Getting Off a DUI Charge in Arizona: The Top 10 Secrets
To help provide you with insight into DUI offenses, we would like to give you this guide to the Top 10 Secrets to Getting Off a DUI Charge in Arizona.
This article is only for informational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice so none should be construed. Any client-attorney relationship will not be established by your reading this article. However, we are available to help defend any Phoenix DUI charge. Please call our office at 602-324-5300 if you have any questions at all about DUI charges in Arizona or to set up a free consultation with DUI Attorney Ulises Ferragut.
- Refusing a blood or breath test is not an admission of guilt. However, an Arizona breath or blood test refusal will trigger an automatic 1 year suspension of driver’s license. Also, the police will likely be able to obtain a search warrant from a judge to have the breath or blood sample taken. So be very wise about this and know your options. You will take your chances if you refuse and could be subject to an automatic loss of license. TIP: the loss of license can still be challenged in court.
- If you refuse the test you won’t ‘definitely’ lose your license for one year. The police will tell you that you will – that’s their job. They want to scare you into taking it because they want to take care of the issue immediately with a citation, with as little resistance as possible. They won’t tell you that you can challenge it. But that’s exactly why you get to go to court – to fight for your rights and give you the opportunity to explain your side of the story. But, it’s important to know that it’ll take great planning with a really good attorney that can provide you with the best testimony and the best chances to get out of it.
- You can win a breath or blood test result for Arizona DUI – as much as the police will tell you that it’s infallible and what it says will stand in court no matter what, it’s not hopeless. However, it will completely depend on the level of alcohol in your blood stream and the ability to retrograde the analysis. This is a scientific test that is done to verify the competency of the results. The test results will hold up in the Arizona court, regardless of which way they go.
- Field sobriety tests are not reliable in regards to alcohol impairment. By Arizona DUI law, they are not determinate of impairment but are used by law enforcement as tools to determine if there is probable cause to do further testing. This testing will probably include a breath or blood test. If you are cited with DUI solely based on a field sobriety test, as open and shut as this may seem, you should still consult with an attorney. They can help you determine whether the case merits further investigation and a deeper level of understanding to beat the charges.
- You will not definitely get 10 days in jail for a 1st DUI arrest. Normally on a first time DUI with a blood alcohol content below .150, the standard plea offer is 10 days jail. However, 9 days of the jail sentence will be suspended upon completion of alcohol screening and treatment classes. This results in 1 day of actual jail time.
- The Intoxilyzer 5000 (standard state-administered breath test), is not always accurate – you can defeat it in court (your chances greatly increase with legal counsel): It has been shown that the accuracy of the test results can be challenged for lack of proper care, maintenance and calibration of the testing equipment. There have been dozens of court cases across the country where a DUI was dismissed because it was shown the device used was inaccurate.
- The legal limit of 0.08 BAC is not necessarily drunk. However, BAC of .08 is presumed to be the impairment level by Arizona statute.
- You don’t have to pay a court appointed DUI lawyer in Phoenix before you go to court. You are within your legal limits to opt for a private counsel who will probably serve you better than your public defender. This simply is because the public defender’s case load is extremely high and they work a standard week. Your private counsel will do whatever it takes to help keep you get lower fines, keep you out of jail and if at all possible, have you found innocent.
- If your criminal attorney insists you to plead guilty at your arraignment, he probably could do a much better Job. No person accused of a crime should be pleading guilty at their arraignment. An arraignment starts the process and there is a lot of investigation, research, and legal challenges to the charges that needs to take place before ever pleading guilty. A criminal lawyer in AZ whom advises a client to plead guilty at an arraignment has not done his/her job and is not effectively representing the client.
- A good Phoenix DUI attorney is not cheap, and cheap lawyers can cost you a lot. Like anything else in life…you get what you pay for. A highly qualified, skilled, and experienced attorney can make the difference between freedom and imprisonment. That experience and depth of knowledge will come at a price. You don’t need to break the bank, but just know that in 2020, a good DUI lawyer will probably be in the neighborhood of $5000 or more to do an effective job of defending your charges.
Also, you should expect that great attorney to only take your case if they feel they can help! Keep in mind that prospective clients (that’s you) who hire the cheap DUI lawyer may save money in the short term, it could very well end up being a very costly and risky decision in the long term. Cheap defense attorneys may also be desperate for your business and may not be honest with you in their case results expectations.
Lastly, never pay for a consultation. The best defense attorneys will offer a free consultation so you can decide together if you’ve got a good case against those DUI charges. Get a free consultation with a great Phoenix DUI defense attorney now by calling 602-324-5300.