Can You Beat a DUI Charge in Oakland County?

Yes, you CAN beat a DUI charge in Oakland County. While it’s not common, it’s possible that yours is one of the charges that can be beat.

If there’s any chance at all it will happen for you, you must have a highly experienced team of Oakland County Michigan DUI defense lawyers on your side.  

They know the specific laws and methods of providing the right legal defense that enable them to present a solid case for you that can possibly alleviate the worry of jail time, fines, and more.

Ways to Possibly Beat a DUI Charge in Oakland County

The first thing to know is that a DUI charge in Oakland County is NOT a conviction. Rather, it’s merely an allegation and you obviously want to keep it that way. That’s why you must bring on trained legal experts to defend you. 

Any experienced Michigan OWI defense attorney worth his or her salt will tell you that most dismissed charges are the result of errors on the part of the police. This is not to cast a bad light on policing. It’s just that there’s a lot that can happen during an assumed DUI or OWI traffic stop and errors do occur. 

As such, the first order of business for skilled OWI/DWI attorneys is to investigate every last detail of your arrest to determine if an error occurred on behalf of the police. They implicitly understand that evidence must meet certain minimum standards to be considered reliable enough to be used against you.

A Sampling of Defenses

Attorneys who focus on getting you out of a DUI charge in Oakland County are privy to a variety of defense strategies that they can use in their case. We won’t go into detail on these.

Just know that there are three general areas where lawyers are most likely to take issue with not having enough significant evidence. The traffic stop is the first. Then comes the field sobriety tests. Finally, they’ll look at the breath and/or blood tests (a.k.a. chemical evidence). The following sampling of defenses that could be used for these three areas is just the tip of the iceberg:

Traffic Stops

Law enforcement cannot stop a driver solely based on an anonymous call from a citizen claiming the driver is intoxicated or under the influence. They are also not permitted to stop a vehicle that is weaving but not actually crossing any lines since this is not a violation of the law. There must be reasonable and articulate basis to believe a law has been violated to pull over a driver.

Sobriety Tests

The truth is, field sobriety tests can be remarkably unreliable. If you have an injury, a medical condition, are more than 50 pounds overweight, and/or are over the age of 65, you cannot be validly judged by these tests. Standing on one leg, as well as the walk-and-turn test, both have an accuracy rate of under 70%.

Add to that that neither the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) nor medical science considers saying the alphabet, counting backward, or touching your finger to your nose as valid measures of sobriety.

Chemical Evidence

There are prescribed rules of testing, analysis, or preservation recommendations that must be followed in police blood testing. Attorneys looking to beat a DUI charge in Oakland County are aware of the logistics of these rules. Meanwhile, hospital blood tests can significantly overestimate a person’s level. In severely injured persons, the number is frequently even higher.

Finally, in most states (including Michigan), the driver must be observed continuously for a set minimum amount of time before a breath test is administered for the results to be considered valid and admissible in court.

There’s So Much to Understand

Being involved in a DUI stop in Oakland County can be scary and intimidating. You don’t want to take this on alone.

If you feel you’ve been pulled over erroneously and hope to beat a DUI charge in Oakland County, then contact us today or call (248) 645-1400. We offer a free consultation with 24-hour availability.

We’ll investigate your arrest, evaluate the charges you’ve been given, and help you navigate the situation to garner the best possible results.