A motion to suppress evidence in West Palm Beach DUI cases is a request of the Court to eliminate evidence gathered against the person. That evidence that is gathered against the person is typically something that is going to hurt the person and something that the person is going to allege was gathered inappropriately in violation of their rights or of the law. That remedy for a violation of those rights or law would be the suppression or elimination of that evidence.
If you are interested in filing a motion to suppress and believe that your rights have been violated, get in touch with an experienced West Palm Beach DUI lawyer who can guide you through this process, and advocate for you.
Ways to Use a Motion to Suppress
A motion to suppress evidence in West Palm Beach DUI cases can be used in many different ways. An attorney can use the motion to challenge the initial encounter with law enforcement. The lawyer can argue that the law enforcement officer had no right to pull the driver over, to approach the driver, or to have any contact with them.
If that contact is illegal, any information that was gathered or learned from that encounter should also be tossed out. The first motion to suppress should be to challenge the stop. A circumstance that a motion to suppress might be used in DUI cases would be to challenge the stop of the individual charged.
If someone gets past the stop then the lawyer will want to challenge the gathering of physical evidence against the defendant. Was the person coerced into submitting to a roadside sobriety test, was that done in the appropriate way, or was there a violation of rule or law in that respect?
Suppressing Chemical Test Results
The next thing an attorney can try to suppress is the results of the chemical tests, whether it is blood or urine. The individual may have been coerced, misled, or misinformed as to their rights to refuse or to submit to a blood, breath, or urine test. If those rights were violated, an attorney would want to file a motion to suppress and get rid of those test results especially if they are harmful to the individual.
The most typical motion to suppress in a DUI case is whether or not the person made any statements to law enforcement that should have been subject to Miranda. Did the police ask the driver questions that they should not have asked without telling them beforehand that they have the right to remain silent?
How a Motion to Suppress Can Bolster a DUI Defense
A motion to suppress evidence in West Palm Beach DUI cases means that a person’s lawyer is going to file a motion to suppress to challenge the stop, to challenge the administration of tests to the person, to challenge the gathering of evidence from them, and to challenge any statements that were supposedly given by the person when they were in custody against their Miranda rights. There is no motion for summary judgment in criminal cases. There would not be a motion for summary judgment in a DUI case, but there might be a motion to dismiss.
A motion to compel discovery means that they are asking the court to force the government to turn over evidence. After they have requested the evidence, a certain amount of time has gone by, and they have not turned that over, an attorney could, for example, file a motion with the court and request that the state turn over the discovery that may have been requested already. The judge will typically enter an order. In this instance, the judge will ask why the state has not turned over evidence and depending on what the answer is, the judge will give them a certain amount of time in which they must comply with the order. If you want to file a motion to suppress, talk to a qualified DUI attorney who can advocate for you.
