Dealing With a DUI

Have you recently been pulled over for a DUI? As you probably know, getting arrested for a DUI can be a serious matter and real consequences for your record and personal life. Even as a misdemeanor, this violation could potentially carry up to 364 days in jail.

Let me be clear: Driving while intoxicated is dangerous and irresponsible. The best thing you can do is to avoid drinking (or using other drugs) while driving altogether.Having said this, if you are pulled over by the police and have been drinking, there are a number of points you need to keep in mind.

First of all, it is not necessarily against the law to drink and drive. It is however, against the law to drive if you are either actually intoxicated with blood alcohol level between .05 and .08 or have a blood alcohol level of above .08, at which point Illinois law presumes you are intoxicated. It is also against the law to drive while intoxicated by substances other than alcohol.

If your case goes to trial, it will be the prosecutor's burden to show that you were driving while intoxicated. They can use differnt types of evidence to show this, including the testimony and report of the police officer, any field sobriety tests administered, and chemical tests such as the breathalyzer that actually measure the blood alcohol level in your system.

If you seek to fight the DUI charges, it is probably in your interest to refuse to take field sobriety and chemical tests. The field sobriety tests are very subjective, and often times the police officer may interpret the results as indicative of intoxication even though you felt that you did well. Chemical tests are far more objective, and if they show a blood alcohol level above the legal limit, your license will automatically be suspended for three months. Furthermore, chemical test results are usually very strong evidence and a difficult obstacle for your defense attorney to overcome at trial.

However, while the law allows you to refuse chemical tests, doing so has the consequence of summarily suspending your license for a period of 6 months. Nevertheless, you are entitled to a hearing on a petition to rescind summary suspension. At this hearing, you will have the chance to establish at least one of several basis for rescision, such as that the officer did not inform you of the consequences of agreeing to and refusing the test, or that no reasonable grounds existed to pull you over in the first place.

On the whole, if you have been drinking and are pulled over, it is probably in your best interest to refuse the tests, so as not to make the prosecutor's job any easier. It is also very much in your interest to get an attorney to protect your license, record and rights under the law.