Articles Posted in DUI

Since pop singer Justin Bieber was arrested in South Florida for DUI recently, it has become apparent that there were some things that the singer did that may not work in his favor with regard to his criminal case. However, there are some things that his DUI defense lawyers will no doubt work to his advantage.
The case is relevant not so much because of Bieber is a relatable celebrity (many would argue the opposite) but because the situation resembles so many others involving young people arrested for DUI.

To start out with, we have these basic facts, as gleaned from the news media’s reporting:
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Outrage was spurred after a 16-year-old drunk driver received 10 years of probation following a fatal wreck in which four people were killed and two seriously injured.

A psychologist at the trial testified that the teen, who lived on his own in a home purchased by his father, suffered from “affluenza,” and was the entitled product of wealthy parents who reportedly never allowed him to suffer any consequences for his actions.

The teen driver was reportedly traveling 70-miles-per-hour in a 40-mile-per-hour zone when he collided with the broken down vehicle of a teen girl, whom two families had stopped to help. Two of the teen’s passengers reportedly suffered severe and permanent brain injuries. The defendant’s blood-alcohol content reportedly measured at 0.24 three hours after the crash, and prescription drugs were found in his system.

The teen could have faced up to 20 years behind bars for his DUI manslaughter arrest.
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The Fourth Amendment well establishes that before a police officer can initiate a traffic stop, he or she must have reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed or is about to be committed.

But in the case of Navarette v. California, the question is what obligation does a patrol officer have to corroborate anonymously provided information relating to reckless drivers. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take on this issue, with oral arguments slated to for late next month.

The resulting decision is likely to have a great impact on whether Broward DUI defense lawyers will have additional grounds on which to challenge the evidence against our clients.
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These days, people have become accustomed posting almost every element of their lives on social media. There are vacation photos, music choices and even snapshots of daily meals.

But this atmosphere of over-sharing has in some cases led to the casual and sometimes bold admittance of involvement in criminal activity.

A recent South Florida drunk driving arrest may well illustrate this, if the reports prove true.
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The Florida DUI arrest of a former corporate bigwig from New York may well have made headlines regardless of the words that came out of his mouth. However, those headlines undoubtedly appeared more prominently as a result of his perceived audacity.

Like far too many people, this individual made the mistake of assuming he could talk his way out of a DUI. In the process, he probably made the situation worse.

What we try to stress to our clients is that almost nothing you say to a police officer is going to make him or her have pity on you and let you go if in fact you’ve been drinking and driving (which you should never admit). It’s even less likely that an officer will be intimidated by threats of who you are or who you know. In fact, that almost always serves to make the officer more determined to arrest you.
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The issue of the accuracy of breathalyzers in Florida is once again being raised with the recent arrest of a woman whose blood-alcohol level might suggest that she should have been in a coma.

Our Fort Lauderdale DUI defense lawyers know that this is just the latest in a long line of cases raising serious doubt about whether breathalyzers are in fact an effective measure for determining one’s true level of intoxication.

According to media reports, the defendant, from North Florida, was stopped after reportedly running off the road on a Wednesday evening. At the time, she admitted to deputies that she had been drinking. But said she “felt fine” and consented to undergoing several field sobriety tests.
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With the start of the school year comes a heightened risk of Florida DUI arrests, not just for newly-minted teen drivers, but parents as well.

While the summer months can be spent lazily at the beach or grilling out at home by the pool, the school year is packed with child-oriented activities. That includes not just ferrying younger children to-and-from school, but also to all sorts of sporting an extracurricular activities.

These demands will have parents out and about more. Even moderate consumption of alcohol or the controlled consumption of prescription medications or over-the-counter drugs could expose parents to the potential for a DUI.
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You may have heard that starting on July 1, a new law went into effect in Florida that aims to ban the sale of certain drug paraphernalia, such as bongs, pipes and rolling papers routinely used to smoke marijuana and other controlled substances.

However, our Palm Beach criminal defense lawyers recognize that the measure is likely to be largely lackluster in terms of immediate impact. Still, it’s a mistake for store owners and marijuana users to brush this off by thinking it will have no impact whatsoever. Charges are still possible – in fact, probable, if you aren’t careful.

The new law, introduced as House Bill 49, makes it a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail, for any retailer to willfully or knowingly sell drug paraphernalia. Second and subsequent violations are boosted to a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, a $5,000 fine, loss of a driver’s license, their business and the right to vote.

The way the law was originally penned, it was supposed to ban smoking devices made of ceramic, metal, acrylic, glass, plastic, wood or stone, with or without screens. It would have included all water pipes, bongs, ice pipes, electric pipes etc. Technically, the law only allows pipes made of corn cob, clay, meerschaum or briar.

But the law, as it is detailed in Florida Statute 893.147, is incredibly vague. The first version of the law did not have the “knowingly or willfully” provision. Adding this clause makes a huge difference in terms of enforcement. Unless law enforcement can prove that a shop intentionally sold a pipe to someone for the explicit purposes of drug use, they don’t have a case.

So what this means is that the items listed are only illegal if they are sold, used or intended/designed for use in a specific manner consistent with consumption of controlled substances.

For the most part, shops that sell these devices were already very careful about refusing sale or service to individuals who made references to illegal drug use. In some cases, stores have written policies posted on the doors saying that if a customer states or even infers that the product is going to be used to consume illegal drugs, he or she will be turned away.

Mostly, what the law does is give store owners a very strong incentive to follow this rule.

As far as those purchasing the materials, it’s not illegal unless you are using it for the purposes of consuming illegal drugs. So the pipe, bong, rolling papers, etc. are not considered drug paraphernalia unless they are either found with drugs or drug residue.

While marijuana is legal for medicinal purposes in 18 states plus the District of Columbia, Florida is not among those. Florida Statute 893.147 holds that it is illegal to use, possess, manufacture, deliver, transport or advertise drug paraphernalia. This is a first-degree misdemeanor.
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He is just 19-years-old.

The girl he is accused of killing was just 18.

The two were friends. Our Palm Beach manslaughter defense attorneys understand the boy is facing a second-degree felony charge that could put him in prison for up to 15 years.

It’s a tragic story and unfortunately, regardless of the criminal trial outcome, there are no winners.

What we strive to do is ensure your rights are protected. We know that prosecutors tend to get overzealous in these cases because it’s easy to want to blame someone. We know that the survivors in such an incident will be serving a life sentence no matter what, as the memory of such an awful event will haunt for many years to come.

In this case, the crash occurred in February, though the defendant is just now being charged because it took this long for investigators to process the laboratory results for toxicology as well as the crash scene recreation.

We know that without question, the 19-year-old was behind the wheel when he reportedly drove through a residential neighborhood in Lantana and struck a palm tree. The impact of the crash left the driver with minor injuries. However, the 18-year-old girl, a back-seat passenger, was killed upon impact.

Crash investigators say that as they’ve had a chance to analyze the evidence, it appears the crash was preceded by the driver traveling at speeds of 80 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone. He reportedly drove through a stop sign. Perhaps panicked by his unlawfully passing through the intersection, investigators say the driver swerved right. This caused him to lose control of the vehicle, sideswipe a palm tree and then strike a second palm tree. The impact of this rapidly spun the car and caused both the girl and another 18-year-old passenger, a male, to be thrown from the vehicle.

The other male was well enough, apparently, to leave the scene and run to his home nearby. It’s not clear why he fled.

Paramedics arrived to find the girl dead. The driver and another 18-year-old female, were both transported to a local hospital. Officers said they noted the smell of alcohol on the young driver’s breath.

A blood test of the driver taken at the hospital returned a blood-alcohol level of 0.089 percent. In Florida, a person is legally over-the-limit if his blood-alcohol level is 0.08 percent. However, that is only if the individual is over the age of 21. A driver under 21 is considered DUI if his or her blood-alcohol level is above 0.02 percent.

The toxicology results also reportedly returned the presence of marijuana in the young man’s system, causing investigators to conclude it was a combination of that plus the alcohol that led to the teen’s impairment.

However, our defense lawyers would argue that blood testing of marijuana is not necessarily an accurate determination of intoxication. Just because marijuana is found in one’s blood stream doesn’t necessarily mean they are intoxicated at the time of the test, as the drug remains in the system much longer than alcohol.

The teen was arrested on charges of DUI, DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide. He is being held in lieu of $160,000 bail.
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The July 4th holiday weekend has historically been the No. 1 deadliest holiday on the roads in terms of alcohol-related crashes. In fact, it’s ranked even more dangerous than New Year’s Day.

Our Fort Lauderdale DUI lawyers know part of that is simply that more people are out and about. The weather is good, outdoor events are the focus and cold beers and iced mixed drinks go hand-in-hand with the celebrations – particularly this year, as the holiday falls on a Thursday and many people are expected to enjoy an extra-long weekend.

The NHTSA reports that even on non-holidays, the majority of alcohol-related crashes occur on the weekends and at night. So we anticipate unfortunately seeing an especially high number of DUI crashes and arrests in South Florida this year.

What we also fully expect is a host of roving police patrols and sobriety checkpoints.

While many people tend to think of a DUI as a relatively minor crime, particularly if no one is hurt and nothing has been damaged, the reality is that even if you aren’t injured, the consequences are are as significant as they are costly.

A recent analysis by Insurance.com revealed that the average misdemeanor DUI conviction will cost a defendant somewhere around $10,000. While many people blame this on the attorneys, the reality is that a good lawyer can actually help to significantly reduce these costs.

Let’s break it down point-by-point:

Your initial fines and costs. When you are arrested, you have to post bail. That can be anywhere from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. Much of that will be returned to you, assuming you show up for court, but you will still have to pay it upfront and there are always non-refundable fees associated with it. A good attorney can help to get your bail reduced.

Another upfront cost is the money you pay to have your vehicle released from impound. In Florida, your vehicle must be held for a 10 days in impound for a first-time DUI arrest. You have to pay for the towing and impound fee. However, your lawyer may argue that you have no other mode of transportation or that your vehicle is critical to your business. This may help you get your vehicle out of impound sooner, which ultimately saves you money.

If you are ultimately convicted, the state of Florida holds that for a first-time conviction, you have to pay at least $500, but you could pay as much as $1,000. Likely, the higher your blood-alcohol level was at the time of arrest, the higher the fine you will pay. Your attorney can help you negotiate down those fees.

Then there is the cost for DUI classes. These can run anywhere from a few hundred dollars up to several thousand, just depending on what the judge deems you should receive. Avoiding a conviction with the help of your lawyer can help you avoid these courses altogether. Not only does that save you money, it saves you time, which might be better spent working and making more money.

Next you have to consider the cost for license reinstatement. In Florida, a first-time DUI offender will lose his or her license privileges for a minimum of six months, or up to a year if the BAC was 0.15 percent or higher. Reinstatement can cost several hundred dollars.

And finally, there are insurance premiums, which can rise by as much as 20 percent upon conviction.

A good attorney will work hard to help you avoid a conviction or have the charges against you reduced. The best way to avoid a DUI this Fourth of July is to avoid drinking behind the wheel. However, if you are arrested, securing a strong legal defense is imperative.
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