Rockville DUI Myths
People who have been pulled over and are under suspicion for driving under the influence may make costly mistakes due to common myths related to DUI charges. Speak with an experienced Rockville DUI lawyer as soon as possible to discuss your options and how you should proceed.
Reliability of Breathalyzers in Rockville
The court system believes breathalyzers are reliable indicators of blood alcohol content. Breathalyzers can be challenged. There are ways that a breathalyzer machine can be calibrated incorrectly or can give skewed results based on various contaminations. It is important to talk to a Rockville DUI attorney who has experience in dealing with Breathalyzers Machines and Breathalyzer Tests to assure that if there are any discrepancies to the readings that have been given in court, they can be challenged to potentially have those results disqualified.
Taking Breathalyzer Test If Sure BAC is Below .08
It is very difficult for a person to measure their own blood alcohol content, but a portable breath test does help a Rockville police officer determine whether or not he or she has probable cause to arrest an individual driving under the influence of alcohol. If a person gives an alcohol concentration level on a PBT, what is most important is an alcohol level of below a .06, which is the threshold that the officer is going to use in determining whether or not they are going to place an individual under arrest. If a person knows that they have not been consuming alcohol, it is a good idea to submit to the PBT as it will save you a lot of time and frustration in going through the arrest process.
If you are unsure of whether you are going to be over that limit, then it might be a good idea to simply not take that PBT.
Legal BAC Limit in Rockville
The legal limit of a .08 is a myth that many people are confused by in the state of Maryland when it comes to DUI laws. In order to prove driving under the influence of alcohol per se it is a requirement that the state prove that somebody had an alcohol concentration level of .08 or above. However, driving under the influence of alcohol as a non per se violation is not going to require for the officer prove there is any particular amount of alcohol in the person’s system at all. In fact, the lesser included offense of driving while impaired by alcohol would only requires the officer to prove that somebody had an alcohol concentration level of .06 if the officer could also demonstrate that there was bad driving. A .08 is not the magic threshold that people believe when it comes to DUI related law.
Reliability of Breath Alcohol Content
Blood alcohol content can be a reliable indicator of driver impairment, but there are various ways that a Breathalyzer Machine could be incorrect about the blood alcohol content level. It is important to talk to a DUI attorney in Rockville who has experience challenging these devices to make sure that if there were problems with the way the results were gathered or reported, that an attorney can work to disqualify those results from the evidence.
The word “buzzed” is a word that has no legal definition. What one person believes to be “buzzed” another person can consider it to be very intoxicated. That is why officers take a lot of factors into consideration, including odor of alcohol, slurred speech, bloodshot, watery eyes, and particularly how an individual performs in Standardized Field Sobriety Test before making a determination about whether probable cause exists to arrest that person or not.
Getting Arrested for DUI While In Driveway or Garage
A person can be arrested while on their own driveway or in their garage. It depends on what happened before you got into your driveway or into your garage. If an officer was able to identify that you were driving close enough in time to being in your garage or your driveway, then the officer certainly can charge you with a DUI related offense.
Other Myths About Rockville DUIs
One of the myths that people have about DUIs in Rockville is that all an officer needs is to demonstrate that you have an alcohol concentration level of .08 in order to go forward. Officers can arrest somebody for driving under the influence or while impaired by alcohol with an alcohol concentration much lower than that.
Another myth in Rockville is that people believe that if they refuse a chemical breath test the courts will not proceed on a criminal prosecution against them. That is false, as well. A breath test is not required for the state to go forward on a DUI charge. They can use other factors like how you performed on your Field Sobriety Tests, bad driving and any clues of impairment that the officer observed while communicating with you to criminally prosecute you.
It is important for people to recognize that while many cases in Rockville will be resolved as probation before judgment for first time DUI related offenses, probation before judgment is not necessarily the best option for many people. It is often important to challenge and try to win the case outright as opposed to just accepting probation before judgment in these cases because officers often do make mistakes in how they conduct arrests and how they administer Field Sobriety Tests. Defenses are available to people even if they have an alcohol level of above the legal limits in a particular case to try and have that alcohol level suppressed and win the case completely.