If you were charged with a first-offense DUI, your next step should be to contact a West Palm Beach DUI lawyer. You may worry that you do not stand a chance against aggressive Prosecutors, but with the help of a capable DUI defense lawyer, you could fight back. Leifert & Leifert have years of experience poking holes in West Palm Beach DUI cases and exploiting every advantage. Call us today to set up your free initial consultation and begin building a first-time West Palm Beach DUI defense.
What to do During a DUI Stop
The best defense starts before the arrest. Of course, a person should not drink and drive. If a person drinks, they should have someone else drive. If they had a drink or two, drove, and were pulled over by the Police, maybe they should not do any of the physical sobriety tests. You have the right not to walk the lines, say the alphabet, or touch your finger to your nose, and the right not to take a breath test if asked.
There are implications to refusing these tests, but the best defense starts with the driver before they get arrested. If they are stopped by the Police, that is when the person needs to be the most defensive.
Prosecutor’s Evidence in DUI Cases
One of the advantages a DUI lawyer has is that they get to see the government’s hand. A defense attorney gets to see all the government’s cards before they start building a first-time West Palm Beach DUI defense. Most DUI cases in West Palm Beach are on DVD or digitally recorded. Oftentimes the evidence includes:
- A driving pattern
- Roadside sobriety tests
- Transportation to the jail
- Breath testing procedures
- Questioning such as interviews or post-arrest interrogation
How a Defense Lawyer Approaches the Evidence
To start building the defense, we need to evaluate how strong the government’s case is and see the evidence they have against you. We start building our defense based upon what the government is bringing at us.
At Leifert & Leifert, our lawyers look for a couple of different things in the Prosecutor’s case. The first thing we look for is whether or not the Police Officer had the right to have an interaction with you or pull you over. We also question whether or not Law Enforcement had the right to suspect that you were impaired. Did the law enforcement officers smell alcohol? If not, what did they see that gave them the right to legally suspect that you may have been impaired?
Challenging Sobriety Tests
If Police do suspect impairment, then that gives them the right to ask someone to step out of the car and to perform certain sobriety tests. However, an attorney could ask if the law enforcement officer said or did anything inappropriate to get you to perform or attempt to perform a sobriety test. An experienced DUI lawyer would want to know what was said, what was instructed, or if there were any threats or promises made.
Our lawyers would then look to see what the results of the sobriety tests were. Was your balance okay? Were there any clues that gave the Officer the right to arrest you? If there was not enough there, we could challenge the arrest. We could analyze the investigation conducted against you on a step-by-step basis up until you were arrested, looking for violations or improprieties that would help get the case Dismissed or weaken the evidence able to be used against you.
Challenging Breath Tests
If you were arrested, you were probably asked for a breath test. Our lawyers could make sure that proper procedures were followed. There is an observation period to make sure that the individual does not eat, drink, smoke, burp, or regurgitate anything so there is no contamination. We will want to know if you asked any questions about your rights, and if the questions were answered appropriately. Were you intimidated, misled, or misinformed?
Leifert & Leifert Could Build an Effective DUI Defense For You
The experienced legal team at Leifert & Leifert could go through your case from the beginning to look for any factor or any evidence that could give us the opportunity to challenge the case. We will fight to get pieces of evidence thrown out with the goal of making the whole case go away. Building a first-time West Palm Beach DUI defense is a complex process, but Leifert & Leifert have the knowledge and experience needed to help you. Get in touch with us today to schedule a free case review.
