DWI & DUI Attorneys Help

If you’ve been drinking (heaven forbid) and you get pulled over what’s the best plan of action?

In my state the legal limit is 0.08, which I understand you can achieve by drinking one beer. So if you are pulled over and you fail a breath test; you go to jail for DUI, lose your license and see your insurance rates skyrocket. If you refuse the test you lose your license, but what else? Wouldn’t it be better to be convicted of being “uncooperative,” than of DUI? Any attorneys out there who’d like to put in their two cents? Thank you.

First do not drink too much and drive. If you do have a couple of beers or glasses of wine at dinner and are of average weight, you should be ok. There are charts available that can give a gauge as to how many drinks you may have in a given time period for your age, sex and weight. This is a gauge only and can be affected by amount of food in your stomach etc.
If you are pulled over and believe that you are not impaired then the best policy is to cooperate and be polite. In most states you would have had to be pulled over for a traffic infraction or based upon reasonable suspicion of impairment (most cases of reasonable suspicion would fall into a traffic violation category anyway). Many officers are specialists in DWI stops and will conduct the stop in a certain way to gain evidence of impairment. This will include your speech, mannerisms, odor of alcohol, coherence etc. If the officer is not satisfied that you are sober upon this first encounter he may ask you to exit the vehicle. He has every right to ask the driver of a vehicle to exit the car, this was part of a Supreme Court decision.
He will observe how you walk and interact with him. He will then ask you to take some Field Sobriety Tests. These are standardized tests. You can refuse. However this will turn the stop confrontational. An arrest for DWI can be made by officers prior observations of your driving, and the first encounter. If the officer thought you drove poorly enough to pull you over, that is strike one in his head, an odor of alcohol is strike two, a slight stumble out of the car and a refusal to take tests will most likely end in your arrest. Again if you are confident in your sobriety cooperate and be glad someone is out there potectiong the roads from drunks, hopefully the officer will have reciprocated your kindness with his own profesionalism.

Las Vegas Lawyers Donn Prokopius, Chtd. Attorney at Law