Defending a felony DUI case is one of the most challenging tasks a criminal defense attorney can face. With potential consequences, including lengthy prison sentences, substantial fines, and a permanent criminal record, a felony DUI conviction can dramatically impact a client’s future. Building an effective defense requires in-depth knowledge of DUI laws, a meticulous review of evidence, and the ability to challenge the prosecution’s case at every turn. It becomes even more difficult to prevent disastrous outcomes when a wounded party is added to the mix.
If you are charged with a felony DUI and someone is seriously injured in a DUI, then there is a mandatory 90 days in jail, depending on the judge, it could be 3 years in prison. Also, there are times that a person gets severely injured in a felony DUI defense if the prosecutors can improve the felony charge with that of great bodily injury.
DUI Defence Strategies that Work
The defense of DUI cases includes questioning of evidence, the accuracy of the testing done, and the manner the arrest was conducted. Below, giving approaches can assist in building relative doubt and enhance case results.
The Officer Lacked Sufficient Cause for the DUI Arrest.
Challenge the evidence as being insufficient to prove that a crime, drunk driving, had been committed. If the judge decides that the officer who arrested you for DUI did not have a valid reason (probable cause), then the breath or blood alcohol test that followed may be thrown out as evidence. In some cases, this leads to the entire case being dismissed.
Weaving Inside Your Lane Isn’t Enough to Justify a DUI Stop
An officer is required to articulate the specific infraction of the traffic law, constituting a reasonable suspicion that has justified the stop. A stop for DUI without reasonable cause is admissible and unreasonable under the scope of Maryland State and the US Constitution. If the officer did not have legitimate reasons for making the stop, then we can file a motion for suppression of evidence to confront the officer in the court of law and demonstrate to the court the futility of the prosecution.
Distracted Driving: A Different Danger Than Drunk Driving
Maybe you were lost in a new city, looking closely at street signs, or watching a driver texting. Such scenarios provide acceptable reasons for your lapse. Driving over the speed limit does not automatically suggest impaired driving behavior either.
The Alleged Symptoms of DUI Are Signs Of Fatigue or Allergies
Some signs characteristic of DUI are as well as because of simply fatigue, or else, allergy. For example, when a person is too tired, he may drive poorly, have red and swollen eyes, not be able to answer some of the DUI officer’s questions, or even go through field sobriety tests that require attention and fine psychomotor skills.
Challenge the Validity of Field Sobriety Test
NHTSA’s report has statistics showing such a trend. For a particular instance, the leg stand test is 65% accurate, and its walk-and-turn counterpart is 68% reliable. Because officers arrest suspects for DUI offenses after assessing performance on these tests, this means that at a rate of one out of three thoughts, the officer was wrong; someone that they busted was wrongly arrested.
Reason for poor performance in Sobriety Tests
It means that if you failed most of the DUI field sobriety tests; you have to know that there are several reasons that can considerably influence your performance and are unfair to you. None of the surfaces on which you could be tested is level, and some areas may be slippery; there are always flashing lights and passing cars; you were tested at night and the weather can be rainy or snowy; finally, you were nervous.
Increasing Blood Alcohol Level
This means that a DUI suspect can blow a.15 at the police station, but at the time he was driving, he had a.07 BAC. Why? Alcohol may take approximately 50 minutes on average but can take up to thirty minutes to three hours and 15 minutes for the BAC levels to peak. This is particularly relevant in case the DUI traffic stop happens soon after you complete the drink.
Challenging the Chemical Test
Contamination can happen at any stage of collecting, storing, and analyzing a blood or urine sample. Often, proper procedures are not followed. All chemical tests have a natural margin of error.
If you reach out to a lawyer right away, we can arrange for an independent BAC test to use as a point of comparison. Our objective is to create uncertainty about the reliability of these results, which will lead the jury to declare you not guilty.
Considerations for Lawyers Defending Felony DUI Cases
In criminal DUI cases involving felonies, there are factors that DUI defense lawyers have to think through to get the best defense. First, one has to know which legal parameters increase a DUI to a felony, like the number of offenses, the accident, or the presence of children in the car. It is also necessary closely to assess how evidence was collected since procedural mistakes during the stop, searches, or field sobriety tests might be grounds that would challenge the evidence.
Case lawyers should check BAC testing first by determining if the equipment was calibrated, standards complied with, and if the chain of custody was interrupted. Further, other rationales for poor performance—such as exhaustion, stress, health problems, or prescription drugs—may serve to throw discord on the prosecution’s case. It’s important, therefore, to ensure that the previous convictions, particularly the prior DUIs, meet the statutory bars for a felony enhancement where they occurred out of state.
It can help to establish growing concerns for the reduced penalties if aggravating factors such as high BAC or the presence of injuries and the presence of mitigating features like the client’s character or his/her participation in a treatment program are considered. Most importantly and before all, the lawyer must represent the client in his/her matter, focusing on ways of coming up with lighter charges or other remedies different from severe felony charges.
Conclusion
A felony DUI defense attorney also calls for strategic legal and scientific strategies, coupled with a sound appreciation of procedural aspects of the offense and its probable violations. Manually dissecting each of the segments in the case, including a justification of the initial stop, tests administration procedures, prior convictions of police officers, and others, allows the defense attorneys to use all the strengths in favor of their clients and minimize the impact of weaknesses while enhancing the probabilities of achieving a satisfactory verdict for their clients. The combination of being as tough as.
Sometimes, balancing a hostile attitude with an emphasis on empathy will not only minimize possible penalties but also assist a client in holding him or herself accountable for their behavior and transitioning toward a more responsible life.