Common DUI Mistakes
What Mistakes Do Clients Make Once They Have Been Arrested That Hurt Their Case?
The biggest mistake people make is giving too much information to the police. You have a constitutionally protected right against self-incrimination. The best thing to do when being questioned by a police officer would be to respectfully decline to answer their questions. The police should not answer any further questions about where you were coming from, where you were going, what you had to drink, what you had to eat, etc.
You should also respectfully refuse to do the field sobriety tests because these tests are designed to fail you and to build the prosecutor’s case so they can get a conviction.
By respectfully declining to do what you were not required by law to do, you would not be admitting anything. They would just be saying they had been advised by their attorney that they did not have to blow into that first machine they were given, and that they only had to do a blood or breath test after they had been arrested for DUI.
This way, even if the person might have a little bad driving, or they might have the odor of an alcoholic beverage on their breath, if they had been advised by their lawyer they did not have to blow into the first machine before they were arrested, then they would not have to walk a line or count their fingers or tilt their head back and estimate thirty seconds and they would not have to stand on one leg. These would not have to perform any of these tests and they would not even have to follow the officer’s finger going back and forth during a horizontal gaze nystagmus test.