Defenses Against Walk-and-Turn Test in Michigan

Answer: Those are very similar to the defenses for the one-leg stand test. If they have problems with balance, if they have the wrong type of shoes, if they're barefoot, if the client is just naturally not very coordinated, these can be very difficult tests. Another thing is that part of the test is just during the instruction phase, if people step off the line ahead of time but maybe the officer didn't instruct them, sometimes that can be a defense. So the way that the officer performs a test, if it deviates—and this is true with any of the standardized field sobriety tests—if it deviates from the way the training was done and the way that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's manual prescribes, any of those deviations from that can throw off the validation and can cause a good argument for why those tests should either be thrown out completely or given a lot less weight and credibility.