The number one biggest mistake that a person charged with drunk driving can make is to assume right from the start that there is no defense.
 

The number one biggest mistake that a person charged with drunk driving can make is to assume right from the start that there is no defense. This belief can lead to only one conclusion – guilty; and this is exactly the result you should be trying to avoid. History has shown that the best trial lawyers have the skill and knowledge necessary to sometimes win cases with really bad evidence. It is unlikely that you will ever regret aggressively defending your case, but it’s a good bet that you may someday regret not defending it!

Here is a partial listing of some of the defenses that can be raised in a drunk driving case. This is a chapter outline from chapter six of Mr. Barone’s The DUI Book - A Citizen’s Handbook on Fighting a Drunk Driving Charge. You should consider ordering this book if you’d like to learn more about how to defend a drunk driving charge.

1. Potential Defenses, Strategies and Tactics for Your DUI-DWI Case

• Defenses related to the legality or sufficiency of the indictment, accusation, complaint, information, or other charging instru¬ment (such as a uniform traffic citation)
• Defenses relating to an illegal search warrant, if applicable
• Defenses related to the legality of a roadblock
• Defenses related to the stop of your vehicle
• Defenses related to the lawfulness of your arrest for DUI-DWI
• Defenses related to an unlawful search and seizure and exclusion of illegally seized evidence
• Defenses related to the violation by the police of your Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination
• Defenses related to the violation by the police of your constitutional or statutory right to counsel once arrested
• Defenses relating to use of improper and non-standardized field sobriety tests
• Defenses relating to the officer’s competence to administer field tests
• Defenses to the officer’s ability and experience in determining an impaired driver from an unimpaired driver
• Defenses relating to discovery abuse
• Defenses relating to exculpatory lost video evidence
• Defenses related to the failure of the police to comply with the requirements of the State implied con¬sent statute
• Defenses related to the failure of the police to comply with the requirements of the state’s independent test statute
• Defenses related to prosecution's ability to prove the elements of the offense, other than impairment
• Defenses related to the prosecution's ability to prove the required degree of intoxication other than by chemical testing
• Defenses related to the admissibility of the prosecution's breath testing evidence
• Defenses related to the failure of the police to comply with standard protocol during the arrest or forensic testing
• Defenses related to the credibility of the prosecution's breath testing evidence
• Defenses related to the admissibility of the prosecution's blood testing evidence
• Defenses related to the credibility of the prosecution's blood testing evidence
• Defenses related to police misconduct or perjury
• The defense of an unconstitutional or invalidly-adopted drinking and driving statute or related ordinance
• Defenses related to double jeopardy
• Defenses related to collateral estoppel or res judicata
• Defenses related to the denial of your right to a speedy trial
• The defense of necessity
• The defense of duress
• The defense of entrapment
• The defense of the margin of error rule
• The defense of different partition ratio than the breath machine is programmed to expect
• Defenses related to the preventing enhancement of a drinking and driving offense
  
  

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