To be charged with DUI or driving under the influence in Washington DC is a serious offence, despite most people thinking it is only a minor traffic offence. The penalties for a DUI conviction can be severe and have long lasting consequences. For these reasons you should look to hire a DC DUI lawyer to represent your case.
Convictions for DUI depend on much medical and scientific evidence being gathered at the time of arrest. This evidence requires some technical knowledge in order to interpret it, which is another reason why hiring a DC DUI lawyer is important. The evidence could be disputed or argued as being inadmissible but does require extensive knowledge of how this evidence was gathered to mount a successful case.
Typically the evidence will consist of the observations of the police officer who stopped you at the time, field sobriety tests which will test your motor functions at the time you were stopped and a blood alcohol test to determine the levels of alcohol in your system. This last test is the most important and can be the crucial factor in any DUI case. A blood alcohol level of over 0.08% will see you charged with DUI and levels significantly over this can have a heavy influence on the severity of the penalty handed down.
What your DC DUI lawyer will seek to do is to disprove the test results by arguing for alternative reasons for the results and to look at whether or not any of the tests where carried out according to the correct procedures and by qualified personnel. They may also look to bring in witnesses who where present at the time to further your defense.
If this is your first offence under DUI law then you can probably expect to receive a less severe penalty than someone who has previous convictions. Subsequent convictions for DUI, committed in any state, will receive harsher penalties such as hefty fines, community service orders and jail terms. In both cases, should your actions by driving under the influence cause serious injury or even death then your case could be elevated to a felony and carry a lengthy jail term.
A DC DUI lawyer can also advise you on the implications of your case and help you to understand the law and legal processes behind it. You should however, look to hire a lawyer who specializes only in DUI cases as they will have a better and up to date knowledge of the state law regarding DUI than a lawyer who is prepared to take on any type of case. You also need to note that you should hire a lawyer who practices within the state in which you were arrested and charged as each state will set their own laws and legislation.
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