DUI Enforcement

National Movement Toward Lowering the Legal BAC Limit Begins in Utah

Published on: January 4, 2017 | by Patrick Barone

National Movement Toward Lowering the Legal BAC Limit Begins in Utah

A Utah lawmaker is backing a change in Utah’s DUI law lowering the legal limit to .05%. Utah’s current legal limit is .08%. This change would make Utah the first state in the Union to reduce the legal limit from .085 to .055. In 2005 Michigan was the last state to reduce the legal limit to .08. Michigan’s legal limit goes back up to .10 in 2018.

The legal limit is currently .08% in all 50 states. This uniform legal limit came as part of a Congress -approved amendment to the 2001 transportation appropriations bill that tied the legal limit into highway funds. In other words, a .08% legal limit was a condition precedent to a state receiving highway funds from the national government. However, there appears to be no reason states can’t reduce the limit even further, and there is little doubt that after Utah many other states will follow suit.

The average drinker need only consume two units of alcohol to be at a .05. A unit of alcohol is one 12 oz. 5% beer, one 6 oz. 12% wine or one shot (1.5 oz.) of 80 proof liquor. A unit of alcohol is also sometimes called a standard drink. Each standard drink will raise a person’s blood alcohol level .025 per drink. The average man eliminates alcohol at .015% and the average woman eliminates at .018 per hour.

Driveway DUI’s: Michigan Court Rules it Not Unlawful to Drive Drunk in Own Driveway

Published on: December 30, 2016 | by Patrick Barone

Driveway DUI’s: Michigan Court Rules it Not Unlawful to Drive Drunk in Own Driveway

Disclaimer: This case was overruled by the more recent Michigan Supreme Court case of People v. Rea.

The Michigan Court of Appeals recently ruled that a person may drive drunk in their own driveway. The name of the case is People v. Rea, 315 Mich. App. 151 (2016), and in this case, after having “a lot” to drink the defendant decided he wanted to listen to some music. So, he drove his car from his garage to a point in his private driveway in line with his house. A neighbor didn’t like the defendant’s taste in music and called in the loud music. Thereafter, two police officers responded to the 911 call.

When they arrived, the defendant was seated in the driver’s seat, with the driver’s side door open. According to the court’s opinion, the “vehicle was parked deep in defendant’s driveway, next to his house.” One of the officers told him to turn down the music, and then left. At some point the neighbor called again, and when one of the officers returned, he could not see the defendant’s car. The neighbor called a third time and this time when the police arrived the officer observed that the garage door was opened, “and defendant’s vehicle backed out for “about 25 feet” before stopping still within the defendant’s yard and property. He then pulled the car back into the garage. He was arrested as he walked toward his house.”

The Role of Search and Seizure in The Prosecution of DUI Cases

Published on: October 19, 2016 | by Patrick Barone

What Follows is a draft excerpt from The Legality of Search and Seizure in DUI Cases, 2016-2017 ed.: Leading Lawyers on Leveraging Science and Process to Develop Winning Defense Strategies (Inside the Minds):

Evidence collected from search and seizure plays the starring role in the prosecution of DUI cases, and in fact, were it not for search and seizure there would be no DUI case. When we talk about search and seizure, we are squarely within all of the law that has arisen out of the 4^th amendment to the Constitution which provides as follows:

“[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Drunk Drivers May Be Ordered to Wear Alcohol Sensing Tattoo

Published on: September 7, 2016 | by Patrick Barone

A new Orwellian technology could be used by courts to monitor the consumption of alcohol by alleged drunk drivers.
If you are arrested for drunk driving in Michigan, then the court will almost certainly order you to stop drinking. This abstinence from alcohol will be a condition of your bond. Various methods are then used by courts in Michigan to assure that you are not drinking. These include random breath or urine tests. Some courts also order that you wear an alcohol-sensing ankle tether, which monitors the presence of alcohol in your perspiration.

A new alcohol sensing technology has just been developed in the form of a wearable skin tattoo. According to Science Daily, scientists at the University of California have developed a tattoo or “flexible wearable sensor” that also measures the presence of alcohol in a person’s sweat. These new tattoos are part of a broader category of wearable chemical sensors that have been and are currently being developed.

In the case of alcohol sensors, these devices usually use sweat as it is the most easily assessable bodily fluid. This fluid is then transported to a receptor that usually converts the alcohol present to an electric current that is then measured, and the results are then processed and transmitted.

New Technology Promises to End Drunk Driving in Michigan

Published on: September 2, 2016 | by Patrick Barone

A recent USA Today article describes two different technologies that promise to end the occurrence of drunk driving in Michigan within 5 to 8 years. These include a breath monitoring system that does not require the driver to breathe into a tube, and a sort of fingerprint monitor that measures alcohol through the skin.

The first technology measures the breath of the driver by drawing it into a chamber that compares the amount of carbon dioxide in the breath to the amount of ethanol. Once the ratio passes a certain point, the car won’t start. According to the article the device uses infrared light to make the measurements, the same type of technology used to determine a driver’s bodily alcohol content through breath testing in a drunk driving case in Michigan.

Relative to this particular technology the article is silent relative to how the monitoring device “knows” that it is measuring the driver’s breath alcohol rather than a passenger’s breath alcohol. The article also fails to address what will happen if the ration is below when the car starts but gets above as the car is being operated. Will the car make the driver pull over and stop operating? If so, then can a sober passenger take over?

Legal Alcohol Driving Limit

Published on: September 2, 2016 | by Patrick Barone

Blood Test Drunk Driving | Michigan DUI Attorney

Blood Alcohol drunk driving, BAC legal limit When investigating a possible case of driving under the influence, the police may ask you for a sample of your breath or blood. Breath testing remains the most common type of chemical testing, but DUI blood tests are becoming more common.

If your blood is taken by law enforcement the purpose is to test if for alcohol or drugs. DUI cases involving blood are considered by most DUI lawyers to be more difficult to defend because blood test results are considered to be a more reliable.

New Law Makes it Easier for Michigan Drivers to Avoid a Drunk Driving Arrest

Published on: September 2, 2016 | by Patrick Barone

On September 8, 2015, Governor Snyder signed into law House Bill 4193, making it easier for Michigan drivers to avoid a DUI arrest.

According to the new law, during a traffic stop you may now show a police officer an electronic proof of insurance on your phone. This electronic proof of insurance would be considered prima facie evidence that you have properly insured your car.

So why does this make it easier to avoid a DUI arrest in Michigan? Well, one of the first things a police officer will be looking for in a DUI investigation is whether or not you are able to provide a proof of insurance. In other words, the officer will be trying to determine if you are drunk from how you respond to his/her request to provide driver license, registration and proof of insurance.