Drunk driving laws vary. From the blood alcohol level limits meant to keep impaired drivers off the roads to the punishments for those convicted of driving drunk for a first or multiple offense, the amount of legal work and litigation that can come out of a drunk driving case can be overwhelming for an attorney.
As people across the United States prepare for the 4th of July holiday, many states and cities are planning to beef up their law enforcement to look for drivers suspected of being under the influence of alcohol.
The legal and societal implications of the decision to drive drunk are significant. If arrested, you’ll need an attorney who is abreast of recent decisions related to the motivation for traffic stops and arrests, the validity of breath tests and field sobriety tests, and who also has experience in addressing the legal issues of DUI/DWI in court.
One of the main issues remains the administration of the breath test and how those results play out in court.
“Your basic three-part approach for the traditional scientific predicate is that the officer needs to know what they’re doing, the test is capable of giving the type of result that they want, and that the test was then conducted properly,” said Flem K. Whited III, a noted drunk driving defense attorney and West author based in Daytona Beach, Florida.
I talked with Whited in this Westcast podcast about some of the trends in drunk driving cases.
Whited is a founder of the National College for DUI Defense. He’s also the author of the Drinking/Driving Law Letter , Drinking/Driving Litigation: Criminal and Civil and Drinking/Driving Litigation: Criminal and Civil Notebook, all published by West.
Whited says the advent of new breath test machines and enhanced penalties that go along with DUI cases have led to more litigation. Clients facing the loss of their driver’s license for ten years or more are challenging the breath test procedures and equipment.
“You’re seeing a lot of efforts now to get inside the breath test machines and wanting to take them apart and subject them to independent analysis,” Whited said.
Hear more from Whited in our podcast with him and see the list of Whited resources, as well as other notable West state-specific and national drink driving titles, on this page.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
Audio | In Practice | Practice trends |
Share
