Do I have case for my Atlanta DUI or Georgia DUI Case?

Every Georgia DUI has potential defenses. However, you have to investigate thoroughly to determine if you have any defenses.  This usually means prosecuting your case at least to a motion hearing on the suppression of illegally obtained evidence.  The State is not required to give you all of their evidence until 10 days prior to trial which usually means the motion hearing.  Additionally, in some cases, the police will not speak with you until you get them in court for a motion hearing.  Remember most DUI police work the graveyard shift and are asleep during the day.

To intelligently, evaluate your case, a competent Atlanta DUI lawyer will need evaluate the police reports, incident reports, video tapes, and 911 dispatch tapes, and at least attempt to speak with the police involved who are not required to talk prior to taking the witness stand.

This means that hiring a qualified Atlanta DUI attorney is crucial!

Here are some examples of issues that we have used in the past to successfully resolve Georgia DUI cases;

1. ILLEGAL STOP  – an individual cannot be stopped unless the officer has a reasonable and articulate suspicion that a criminal law or traffic violation has occurred. Similarly, a person cannot be seized unless a the officer has an articulable suspicion of criminal activity.
2. ANONYMOUS TIPSTERS -- a car cannot be stopped simply because an anonymous citizen reports that the driver is drunk.  The tip must give specific details regarding the driving and be sufficiently descriptive as well as predict future criminal activity. 
   
3. STANDARD FIELD SOBRIETY EVALUATIONS ARE JUNK SCIENCE – in healthy individuals, the one-leg stand test is only 65% accurate, the horizontal gaze nystagmus (or jerking eye evaluation) is only 77% accurate and the walk-and-turn test (or walk a line evaluation) is only 68% accurate in determining if a person is under the influence. There are over 40 different types of Nystagmus other than alcohol.  Those persons with injuries, medical conditions, 50 pounds or greater overweight, neck problems, back problems, middle ear disorder, wearing heels over two inches and 65 years and/or older cannot be validly judged by these tests.  Further the tests must be performed exactly as trained or they are meaningless.
   
4. NON-STANDARDIZED FIELD EVALUATIONS ARE MEANINGLESS – neither the Federal Government (NHTSA), Georgia Peace Officers Training Counsel (POST) nor the medical community considers touching your finger to your nose, or saying the alphabet, or counting backwards, as valid, standardized sobriety evaluations.  Further, there is no valid research that they predict impairment in anyway.
   
5. BREATH TESTING IS INACCURATE – virtually all experts concede that one breath test alone is unreliable.  Finally, breath testing in Georgia is subject to various inaccuracies, including a +/- 25% variance of the 0.08 per se legal limit, non-specificity for ethanol, gender bias, radio frequency interference, interference from acetone, residual mouth alcohol, solvents (benzene, toluene, xylene, ethyl acetate, and methyl ethyl ketones), alcohol vapor from asthma inhalers, alcohol in mouth wash, breath mints, breath strips, and menthol smokeless tobacco products., dental problems, etc.
6. INTAKE  VIDEOS – Many police stations videotape suspects at the police station and where they take breath tests, where their speech is clear, balance is perfect, they are threatened by police, interrogated without miranda rights, coerced into taking a breath test,  in spite of police testimony to the contrary.
7. POLICE CAR  VIDEOS – many police agencies video all arrest from the police car recording sober driving, good field evaluations, improper arrest, invalid implied consent or breath test rights, misinformation, officer threats and coercion, hope of benefit, discrediting the officer and/or resulting in dismissals.
8. FAILURE TO PROVIDE SPEEDY TRIAL – If a client is not provided with a trial within two terms of court of demand, through delays of the court or prosecutor, the charges must be dismissed.
9. CRIME LAB BLOOD TEST INACCURATE – crime lab blood testing fails to follow prescribed rules of testing, analysis, or preservation recommendations.  Samples have been known to have been inexplicably switched.  Blood collection kits are expired. Blood samples languish in the U.S. Postal Service unrefrigerated for two weeks or more being delivered to the crime lab.
   
10. HOSPITAL BLOOD TEST INADMISSIBLE – Hospital blood tests use different standards and are not certified by the crime lab.  Further, collection and sampling techniques are not approved by the crime lab.
    
11. BREATH TEST OPERATOR UNLICENSED – AnGeorgia Breath Test Operator must possess a valid, unexpired operator’s certificate (certificate is only good for 4 years), or the breath test result is inadmissible.
12. PORTABLE BREATH TESTING DEVICE NOT APPROVED – A portable breath testing instrument must be listed on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Division of Forensic Services approved list of Devices, or the results are inadmissible.
13. FAILURE TO PROVE DRIVING – a defendant’s admission to driving, without cobboration or more evidence, does not prove a charge of driving under the influence.
14. INDEPENDENT WITNESSES – family members, friends, doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, ambulance drivers, other drivers, fireman, restaurant/bar workers and others can provide crucial evidence of the defendant’s sobriety.
15. FAILURE TO MIRANDIZE – prosecutors may not use as evidence the statements of a defendant or field evaluations in custody for a DUI when the police have failed to properly issue Miranda Warnings.
16. FIELD SOBRIETY TEST IMPROPERLY ADMINISTERED – according to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration and Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training Council, improperly administered field tests are meaningless.
17. OFFICER’S PRIOR DISCIPLINARY RECORD – a police officer’s previous disciplinary record can be requested under the open records act and  used to attack the officer’s credibility.
18. PORTABLE BREATH TEST NUMERICAL RESULTS ARE  INADMISSIBLE – Georgia law prohibits the use of portable breath testing results other then for the presence of absence of alcohol.
19. PORTABLE BREATH TEST IMPROPERLY ADMINISTERED – The manufacturers of portable breath testing devices require a minimum of two tests to consider the results evidential in nature.
20. FAILURE TO CONDUCT OBSERVATION PERIOD – Georgia requires that a driver be observed continuously for a minimum twenty minutes prior to a breath test in order for the results to be considered admissible and valid.
21. EXPERT WITNESSES – Expert witnesses are available to review the validity of breath tests, blood tests and field sobriety tests.
22. MEDICAL AND HEALTH PROBLEMS -- Medical problems with legs, arms, neck, back and eyes and diabetes can affect the results of field sobriety tests. Further, other medical conditions can also affect the validity of breath test results.
23. BAD WEATHER / HEAVY TRAFFIC / FLASHING LIGHTS – Weather reports establishing high winds, low visibility, and other conditions are available to explain poor driving or poor balance.
24. LACK OF PROBABLE CAUSE TO ARREST -- A police officer must have probable cause to support any arrest for DUI, or the  arrest will be thrown out and the suspension will be reversed and the evidence suppressed at trial. In State v. Tousley, 271 Ga.App. 874, 611 S.E.2d 139, 5 FCDR 731(2005), the test of probable cause requires merely a probability--less than a certainty but more than a mere suspicion or possibility
    
25. INCONSISTENT STATEMENTS BY POLICE OFFICERS – any statement made by a police officer, verbally, in police reports, in a driver's license hearing or at previous court hearings may be used to attack that officer’s credibility or honesty.
26. POST-DRIVING DRINKING – the prosecutor must prove the blood or breath alcohol resulting from alcohol consumed before or while driving. Post driving consumption of alcohol  will cause the test results to be irrelevant to the Georgia standard for per se DUI.
    
27. INTERFERING SUBSTANCES – many items contain forms of alcohol which may cause false results, such as asthma spray containing alcohol vapor, cough drops, menthol smokeless tobacco, paints, fingernail polish or other substances containing interfering solvents and alcohol. These items can cause the breath results to be invalid and inaccurate.
28. BREATH MACHINE NOT PROPERLY OPERATED – the manufacturers of breath testing devices have specified methods and protocols which must be followed for a breath result to be valid. Failure to follow these rules will result in improper and/or inadmissible readings.
29. 911 TAPES – most stops of vehicles are recorded on 911 or police radio tapes, as well as radio traffic regarding the arrest of an individual. These tapes can be used to disprove officer testimony and win DUIs
    
30. MISLEADING STATEMENTS BY POLICE OFFICERS – Any misleading statement by the police regarding the consequences of taking (or refusing) a blood, breath, or urine test will cause the suspension to be reversed and removed from the driver’s record.
31. STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS – A misdemeanor charge of DUI must be filed within 24 months or two years of the date of offense, or the charges can be dismissed outright.
32. CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE - in Georgia a person charged with DUI can not be convicted solely on circumstantial evidence or non-direct evidence unless all the evidence is consistent with guilt.
    
33. FAILURE TO CALIBRATE THE BREATH TEST MACHINE QUARTERLY – the failure to quarterly calibrate a breath test machine as required by GBI DOFS rulescan be used to discredit breath test results with a judge or jury.
    
34. ILLEGAL ROADBLOCKS – the police may perform road safety checks except under limited circumstances and for limited legal causes.  Further, road blocks must be approved at the programmic level of the police department and not by officers in the field. 
    
35. FULL INFORMATION - Individuals who submit to blood or breath tests are entitled to full information regarding the tests upon request or the tests can be excluded or trial postponed.
36. ODOR OF ALCOHOL - No police officer can tell how much you have had to drink by an odor of alcohol.  One beer smells the same as a case of beer.

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