Potential DUI defenses can exist from the moment the Police turn their attention to you.  Before police can stop you, they must have probable cause to believe you are committing a crime.  For instance, driving with an expired tag or speeding.  After the police stop you, they must also have a legal reason to detain you, remove you from your car, and pursue their DUI investigation and arrest.

If these requirements are not met, any and all of these issues can be raised in a pretrial motion to suppress.  A motion to suppress challenges the officer's ability to detain and investigate you.  If the judge agrees with your motion to suppress, he or she may rule that your constitutional rights have been violated.  This can prevent the State from using any of the evidence the officer collected against you.  With no evidence, the State's prosecution can be stopped long before a trial.

Once you are under arrest many officers forget, ignore, or refuse to tell you your Miranda rights. The Constitution gives you the right to remain silent.  This right protects you from making your situation worse.  Even where you have admitted to being DUI or to drinking, the admission can be kept out of court if the State cannot establish it was given legally and not in violation of your Constitutional rights.

Officers often attempt to collect a sample of your blood, breath, or urine for testing.  Before you submit to any of these tests, the arresting officer is required by Georgia law to read you an Implied Consent Notice. It tells you the consequences of refusing the officer's request.  If the Officer does not comply with Georgia law any blood, breath, or urine provided, or even the refusal to provide them, can be prevented from being used as evidence by the State in their prosecution of you.

In a DUI prosecution the State often has little evidence to show beyond a reasonable doubt that you were the driver. In many cases, the officer is responding to an accident and did not witness you driving and no one else witnessed you driving.   It always important to remember the State has to prove more than the fact that you may have consumed some alcohol.  In some cases the State is incapable of proving you were even the driver.  
  
In cases where a judge finds the evidence an officer allegedly collected against you is allowed to be used against you at trial, the quality or value of the evidence and the credibility of the officer providing the evidence can be investigated and attacked.  In our legal system, the weight or the value of this evidence is for your jury to decide.  Everything from the road side field sobriety tests, the arresting officer's training and disciplinary history, the maintenance of the Breathalyzer machine, to the conditions during the blood or breath sample can be attacked.

Being charged and prosecuted for a DUI is a terrible experience.   If you are convicted of a DUI it is something that can affect you for years to come, long after the days in jail are over, the time spent on probation has ended, and the loss of your privilege to drive has passed.  At the Law Office of Andrew R. Lynch we prepare every case as if it is going to trial.  This trial-ready mentality often provides us with the leverage necessary to resolve cases favorably, long before they reach a jury.

Remember if you have been charged with a crime,
call Andrew R. Lynch today at (404) 373-7735.