What Happens After a DUI Arrest in Montgomery County

Getting arrested for a DUI can be an overwhelming situation. You might not know what steps to take, or what to expect. If you want to know more about what happens after a DUI arrest in Montgomery County, speak with a knowledgeable DUI lawyer that could answer your questions and guide you through the arrest process.

Heading to a Police Station Following an Arrest

Upon arrest for a DUI in Montgomery County, a person is taken immediately to one of the various police stations in Montgomery County. Those are police stations where breathalyzer tests are conducted and a person is issued a formal citation related to the alcohol offense. There are various police stations in Montgomery County broken up into six different districts. Those police stations could be located in any one of the six different districts throughout the country. There are city stations, all of which are equipped to conduct breathalyzer tests as well as the issuance of citations.

Steps Taken Following a DUI Arrest

What happens after a DUI arrest in Montgomery County is that an individual is given a DR-15 Advice of Rights, which could be something the officer reads to them, they are asked to read themselves, or a recorded statement is played for them. This document usually reviews what options a person has with respect to the breathalyzer test and what sanctions might be imposed if they blow above a certain level or refuse the breathalyzer test altogether. At this point, a decision is made to either take a breathalyzer test, which is administered to them, or refuse the breathalyzer test.

After that an officer makes determinations about what to charge a person with in terms of criminal acts and charges them accordingly. Usually with respect to DUI cases in Montgomery County, a person is not held overnight. They are usually released after a certain period of time, either to a sober driver, public transportation or a ride share like a taxi, Uber, or Lyft. They are not permitted to drive a vehicle until after 12 hours as a precaution to make sure that they’re not driving while alcohol might still be in their system.

Refusing a BAC Test

A person always has the right to refuse to take the BAC test, the blood alcohol concentration test, in Montgomery County unless they are unconscious, in which case blood is going to be a requirement of a police officer with medical providers’ procedure. If the person is at the police station and being offered a breathalyzer test, they always have the option to refuse although there may be administrative sanctions as well as presumptions taken by the court which could be negative towards them.

Consequences for Refusing a BAC Test

The consequence for a BAC test refusal could be administrative. For example, someone could suffer a suspension of their privilege to drive. There could be a sanction placed upon them or a presumption made by a finder-of-fact, whether it is a judge or a jury, that the reason that they refused the blood alcohol concentration test was because they knew they were going to fail.

That presumption is one that is rebuttable, meaning that the defense attorney could provide arguments or explanations for why a person might have refused the test, like poor lung capacity or some other ailment. That might be enough to allow the court to conclude that the blood alcohol concentration test was refused for a medically necessary purpose that they might not have the same impact as another, which they usually would. There are all kinds of avenues to exhaust, but it is a presumption that goes against the person if they decide to refuse that breathalyzer test.

How a Montgomery County DUI Attorney Could Help

Following a DUI arrest, an individual should contact an attorney as soon as possible. There are a lot of different things that happen immediately after a DUI, from requesting certain administrative hearings, to instructions on how to handle the citation that one has been given to making requests to the prosecution for discovery and other evidence required to properly prepare for the case.

People who do not have experience with that would not know what information to request, what hearings to request, and precisely what needs to be filed on their behalf to preserve all their rights to get the best results possible. By reaching out to an experienced DUI lawyer, an individual can find out what happens after a DUI arrest in Montgomery County and how to navigate the trial process.