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Marc A. Joseph, P.A.

Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney
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Should You Hire a Lawyer If You Have Been Charged With Drunk Driving?

DUI defenses that a lawyer can help you with

Even if you really only drank two drinks before you got in the car to drive it is still not a good idea to provide statements to law enforcement. There are defenses that a criminal defense lawyer can help you with that are frequently successful. A common defense to an allegation of drunk driving is the rising blood alcohol defense.

Basically the rising blood alcohol defense takes the position that the defendant consumed a few alcoholic beverages shortly before driving. Alcohol is processed over time therefore a person who consumes multiple drinks in a short period of time will not immediately have all of the alcohol in their blood stream. Over the next few hours the alcohol will be processed by the body. You lawyer will argue that you were not over the legal limit at the time you were stopped however as a result of the delay caused by law enforcement your blood alcohol level increased and that is why percentage of alcohol in your blood exceeded the legal limit.

In addition to the rising blood alcohol defense there are other arguments that can be made on your behalf. An experienced criminal defense attorney will recognize issues with the way you were stopped or problems with the calibration logs of the equipment that was used to measure the percentage of alcohol that was in your blood. The body of case law relating to drunk driving cases is extensive which means that there are many issues that a criminal defense lawyer can raise on your behalf.

Unfair prosecution without a private defense lawyer

If you proceed without hiring a criminal defense lawyer in a drunk driving case you will either be pitted against a highly trained prosecutor with unlimited resources by yourself or you will have a public defender who is over worked and under paid. As a former public defender I would never criticize the work they do however I know the size of the case load these attorneys have. I also know that public defenders have to prioritize their cases and drunk driving cases usually do not result in jail time for a first time offense. On the other hand many criminal defendants who have public defendants are facing up to a year in jail.

There is no doubt that hiring a private criminal defense lawyer is in your best interest if you have been charged with drunk driving. Many criminal defense lawyers will take your case with a down payment and monthly payments.

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