because I have seen the difficulties caused by drinking and driving firsthand. This article is intended to provide some helpful legal tips to people who have already made a mistake in how to minimize the damage to their lives.
