In Tennessee, a person convicted of DUI would be ordered to pay a “Blood Alcohol or Drug Determination Test (BADT)” fee as part of their court costs. No BADT fee was charged where a case was dismissed, a not guilty verdict returned, or where a defendant pled to a non-DUI…
Michigan’s intoxicated driving laws cover intoxication by alcohol and all impairing drugs. Reliably detecting intoxication by drugs is more challenging for law enforcement than detecting intoxication caused by alcohol. One reason for this is that there is no roadside drug test that can help officers in the field determine the…
Existing law may be sufficient to convict an intoxicated occupant of an autonomous vehicle of drunk driving. This is because the law in most states contains a sufficiently broad definition of the term “operate.” Public safety is likely to be the paramount concern of the courts as they grapple with…
Generally speaking, a violation of probation means that while on an order of probation you have done something the court ordered you not to do or failed to do something the court affirmatively ordered you to do. A technical violation specifically means a violation of the terms of probation, and…
Yes, a sleeping driving can be convicted of drunk driving in Michigan provided there is enough circumstantial evidence to establish operation. In a recent Michigan case[i] affirming a drunk driving conviction involving a sleeping driving the court inferred that the driver operated his vehicle because did not live on the…
Yes, it may be unlawful to operate a drone while intoxicated at the federal level, and may soon be unlawful at the state level as well. However, the punishment varies depending on the specific law violated. As drones become more common and more popular, some states are looking at…
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has issued a report entitled Getting to Zero Getting to Zero Alcohol-Impaired Driving Fatalities – A Comprehensive Approach to a Persistent Problem (2018). Reading the report, it appears that the “zero” the Academy is really calling for is zero tolerance, as in…
On January 15, 2018, Patrick Barone became the only Michigan lawyer who is Board Certified in psychodrama, sociometry and group psychotherapy. This certification, provided by the American Board of Examiners, is the culmination of training that he began in 2010. Mr. Barone first experienced psychodrama in 2007 at the Gerry…
Under federal law, all states can charge a drug dealer with causing the death of a person if the person they sold the drugs to experiences an overdose and dies as a result. But whether the individual states enforce that law and what drugs are eligible for laying charges really lies with the…
The First Amendment protects the free speech of every American in the United States. But the line between free speech and hate speech can sometimes become very blurry, leaving people to question whether an offensive or hateful remark is protected under free speech. Back in 2010, this question was the…