Even before you are arrested, the police in Michigan can often conduct a search of your breath using a portable or preliminary breath test device. The purpose of these tests is to determine how much alcohol is in your body. However, these portable breath testers have significant limitations relative to…
The Michigan Court of Appeals has recently held that a driver’s admission to drinking too much and trying to drive from the bar were admissible against her to establish the element of operation. As prosecutors often say in their opening/closing arguments, a crime is made up of parts called elements.…
The Barone Defense Firm recently handled a drunk driving case in Bloomfield Hills 48th District Court. The case involved a person who was stopped for weaving and running a red light. According to the police officer, this driver failed the field sobriety tests, and was arrested. He later had his…
If you are charged with drunk driving in Michigan the prosecutor has a legal and ethical duty to provide your attorney with any evidence that might be helpful to your defense. This includes things like police reports, witness statements, video recordings or chemical tests. This legal obligation was affirmed in…
Many drunk driving cases in Michigan and elsewhere rise and fall on the testimony of experts. This is because the rules of evidence provide that only expert witnesses can offer their opinion at trial. Was the breath or blood test reliable? Only an expert can answer that question. A police…
If you have been arrested in Michigan for drunk driving, then the police officer may have administered an eye test called the “horizontal gaze nystagmus” or HGN test. If so, then the results of this test were probably used as part of the probable cause forming the basis of your…
A recent article that appeared in the Champion Magazine suggests that there are 7 rules to plea negotiations in DUI (criminal) cases. This is an interesting article because many lawyers who “specialize” in defending Michigan DUI cases fail to follow these 7 rules. If you’ve been arrested for DUI in…
As drunk drivers become less common on our roads, resulting in a loss of revenue to the government, the government has decided to focus on a new public enemy: drugged driving. Americans are becoming a society of medicated persons and many of those medications may affect driving. Soon, the anti-drunk…