If you’ve been charged with DUI, you may have several viable defenses that you can raise. One of the benefits of hiring The Criminal Defense Team is being able to tap into the knowledge, diverse backgrounds, and over a century of experience our board-certified criminal defense specialists in Indianapolis possess. Possible DUI defense strategies we may raise could include the following:

what are common defense against a dui charge

Rising BAC

Many DUI cases are based on a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) test. However, the result when law enforcement tested you may not have been what your BAC was when you were driving. Your BAC continues to rise and fall as your body absorbs it and processes it.

For example, if you left a bar at 10:00 p.m., cops stopped you at 10:30, and your test was not conducted until 11:00, your BAC at the time of the test could have been higher than it was when you were actually driving.

A defense like this may be able to overcome the rebuttable presumption that you were impaired if your test came back above 0.08%.

Video Evidence

Many cops have body cameras or dash cams that may record part of your interactions with police. Likewise, the accused or bystanders may record such encounters. When a test says that the defendant was highly intoxicated, but the video shows contradictory information, such as walking straight, talking without slurring, and passing field sobriety tests, it may call the test results into question.

Breath Test Errors

Breath tests may not always provide accurate results. In Indiana, the ECIR II (the breath-testing machine) must be inspected and calibrated every 180 days. Police officers must follow strict protocols in the Indiana Administrative Code. If the breath test was not properly administered or the breath machine had problems that made its results unreliable, the results are inadmissible.

Necessity

In rare circumstances, it may be possible to argue a necessity defense if drinking and driving was better than the alternative. For example, if you were in a club having a good time when gun shots suddenly rang out, you may have fled and drove off to avoid getting hurt or killed.

Chain of Custody Issues

All evidence in a criminal case must be carefully collected, tagged, accounted for, and stored. Otherwise, it may be unreliable and inadmissible. If the state cannot show who handled your blood or breath sample, where it was stored, or when it was tested, it may not be able to be admitted as evidence in your case.

Call The Criminal Defense Team for Legal Representation

The Indianapolis DUI defense attorneys at The Criminal Defense Team of Baldwin Perry & Wiley PC don’t back down from difficult cases. We take them straight on and develop customized legal strategies based on our clients’ specific circumstances. We pool our knowledge and experience and use a team approach to identify the legal defenses that are predicted to be the most effective. Contact us today at (317) 743-3295 to schedule a free and confidential consultation.

5 DUI Defenses That Could Get Your Charges Dropped