Reason for Being Pulled Over - Traffic Stop DUI Defense
Speeding or Perceived Unsafe Behavior May Help You
How Does the Officer's Attitude Relate to Your DUI Case?
Many of the officer's initial impressions of you will be made before he even pulls you over. If you are driving in what he believes to be an unsafe manner, he attitude of who he will encounter will be skewed. A good defense attorney can use this bias to show that the officer was predisposed to arrest you.
Attacking the very basis for stopping you could result in a dismissal of your DUI Case
Speeding not does mean you are operating while intoxicated. In many cases, the officer will state that he pulled you over for speeding. This simple fact could be favorable to you. A careful questioning of the officer and prosecutor in your case could demonstrate that it takes more skill and control to drive a car when exceeding the speed limit, than when moving at a slower pace.
If the posted speed limit is designed for safe travel by “sober” drivers, then exceeding that speed requires even more care and caution, and is, therefore, a strong indicator that your speed was not affected by your drinking. This is an important topic to raise in court, since the officer will no doubt claim in his police report that you were driving erratically, and that such driving alerted him to the possibility that you may have been drunk.
Stone sober people speed everyday. Do not allow the prosecutor to convince you that your speeding directly reflects your level of intoxication. Your lawyer should question the officer and prosecutor in a way that proves that speeding, alone, proves virtually nothing. If, after all, speeding played as big a role as the police wanted it to play in your arrest, they could have arrested you simply for that.
It takes a lot to be accused of drunk driving; don't make presumptions about your guilt.
The fact that the officer observed your speeding and allowed you to drive on for a while before pulling over, only shows your driving was not so atrocious to justify an immediate stop and arrest. It takes a lot to be accused of drunk driving; don't make presumptions about your guilt. Doing so only helps the police make their case against you. Your lawyer is your legal protection from many of these assumptions. Make sure your lawyer attacks any claim that you were “speeding” as an insufficient basis for arresting you.
Other alleged symptoms of drunk driving can be discredited, as well. If, for example, the officer indicates that you were swerving or “all over the road,” you should once again question why the officer did not immediately arrest you for such an offense.
You should once again criticize the officer's decision to follow you rather than immediately stop your “erratic” behavior. Decisions by the officer to allow your driving to continue for a period of time only shows that your driving was not so dangerous that it required your immediate stop and arrest.
The Bottom Line in Your DUI Case is the Legal Advice You Get
If the way you drove on at the time of your arrest is safe enough to be observed by the officer for a period of time, it is also safe enough to discredit any wrong assumptions the officer made about how your drinking affected your ability to safely drive.