Does a defendant in Houston, Harris County and Montgomery County need to make a voluntary choice to be convicted of driving drunk? This is a question that comes up in some complex DWI cases. If you have been charged with driving under the influence, a DWI defense lawyer can help you to explore ways to make it difficult for a prosecutor to prove the case against you. If you can disprove any part of the crime, you should avoid conviction.

Some defendants try to avoid being convicted of driving drunk by claiming that they did not make a choice to engage in the behavior. This defense may work under limited circumstances depending upon state laws. You need to make sure you talk to a lawyer before raising any defense because an argument that worked for one defendant may not work for you.

Does DWI Require a Voluntary Act?

Courthouse News reported one DWI defendant who was challenging the suspension of his license to drive. His license was revoked by a hearing officer as part of administrative proceedings that result in the automatic suspension of a driver’s license when someone is considered to be impaired. The motorist had been arrested for having alcohol in his system while driving, and his license was revoked because he was over-the-limit.

The motorist also had Ambien in his system at the time of his DWI arrest. The Ambien detected through chemical testing was in normal therapeutic dose. One known side effect of Ambien is that the medication can result in people getting up and doing things after they have taken the pills and while they are asleep. A person who acts while sleeping is in a somnambulistic state. Sleep driving is a common activity that people who take Ambien do when they are in a somnambulistic state.

The motorist claims that he shouldn’t have lost his license because he was not acting voluntarily when he got behind the wheel drunk after he took Ambien and acted in a somnambulistic state. He believes that the hearing officer who held that his license should be revoked made an error in ruling that a DWI does not require a voluntary act.

The motorist who is challenging his suspension is in Colorado, so the case will be heard in Colorado courts and the local DWI laws will be interpreted in order to determine if the driver should lose his license for a period of time.  Other state laws may be written differently and a different outcome may occur if a defendant tries to challenge a license suspension or a DWI charge by claiming that he should not be held accountable because he acted involuntarily while on Ambien or was under the influence of other prescription or over-the-counter drugs.

Texas plaintiffs have previously had charges dropped when they claimed they acted involuntarily and drove under the influence of Ambien.  The Guardian reported on one Texas woman who battled for years to get her charges dropped — she was ultimately successful.

Whenever you have any type of complex DWI case, it is important to have an experienced DWI defense lawyer to help determine the best course of action.

Call Joseph LaBella & Associates today at 800-395-5951 or visit www.texas-dwi-lawyers.com to speak with a Houston DWI defense lawyer. Serving Harris County, Montgomery County, and communities along Interstate 45 through The Woodlands and Conroe.

In the state of Texas, a driver who refuses to take a blood or breath test after a DUI arrest can have his license suspended for between 90 days and two years. The Texas Department of Public Safety also warns motorists that they can face a 90-day to two-year license suspension if they submit to a test of their blood-alcohol concentration and their BAC is .08 or higher.

A DUI defense lawyer knows that a suspension of your license can cause significant hardship. You have the right to challenge the license suspension. However, you have only a limited period of time in which to request a hearing to try to save your ability to drive. You should talk to a lawyer right away so you don’t miss the deadline and so you can prepare an argument for why you shouldn’t lose driving rights.

Administrative Suspensions Based on Illegally-Obtained Evidence?

While implied consent laws require that you submit to a breathalyzer test when police have reason to believe you are impaired, these laws require that a law enforcement officer have probable cause. Police must have a legitimate reason for pulling you over as well as a reason for asking you to take the BAC test. Otherwise your Fourth Amendment rights may be violated.

Recently, one case in North Carolina addressed what the rules are for an administrative license suspension when evidence is obtained in an illegal search. The North Carolina case arose out of a traffic stop in 2013.

A phone call had been made to police alerting them to the fact that a blue Ford Explorer was weaving and driving erratically. A law enforcement officer subsequently pulled over a woman who was driving a blue Ford Explorer. The officer did not actually see the driver weaving or doing anything wrong. During the time when the officer observed the motorist, she was driving fine and there was no justification for stopping her.

While stopped, the officer asked her to submit to a field sobriety test on the basis of allegations that she smelled like alcohol. She did not pass and was asked to take a BAC test after a DUI arrest, which she declined to do. This triggered a license suspension under the implied consent laws.

Her DUI case was subsequently dismissed because the illegally obtained evidence could not be used since the traffic stop was not legitimate. Although the criminal case against her was dismissed, her license suspension still remained in effect. She went to court, which ruled that the DMV couldn’t consider evidence that was obtained in violation of her rights. However, the DMV argued that the exclusionary rule preventing the use of the evidence in criminal court didn’t apply to the administrative suspension. The North Carolina appellate court agreed with the DMV.

The result essentially means drivers in North Carolina can have their license suspended based on an illegal traffic stop. This is a troubling example of how Fourth Amendment rights are being curtailed and defendants are suffering as a result.

Call Joseph LaBella & Associates today at 800-395-5951 or visit http://www.texas-dwi-lawyers.com/ to speak with a Houston DUI defense lawyer. Serving Harris County, Montgomery County, and communities along Interstate 45 through The Woodlands and Conroe. 

After you are charged with driving under the influence in Houston, Harris County, Montgomery County, and surrounding areas, there are a number of different potential defenses that you could raise in order to try to avoid being convicted of these serious charges. A DUI defense lawyer can review the circumstances of your arrest and help you to determine what types of arguments may be most effective in order to help you avoid conviction.

Some lawmakers are considering added a new possible defense to DUI charges. This defense would allow people to justify the decision to drive while impaired if they needed to do so in order to protect their safety. This could provide important protections to people who drove while impaired because they had no other choice but to get behind the wheel after having consumed alcohol.

Proposal Could Allow a New DUI Defense

According to MPR News, bipartisan legislation is pending in Minnesota that would provide protection for people who drive impaired because their physical safety is at risk.

The legislation arose out of the case of a woman who was forced to drive while impaired because she was at risk of domestic violence. The woman had a fight with her husband in a cabin that the couple was sharing and she was afraid that she would be injured. As a result, she had no choice but to get in the car and drive a mile to safety despite the fact that she had consumed too much alcohol at dinner and she was over the legal limit.

Although her safety was at risk, she still had her driver’s license revoked under implied consent laws. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and a divided court upheld the revocation because there is no provision under state law that permitted her to use the risk to her safety as a defense in the civil proceeding against her. The Chief Justice indicated that it would be up to the Legislature to provide protection from DUI laws for domestic abuse victims. The new proposed bill is an effort to provide this protection.

The legislation adds a defense of necessity, and gives people accused of impaired driving the right to argue that the fear of serious injury could override the state’s right to revoke a driver’s license for driving drunk.

If the law passes, this could provide protection not only for people who drive because they are at risk of domestic violence but also in other situations as well, such as if a bar fight occurs and you need to leave the scene to avoid being injured.

The new law, if passed, will be specific to the state. However, the defense of necessity has been accepted in varying degrees throughout the United States among defendants accused of drunk driving. In Texas, Sec 9.22 addresses the defense of necessity. Necessity is a defense if you reasonably believe your actions are necessary to avoid imminent harm; the urgency of avoiding the harm outweighs the harm that the law seeks to prevent; and a legislative intent to exclude a necessity defense does not plainly appear.

An experienced DUI defense lawyer can help those who have been accused of driving under the influence to determine if they can raise a necessity defense in their particular case.

Call Joseph LaBella & Associates today at 800-395-5951 or visit http://www.texas-dwi-lawyers.com/ to speak with a Houston DUI defense lawyer. Serving Harris County, Montgomery County, and communities along Interstate 45 through The Woodlands and Conroe. 

In Houston, TX, you can be arrested if you have a blood alcohol concentration exceeding the legal limit, which is set at .08 BAC. However, you can also be arrested for impaired driving even if you are not over-the-limit on alcohol. If you have drugs in your system, or a combination of alcohol and drugs, then you can find yourself charged with an impaired driving offense. A DWI arrest can lead to the loss of your driver’s license, a criminal record and potentially a requirement to complete a mandatory drug counseling program.

A DUI defense lawyer can provide you with legal representation in both drunk driving and drugged driving cases. Recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a report indicating that there are fewer drunk drivers on the road than in past history but that the number of drugged drivers is increasing. As more evidence comes to light that there has been a shift in who is driving impaired, law enforcement practices are shifting to ensure there is sufficient focus on identifying drugged drivers. This can mean a greater crackdown on people who may have potentially used marijuana or other drugs before getting behind the wheel.

Drugged Driving is On-the-Rise

Over the past 40 years, the NHTSA has conducted five roadside surveys of drivers. These surveys are set up as road blocks, and drivers are given plenty of warning that a road block is upcoming. Motorists who go through the road block have their BAC tested and can be tested for drugs in their system. If someone does turn out to be impaired, he is not arrested. The data on impairment is collected anonymously in order to get a better understanding of how many people are drunk or high behind the wheel at any given time.

The reports from the most recent national roadside survey have been released and they show that there has been a 30 percent decline between 2007 and 2014 in the number of people with a BAC above the legal limit. Just eight percent of motorists were found to have any alcohol in their system and just one percent were found to be over-the-limit. Compared with the first NHTSA roadside survey that was performed in 1973, this was an 80 percent drop in the number of people driving under the influence of alcohol. This low number shows the effectiveness both of public education campaigns organized by groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, as well as the aggressive policing of drunk drivers.

The number of drivers who were found to be on drugs, however, has increased. From 2007 to 2014, the number of weekend nighttime drivers who had drugs in their system increased by 16.3 percent.

It is more difficult for law enforcement officers to identify drugged drivers in many cases, but as studies continue to show an increase in the number of drugged drivers, it is likely that law enforcement officers and lawmakers will begin exploring new ways to solve the problem of drugged driving.

Call Joseph LaBella & Associates today at 800-395-5951 or visit http://www.texas-dwi-lawyers.com/ to speak with a Houston DUI defense lawyer. Serving Harris County, Montgomery County, and communities along Interstate 45 through The Woodlands and Conroe. 

Drunk drivers throughout Harris County, Montgomery County and surrounding areas face many serious criminal penalties when they are convicted of driving under the influence. A criminal record can limit future job opportunities. The temporary suspension of a license can make it difficult to fulfill personal, professional and family obligations. The record of the DWI  can raise insurance costs for years to come, and the fines and costs from the trial and penalties can be financially devastating.

These consequences are very harsh for someone who may have just had a momentary lapse in judgment or made a simple mistake and who was convicted for impaired driving as a result. Yet, even with DWIs carrying such stringent penalties, a DWI defense lawyer knows that lawmakers regularly take steps to come down even harder on drunk drivers. In part, this is because of intense pressure from public advocacy groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Whatever the motivation, lawmakers in one state are considering imposing draconian restrictions unlike any that currently exist.

Could States Prevent Drunk Drivers From Buying Alcohol?

According to Fox News, a senator in Oklahoma has introduced a bill that would give judges the authority to impose and enforce alcohol restrictions on people as a consequence of impaired driving charges. Senate Bill 30 requests that procedures be developed to require drunk driving offenders to refrain from buying or even consuming alcohol for a period of time that is up to the discretion of the judge.

There are currently no laws anywhere the country imposing a blanket prohibition on any group’s right to consume alcohol after reaching the legal drinking age of 21. There are significant questions about whether this proposed law would even be constitutional. There are also practical enforcement questions. For example, would restaurants be allowed to serve food that had alcohol in it to someone who had been convicted of drunk driving, or would a DUI offender still be able to take communion or participate in religious ceremonies that involve alcohol?

The bill does not spell out answers to these questions. The proposed law sets forth the general guidelines for how the prohibition would work. DWI offenders would be required to order and use a replacement identification that had the words “Alcohol Restricted”  printed on its front. As a result, when people have to show ID to buy alcohol, the clerk would be alerted that the buyer was not allowed to make the purchase.  The law also specifies that if someone was caught buying alcohol for anyone that he or she knew was alcohol restricted, that person could face felony charges. Penalties could include up to a year of jail time and up to $1,000 in fines.

If Oklahoma does pass this law, it will apply only in-state and won’t directly affect Texans. However, other states could adopt similar laws if Oklahoma leads the way. This would significantly curtail the rights of people who have faced drunk driving charges.

Call Joseph LaBella & Associates today at 800-395-5951 or visit www.texas-dwi-lawyers.com to speak with a Houston DWI defense lawyer. Serving Harris County, Montgomery County, and communities along Interstate 45 through The Woodlands and Conroe. 

In Harris County, Montgomery County, Houston and the entire state of Texas, drivers give implied consent when they get behind the wheel. Essentially, this means they have given their permission for law enforcement to test their blood-alcohol concentration. Police cannot just test your BAC whenever they want to, though. They will need to have probable cause or a reasonable suspicion that you have consumed too much alcohol to be safely behind the wheel.

There have been many legal disputes and court cases attempting to clarify the extent of the power of law enforcement when it comes to stopping potentially drunk drivers and testing the level of alcohol in their bodies. The disputes typically center around whether the accused’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure were violated. The defendant will petition to the court, arguing that evidence was collected illegally. If the court agrees, then the judge will order the evidence suppressed. The evidence, as well as any other information that police obtained as a direct result of the illegal search, will not be admissible by the prosecutor. Since the illegal evidence cannot be used against you, the prosecutor may have to drop the charges if there’s no other proof of your intoxication.

One recent dispute has navigated its way through the legal system and the Denver Post reports that the case may be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. This means that the decisions of the Supreme Court will apply to every defendant in a criminal case for drunk driving throughout the United States.

How Far Can Police Go Without a Warrant? 

The case, People v. Schaufele, which the Supreme Court may announce a decision to hear as early as January, originates from an accident that began at around 7:15 in the morning at a busy intersection. An allegedly disoriented driver was found at the scene after hitting an oncoming car. The driver was transported to the hospital.

No one reported smelling alcohol on the man, and law enforcement attributed the driver’s initial confusion to post traumatic stress from the accident. However, the fourth law enforcement officer to come into contact with him smelled alcohol on him. An officer at the hospital also indicated that he detected the scent of alcohol. That officer tried to inform the driver that a blood test would be taken to determine intoxication. The driver, however, was unconscious or asleep and did not give consent.

There was no warrant obtained before the test was administered. The results revealed that the driver had a blood-alcohol concentration around three times over the .08 legal limit. As a result, the driver was charged with four counts, including drunk driving.

He pled not guilty and sought to have the evidence suppressed because the blood test allegedly violated his rights. The Supreme Court in Colorado, where the arrest occurred, agreed that the blood draw should not be used. The case has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would make the decision about whether this type of evidence is admissible. Future drunk driving defendants will be affected by this ruling, as it could impact evidence collection procedures and the kinds of evidence that can be used in court.

Call Joseph LaBella & Associates today at 800-395-5951 or visit http://www.texas-dwi-lawyers.com/ to speak with a Houston DUI defense lawyer. Serving Harris County, Montgomery County, and communities along Interstate 45 through The Woodlands and Conroe. 

When you are charged with driving while impaired (DWI) in Texas, you generally face misdemeanor charges. A misdemeanor is a crime for which the penalty is a year of jail time or less. In most cases, a first time drunk driving offender will be able to avoid jail entirely or will spend only a short time in jail.

Unfortunately in some cases, an incident of drunk driving can lead to a felony charge. A felony is a crime for which you face more than a year of prison time, as well as other potential consequences such as the loss of voting rights. 

A felony is much more serious than a conviction for a misdemeanor. It will follow you the rest of your life. While it is always important to get legal help from a DWI defense lawyer in a situation where you have been charged with impaired driving, it is especially essential in cases where you are facing felony charges. Your attorney can help you to determine the extent of the potential penalties, as well as assist you in understanding what you need to do to try to plea bargain down the charges or avoid conviction.

When Does a DWI in Texas Become a Felony? 

A DWI criminal charge is upgraded from misdemeanor to felony when there are aggravated circumstances. There are many different situations where you may be charged with felony drunk driving under Title 10 Chapter 49 of the Texas Penal Code. For example, you may be charged with felony drunk driving if:

• You have a minor in your vehicle who is under the age of 15.
• Your drunk driving results in an accident in which someone suffers serious bodily injury. This is called intoxication assault, and it can result in third-degree felony charges. Serious bodily injury is defined as a situation where there was a substantial risk that the victim would die or experience permanent disfigurement. A minor accident that results in a few mild injuries typically will not result in you being charged with a third-degree felony for intoxication assault.
• Your drunk driving causes a fatal accident. If someone dies in a motor vehicle accident you cause while impaired by alcohol or drugs, you face second-degree felony charges for intoxication manslaughter.
• You cause harm to a police or law enforcement officer, emergency medical personnel or a firefighter. If you harm any of these safety professionals while you are drunk and they are working in the line of duty, you could be charged with a second-degree felony, whereas if you caused a similar type of harm to someone else who was not a peace officer or within these special categories, you would face only third-degree felony charges. In the event you cause a death to one of these public servants, then you could be charged with a first-degree felony.
• You have prior drunk driving convictions. If you have two prior convictions for misdemeanor drunk driving, your third conviction would be a felony conviction.

If aggravating factors exist in your drunk driving case, be sure to call an attorney as soon as possible.

Call Joseph LaBella & Associates today at 800-395-5951 or visit http://www.texas-dwi-lawyers.com to speak with a Houston DWI defense lawyer. Serving Harris County, Montgomery County, and communities along Interstate 45 through The Woodlands and Conroe. 

In the state of Texas, drivers who have two or more drunk driving convictions over a period of five years are required to install an ignition interlock device in their vehicles. Drivers who are arrested for a first offense must also have an ignition interlock device installed on cars that they own. Motorists must pay for the cost of the ignition interlock device. The device typically must remain on a vehicle for at least one year following the period when a license is suspended.

An ignition interlock device can be costly to install and operate, and it can be burdensome and embarrassing as all drivers who use the vehicle must blow into the device in order for the car to start. Unfortunately, the only way to avoid having an ignition interlock device installed is to avoid a conviction for an offense that would trigger the IID requirement. A DUI defense lawyer can assist you in defending yourself or exploring plea bargain or diversion options to avoid a conviction that could trigger the required use of an ignition interlock device.

Do Ignition Interlock Devices Work to Prevent Impaired Driving?

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) revealed that there were around 305,000 ignition interlock devices installed in the United States as of 2013. The use of ignition interlock devices has increased at a rate of 30,000 units every single year over the past eight years.

An ignition interlock device works by making it impossible to start a vehicle until you blow into a device installed on the dashboard that tests your blood-alcohol concentration. If your BAC exceeds .02, the vehicle will not start. There are also rolling retests that are required to ensure that the driver who initially blew into the test is the one operating the vehicle and is staying sober during operation. A rolling retest gives the driver a limited period of time to have his BAC tested again after he is driving. A failure to take the test, or a BAC above the limit, results in an alarm going off and the driver must stop operating the vehicle.

Because ignition interlock devices essentially make it impossible to drive drunk, there is a decrease in re-arrests among people who have been required to have these devices put into their vehicles. However, research has shown that the devices only have an impact for as long as they are actually installed in the car. After an ignition interlock device is removed from a person’s vehicle, the rate of re-arrest for a subsequent drunk driving offense returns to normal.

This suggests that these devices do little to actually solve problems that may cause people to drive while impaired. They are expensive, and have no long-term benefits so regulators may be better off finding alternative ways to stop drunk driving. Offenders may also benefit from being able to negotiate plea bargains or enter into diversion programs that provide drug and alcohol counseling rather than being convicted and simply having to pay huge sums of money to have an ignition interlock device put into their car.

Call Joseph LaBella & Associates today at 800-395-5951 or visit http://www.texas-dwi-lawyers.com to speak with a Houston DUI defense lawyer. Serving Harris County, Montgomery County, and communities along Interstate 45 through The Woodlands and Conroe. 

If you are charged with driving impaired and your blood-alcohol concentration is over-the-limit in Texas, it may seem difficult to mount a defense. After all, the science says that you are too impaired to be safely on the roads.

As a DUI defense lawyer knows, however, blood and breath tests are not  accurate and plenty of mistakes can be made. You need to have a full understanding of your rights and explore ways to introduce doubt about the accuracy of tests if you have been charged with impaired driving. Recently, mistakes made in one PA county show just how easy it is for errors to lead to the conviction of innocent people for impaired driving.

DUIs Can Be Calculated Incorrectly
According to the Sun Gazette, a Pennsylvania county has made serious mistakes when determining whether motorists were impaired.

A local hospital was responsible for testing drivers to see if they were over the legal limit of .08. Unfortunately, the hospital incorrectly tested motorist blood serum, nor the motorists’ whole blood. The result was that blood-alcohol content of motorists was overestimated by as much as 15 percent.

Testing blood serum can be an acceptable way to determine if someone is drunk. However, a calculation must be done in order to convert the percentage of alcohol found in the blood serum to determine the percentage of alcohol that would be found if a whole blood sample. This calculation was not performed.

Because of the error, people may have been found over-the-limit when really they had not consumed enough alcohol to be considered intoxicated. Furthermore, because a higher blood-alcohol concentration can lead to more serious penalties, drivers may have been left to cope with longer jail terms, larger fines and a longer license suspension as a result of inaccurate test results.

Yahoo News indicates that the District Attorney in the county where the mistake was made has described the incident as an “unfortunate oversight.” Unfortunately, it was much more than just an “unfortunate oversight” to the people whose lives were disrupted by jail terms or the loss of a driver’s license due to inaccurate testing.

The District Attorneys office says that it has reviewed more than 570 cases and eliminated them as being affected by the discrepancy. Another 180 cases could be affected and will be reviewed shortly. When the review is complete, estimates indicate that around two percent of cases may either need to be retried or dismissed.

The hospital and police disclaim responsibility for the error, indicating that it is the job of the prosecution to make sure the blood-alcohol concentration levels are correct. Since it is so clear that prosecutors failed to do their jobs in this instance, the mistakes serve as an important reminder to defendants and defense lawyers to always check the evidence for inaccuracies.

Call Joseph LaBella & Associates today at 800-395-5951 or visit http://www.texas-dwi-lawyers.com/ to speak with a Houston DUI defense lawyer.

Football is a much beloved sport in Texas, but many people drink and drive during football season and police know it. Studies have shown that the number of arrests for alcohol offenses increases during football season. It is routine for Texas law enforcement officers to be aware of big game days, especially Super Bowl Sunday, and to increase enforcement in order to catch people who may be driving while intoxicated.

An arrest for drunk driving during football season can significantly impact your future. It is important to consult with a DUI defense lawyer if you are charged with violating drunk driving laws so you can have the best opportunity to negotiate a plea deal or defend yourself against the charges.

Drunk Driving Arrests Increase During Football Season

The U.S. National Library of Medicine from the National Institutes of Health published a study on the impact football season has on arrests for alcohol-related crimes. To conduct the study, researchers looked at a period of 30 days, including 10 game days, 10 “control” days and holidays. The researchers studied arrest records on those days in areas where there were Division 1 football teams that were performing well.

Over the study period, there were a total of 944 arrests for alcohol-related crimes, including driving while impaired by alcohol. A significantly number of these arrests occurred on game days. In fact, on Sundays when football games were played, there were 70.3 arrests on average for alcohol-related criminal offenses. On non-game Sundays, which served as the control days, there were an average of 12.3 alcohol-related arrests. On holidays, which also tend to be times when there is a high amount of alcohol-use, there were 11.8 arrests.

Based on this data, researchers were able to conclude that football season made a difference in the number of people arrested. Further evidence of this was found in the fact that arrests that occurred on football days tended to occur closer to the football stadium in general when compared with the arrests that occurred on holidays or on the control group non-football Sundays.

This football season, it is important to remember that the police will be out looking for people who are driving drunk, and that law enforcement officers are especially vigilant for signs of intoxication at the times when football games end and people drive home. Whether you are attending professional or college games or simply going to a friend’s house to watch the game, you should ensure you have a designated driver in place to take you home before you begin to consume alcoholic beverages.

If you are pulled over and accused of intoxicated driving during football season, you need to know your rights. Police must have reasonable justification for stopping your vehicle and for requesting you to submit to a test of your blood-alcohol concentration. An experienced attorney can help defend your rights as we fight to keep a criminal conviction off your record.

Call Joseph LaBella & Associates today at 800-395-5951 to speak with a Houston DUI defense lawyer.