Can I get my DUI case dismissed if the police failed to read me my rights?

Probably not. Their failure to read you your rights will affect the admissability of your statements, but not any physical evidence against you, such as breath or blood tests.

Does the criminal hearing for my DUI arrest have anything to do with the DMV administrative formal review hearing?

No. These are two completely different legal proceedings. The administrative hearing is important because it gives you a chance to have your driving privileges reinstated, at least to drive to work. Most good DUI lawyers will attend the administrative hearing at least so he or she can gather information for your defense at the criminal hearing.

Why did the police take my driver’s license when I was arrested?

In Florida, your license can be taken away if you refuse to take a blood or breath test, or if you blow over .08. Your license can be taken away for the refusal because of the concept of ‘implied consent.’ This means that when you are granted the privilege of driving in Florida, you are automatically giving your consent to take these tests if you are pulled over for DUI. If you refuse, they take your license. There may be circumstances where it is a good idea to refuse, the idea being that the consequences of allowing them to get a blood draw on you outweigh the consquences of refusing. This is where you need a good DUI attorney to advise you.

The license suspension can last from 6-18 months.

Will I go to jail?

On a first offense? Unlikely. If you are being arrested for a second time or more, you can count on it.

How long does a DUI conviction stay on my record?

In Florida, forever. You can’t do anything about it, have to expunged, removed, etc. This is why you need to consult with a DUI attorney IMMEDIATELY after you are arrested. The potential consequences are simply too serious for you to handle alone.

Can I change my plea if I pled guilty/no contest at my bond hearing?

Yes, and you will want to if you were foolish enough to do this! Do not ever do it. You can file a motion with the court to have the plea withdrawn within 30 days. You should never go to this hearing without an experienced DUI attorney, who is very unlikely to enter such a plea.

This happens because fermentation occurs during the baking of white bread. A byproduct of fermentation is…..alcohol! The alcohol that results from this process is minute, but it CAN cause you problems if you have alreadly ingested other alcohol. For example, if you blow a .05 after drinking two beers, consuming bread with those beers could increase your BAC enough to make you legally intoxicated.

Also, if you have bits of bread in your teeth, this may trap alcohol that you consume, which can cause you to blow a higher reading.

This may sound absurd to some readers, but this has been borne out in scientific testing, and by a few enterprising DUI lawyers who wanted to find out if it was really true. Breathalyzers are supposed to have detectors that can tell if the alcohol it detects is just residing in the mouth (not in the blood). However, it is a known fact that you can put alcohol in your mouth, spit it out, and then blow into a breathalyzer and ended up with a reading over .08. If you have eaten bread recently in the past, having that bread residue in your mouth could cause you to blow a higher BAC. So, the best idea? Skip the bread and have a steak or crab instead!

Hearing officers were instructed on March 24, 2012 by the DHSMV to not determine if an arrest was ‘lawful’ in a case where a blood or breath test was taken. This is because a previous court case (DHSMV v. Hernandez) found that the officer at the hearing had to figure out if the arrest was lawful due to the implied consent warning being implicated. This however is not at issue in a case where a blood or breath test was taken.

So, if you did refuse to take a blood or breath test, you will have an opportunity to challenge the ‘lawfulness’ of the arrest at the administrative hearing. But if you did submit to one of the tests, it appears that you are out of luck.

With a strong DUI attorney in your corner, there really is no downside to requesting a formal review hearing. At the hearing, you can:

• Continue to drive to work or for business for an additional 42 days
• Win the hearing if a witness for the stated does not appear after your attorney subpoenas him or her. Some of the critical witnesses include the officer who made the arrest and the technician for the breath and/or blood test.
• Win the hearing if there is not enough evidence to uphold the suspension
• Win the hearing, which then invalidates the suspension of your driver’s license, and vacates the officer’s action when he arrested you

In the case that you lose the hearing, your attorney can still subpoeana important witnesses and documents, look at calibration records of the breathalyzer and gather other important data for your defense at trial. He also can cross examine the government’s witnesses. This is an important opportunity for your lawyer to question witnesses before the trial. The cross examination is recorded, and it can be used against a witness later if he changes his testimony.

In summary, you need to act quickly if you are arrested for DUI. Retain a top DUI lawyer at Musca Law so he or she can request this critical hearing, and begin to fight for your rights.

There have been scientific studies completed that indicate that your breathing pattern can have an impact on the blood alcohol content (BAC) reading that the breathalyzer reads. A study in The Journal of Studies of Alcohol nted that if some subjects held their breath for 30 seconds before the exhale, he can increase the BAC reading by 15%. On the other hand, this study found that some subjects who hyperventilated for about 30 seconds before the test had a BAC that was about 10% lower. How can this be?

What is important to remember is that the exchange of alcohol from your blood to your breath happens in the alveolar lung air. If you hold your breath, you are letting the alcohol that is in your mouth and in your lungs to build up before you exhale. This may lead to a higher reading. Also, a sustained, deep blow into the machine may extract the maximum amount of alcohol from your lungs, so you may also end up with a higher reading. Shallow breathing is going to minimize the build up of alcohol in your mouth and lungs, so your reading may be lower in this case. The breathalyzer will have a gauge on it that will monitor the flow of exhaled air and it will require a minimum air volume to operate properly, but this is not a big hurdle to overcome. Generally, the study found that providing a shallower breath into the machine gave lower BAC readings.

If you have been accused of DUI, you should get in touch with a strong DUI lawyer immediately. Contact Musca Law today.

Mouth Alcohol

You may have alcohol in your mouth for many reasons, not just from consuming alcohol. Some of the reasons include:

• GERD
• Burping
• Many medical conditions
• Eating bread

All of these reasons can cause your BAC to read higher on a breathalyzer. The device cannot really determine what the source of the alcohol is; all it can do is to measure what is there. A big difference can be if the alcohol being detected is coming from the lungs or from the mouth. The breathalyzer assumes that the air is coming from the lungs; however, when the air comes through the mouth, it can pick up alcohol particles from products such as Listerine and can give a high BAC reading.

Homeostatic Variables

Breathalyzers cannot account for different partition ratios in the person being tested and this can cause unusual readings. The partition ratio is the ratio between the BAC and the breath alcohol content, and is normally at a ratio of 2100:1. However, the ratio can also be 1500:1 or 2400:1 depending upon the subject. This can cause a significant margin of error in a breath test. For example, if your BAC is .08, the test could show your BAC to be from .065 to .09. But if your BAC is under the limit, say .07, and the subject has a ratio of 1500:1, you could have a BAC on the machine as .10, which is over the legal drinking limit.

The partition ratio in people can change because of health, age and for many other reasons.

Interference

The machine is made to detect ethyl alcohol molecules, but it can be flummoxed by other substances that are similar to the chemical makeup of alcohol. Acetone is one example, and some people who are exposed to the fume of paints can also cause the breathalyzer to give false readings.

An aggressive and experienced DUI lawyer can use the above points to bring the breathalyzer test into question in court. Contact Musca Law today to get in touch with some of the top DUI lawyers in Florida.

Standardized field sobriety testing (SFST) is made up of three tests:

• The horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN)
• The walk and turn
• The one-leg stand

The HGN test involves the involuntary jerking of the eyes that will happen naturally when your eyes gaze to the sides. When you are sober, nystagmus will occur when the eyes are at highly peripheral angles. If you are intoxicated, nystagmus may be exaggerated and can occur at lesser angles. A person who has been drinking may have trouble smoothly tracking a moving object, such as a pen that the officer is holding up and moving left to right.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has found that this test will accurately classify about 76% of suspects with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08 or higher. However, the HGN test may show false positives in some people, such as those who are on medications, including seizure drugs, barbituates and others.

The walk and turn and one-leg stand tests are typical divided attention tests that can be performed easily by most sober people. They will require you to listen to directions and follow simple instructions while making various physical movements. People who are intoxicated often have trouble doing tasks that require them to divide their attention between mental and physical chores.

If the officer sees that you are having trouble performing this test, he may ask you to take other tests, such as reciting your ABC’s, counting or checking your finger dexterity.

Most of the time that an officer has someone perform the standard sobriety tests, they usually will conclude that the person is intoxicated and will put the person under arrest. If you decline to take the sobriety tests, the officer will likely explain to you that your refusal will be used against you in court. While that it true, a good DUI attorney can also cross examine the police officer and force him to admit that these tests are not a requirement under Florida law, and that their reliability is suspect at best.

The results of these tests are subjectively judged by the law enforcement officer, so again, it is advisable never to take the tests. A good DUI lawyer, such as a Musca Law attorney, can show in court that you have no legal obligation to take the tests.

Stone, like many police officers, felt that the BAC took away their ability to use plain common sense in judging who can drive safely after drinking and who cannot. This is the reason that Stone released a video on how to avoid getting a DUI, and eventually left the police force. The video made him a pariah in the anti-drunk driving community, but there is no question that he made very valid points about the problems with modern DUI laws.

For example, he believes that the BAC law, if there is one at all, should be set at .10. However, Stone maintains that BAC laws should be eliminated. “The BAC system is simply a line in the sand by which we judge people, but it does not take into account individual tolerances, abilities or physiology.”

Stone says that there should be “new methods created to determine intoxication levels on the side of the road, and first offenses near or at the legal limit should be simply given a citation with a significant fine, their car towed, and then be given the opportunity to take a taxi or call a friend to pick them up.”

Stone also is on record as being very critical of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). This organization was the biggest critic of his video on avoiding a DUI. “MADD is opposed to any multimedia that doesn’t promote prohibition or absinence.” He claims that MADD is a ‘neoprohibitionist movement that has lost its focus.’ In fact, MADD eventually deposed its founder, Candy Lightner, because she did not support dropping the BAC to .08.

Stone claims that MADD continued to push for .08 as the legal definition of driving intoxicated because “they would lose money and their foothold” in the national conversation about drunk driving.

If you ever do have a DUI problem in Florida, be sure to contact Musca Law. They have an excellent record in fighting DUI in Florida and are available for your questions 24/7.

1. Spend as much time looking for your DUI lawyer as you do for a dentist. When you come to a new city, you probably spend some time looking for a good dentist. You ask your friends, you call around and talk to a few dentists. A DUI conviction is big trouble for years, so you want to spend a lot of time looking for your lawyer.

2. If you are looking for a shark, try looking in the ocean. What we mean is, if you want a good DUI trial lawyer, a good place to find one is at the courthouse in your Florida county. Ask a few people who work there, such as the deputies and bailiffs, and they will be able to tell you who is good and who stinks. Some people may say they can’t make recommendations, but if you keep asking, you will get a name or two.

3. Experience is everything in DUI cases. Many lawyers never take a case to trial. Always ask your potential DUI lawyer how many trials she has had, and how many DUI cases. Were they judge or jury cases? How many won or lost in the last year or month? Make sure you get a Florida DUI lawyer who tries cases regularly with success. Many lawyers will just negotiate a guilty plea. You don’t want that kind of DUI lawyer.

4. Do not hire a general practitioner for a DUI case. DUI, like homicide, is a type of legal matter that requires a specialist. Every DUI case is going to involve scientific evidence, so your lawyer is going to need to be able to present a strong case that takes into account biology, chemistry and even physics. Ask your lawyer if she is trained in the latest Florida breathalyzer tests and also field sobriety tests.

5. There are no guarantees. Do not hire a lawyer that makes false promises. A DUI lawyer who promises that you’ll walk is not trustworthy. A shady DUI lawyer can promise the moon, knowing you will be in jail if you lose and won’t be in a position to do anything about his lies. If he does make a guarantee, ask that he put it in writing.

Musca Law is one of the best DUI law firms in Florida. Contact Musca Law today and ask us how we can help you win your DUI case.

The Level I course has several behaviorial objectives and includes didactic and interactive methodologies to teach you the course material. Some of the issues that the Level I DUI course covers includes:

• The personal and social consequences of drinking or taking drugs while driving;
• A definition of the problem of DUI in American society;
• What the Dept. of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles does to fight DUI;
• The role of law enforcement and the judiciary in Florida to prevent DUI;
• Community resources available to combat drug and alcohol problems;
• How to manage substance abuse and chemical dependency.

During the course, instructors will perform a psychological evaluation on your to determine how serious your drug or alcohol problem is. This evaluation will identify, collect, analyize and interpret relevant information about you to determine the extent of your problem. This will help instructors to make an informed decision about whether or not you need additional counseling. All patient information that is collected during this evaluation is confidential and is guaranteed by federal law.

The Level I DUI class costs you $247 and includes a $15 state assessment fee and a testing fee of $5. Also, you must pay $9 to register online, and also pay $14 to receive your lifetime driving record in Florida, which is required for completion of the course.

You will receive a complete certificate after you have completed both the evaluation and all class sessions.

If you need assistance with handling the details of your DUI case, please consult an expert DUI attorney at Musca Law now.