Birmingham DUI Defense
How Do I Build an Effective Drunk Driving Defense?
The Birmingham DUI law firm of Lakeman & Peagler, L.L.C. explains how to build an effective DUI defense in Birmingham and why you need the help of an experienced DUI attorney.
Just because you were arrested for DUI, does not mean that you will be convicted. An accomplished DUI attorney may build an effective defense case in a number of ways. All cases are different and your attorney will evaluate your unique circumstances to build a defense best suited to your situation. There are two conditions for which you may be arrested for DUI; first your driving may be impaired, and second you BAC may be over the legal limit. Either way you could be charged with DUI in Birmingham.
Initial DUI stop
A police officer must have reasonable cause or suspicion to stop a motorist. Very often a defense will begin by reviewing the police stop to see if it was justified. If there was anything illegal about the stop and the way the police officers handled it, than a defense can be built around these circumstances and any evidence that was associated with the stop may be dismissed in court.
Other defenses against DUI charges are more technical in nature and have to do with the testing that law enforcement officers may have performed on a person who was stopped for DUI.
Disputing Field Sobriety Testing
Once you are stopped, field sobriety testing may give the police officers additional evidence and may lead to a Birmingham DUI arrest. If a test was improperly conducted or given by an untrained or otherwise unqualified person than the results that were obtained may not be valid evidence. Furthermore, there are many reasons why a person may perform poorly on these tests besides being intoxicated and even if conducted properly, the results are subjective.
Disputing Breath Test Results
These disputes often are rooted in the officer’s experience and training with breathalyzer testing and the specific methods and techniques that were used, and in the preparation or overall condition of the equipment. In court, forensic experts help to dispute BAC findings by challenging the time the tests were administered because BAC levels increase or decrease with time and may have been legal at the time of the initial stop.
Proper Maintenance of the equipment used to determine the driver’s BAC
Breathalyzers and other types of equipment that are used to measure blood alcohol concentration must be properly maintained and calibrated to obtain accurate results. Birmingham DUI charges are often challenged based on inaccurate results obtained from faulty equipment.
