How Can DUI Charges Get Dismissed?

The best outcome for you, if you are facing DUI charges, is for the charges to be dismissed. If this occurs, you can avoid jail time, fines, other penalties, and acquiring a criminal record.

Can I get DUI Charges Dismissed Completely?

An experienced DUI lawyer from Bugbee Law Office, P.S. can examine the circumstances of your case to determine if you have legal grounds to dismiss your DUI charges. Some of the ways that our DUI lawyer has had DUI charges dismissed is by establishing one or more of the following:

Unlawful Stop

Washington law enforcement officers cannot legally stop a motorist without a valid reason for doing so. They must be able to show that they personally observed behavior that was illegal or a violation of a traffic law or other law.

Not all reasons that law enforcement officers give provide reasonable suspicion to support a stop, such as weaving within a lane, which is not a violation of traffic laws.

Additionally, a law enforcement officer cannot rely exclusively on an anonymous report of drunk driving to justify a stop. If interested in learning more, here is some info on what to do if stopped for a DUI in Spokane, WA.

Erroneous Field Sobriety Tests

Law enforcement officers may request that you complete standard field sobriety tests. However, neither medical science nor the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recognizes non-standardized field tests such as counting backward or touching your finger to your nose as valid.

Standardized tests like the walk-and-turn test, one-leg stand test, or horizontal nystagmus test are considered valid, but they must be properly administered to provide accurate results. However, some of these tests are only 65% accurate even when they are performed correctly.

Additionally, these tests are designed for healthy people. They are not appropriate for individuals who are or have:

• Injuries
• Medical conditions
• Age 65 or older
• 50 pounds or more overweight

Additionally, footwear, your comprehension of the English language, and uneven roadways can impact the accuracy of these tests. For these reasons, it is often in your best interest to refuse to take these tests.

Inaccurate Blood Alcohol Content Results

For a person to be arrested for a DUI in Washington, his or her Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) must be recorded at 0.08 or higher. However, the BAC may read as higher than it really was due to problems with the machine that provides the reading or due to procedural problems.

For breath tests, BAC results may be inaccurate due to what someone ate or drank other than alcohol or because of medical conditions like acid reflux. The person who operates the breath test machine may not be certified or his or her operator license may have expired. The operator may make problems with the administration of the test. The breathing machine may malfunction or may not have been recently calibrated, so its results may not be reliable.

Police blood tests may not be properly administered or may not follow rules regarding the testing, analysis, or preservation of the blood sample. Severely injured individuals may have an inaccurate BAC result.

Failure to Observe

In Washington, law enforcement officers are required to observe a DUI suspect continuously for at least 15 minutes prior to administering a breath test. The action that the DUI suspect takes during this time may impact the accuracy of the breath test, such as burping or vomiting. Results are not considered valid unless this observation period is strictly observed.

Contact an Experienced DUI Lawyer

These are just a few of the ways in which charges may be dismissed. Our experienced DUI attorney can provide additional DUI resources to help explain DUI law and what defenses might be available in your case.

Contact Bugbee Law Office by calling 509-337-5082.