Have you been stopped for driving while impaired (DWI/DUI)? If so, it is crucial that you find proper legal counsel — contact the best Santa Maria DUI lawyer today. A DUI charge is serious and without a lawyer to defend you, you are taking needless chances. You have a right to defend yourself in court and to receive the most vigorous defense possible. An experienced Santa Maria DUI lawyer is the best first choice in establishing your defense.
Seek out a Santa Maria DUI lawyer with experience in handling cases of driving while intoxicated in the Santa Maria court system. Find a lawyer with experience in defending DUI cases, both for first-time offenders and for people facing more serious charges.
Breath Test Example: Defend Yourself With A Santa Maria DUI Lawyer
If you have been charged with driving while intoxicated, you have likely been given either a blood test or a breath test. You may have even had a choice. Regardless of which test you were given, your Santa Maria DUI lawyer can defend you against the charge depending on the circumstances of the case.
For instance, a breath test has a margin of error that could allow your Santa Maria defense lawyer to question the state’s evidence. Various instruments are used to test your breath. Regardless of the instrument, it is an indirect measure of your blood alcohol level. Underlying that measure is a set of assumptions, some of which may not relate in your case. A breath test, for instance, assumes that you have a certain breath temperature. If there is support that this assumption does not hold, you need a Santa Maria attorney to defend you against the state’s charges.
A DUI attorney with experience can also contest the time line of the test itself. A test will try to extrapolate what your blood alcohol level was at the time you were driving. That breath test was never more than an indirect measure of your blood levels in the first place. Now we are asking the test to infer your blood levels 18 minutes in the past — it is complicated. Your body weight, what and when you last ate, how much you drank, and a host of factors impact the ability of the breath test to extrapolate your past blood alcohol levels. You need a lawyer with DUI experience to help you navigate these important legal issues.
There are a number of ways to challenge breath testing in a DUI case. Your Santa Maria DUI lawyer may question the results themselves, others may challenge whether you exceeded the legal limit in the first place.
Blood Test Example: Defend Yourself With A DUI Lawyer in Santa Maria
A blood test is a more direct measure of blood alcohol level than is the breath test but, nonetheless, it has assumptions too that can be tested in court. When the blood is drawn, it is placed in a glass tube with a preservative and an anticoagulant. If the preservative levels are not correct, your blood may ferment — raising the alcohol levels. If your blood clots in the tube, the results will show too much blood alcohol. You need to have your blood tested by an independent lab to verify the results of the Santa Maria police or highway patrol.
Even without lab errors, there is sometimes cause for your Santa Maria DUI lawyer to challenge your blood alcohol results.
Call A Santa Maria DUI Lawyer
Avoid jail time and save your driver’s license at the same time. Call a seasoned Santa Maria DUI lawyer to assist in your case.
A note on prevention
Costs of a DUI charge are high. A Santa Maria DUI lawyer will help you keep those costs as low as possible, in the hopes that the charge does not jeopardize your freedom and lifestyle. However, prevention is obviously the key with a DUI charge. The video below from Tennessee highlights the costs.
