Driving while intoxicated of drugs or alcohol is one of the serious criminal offenses in the United States. Texas, in particular, has some of the strictest DWI laws in the country and if you are caught driving while you are under the influence of controlled substance or alcohol, you must contact a DWI lawyer as soon as possible. Being convicted of DWI and facing drunk driving conviction might have grave consequences.
Driving while drunk is quite a common occurrence as a lot of people seem to think a few drinks won’t do any harm. Once caught, the accused individual’s previous records will be checked during the trial; different regimented procedures and sophisticated technologies will be used for collecting evidence. That is why defending drunk driving charges may be extremely difficult. However, a competent DWI lawyer can make it easier. There are several defenses that your lawyer may use to defend the DWI charges brought against you. Here are some of the common DWI defenses:
Challenge the initial arrest:
Most of the DWI arrests take place after a witness or a policeman observes, what is perceived to be abnormal driving. Some of the examples of abnormal driving may include driving in excessively high speed, meandering in and out of the road, failing to stop at crossings or driving without having the headlights on. While these may be signs of drunk driving, they may even have nothing to do with driving under the influence. This way, the first defense your lawyer may try to provide is that there was some other reason behind your abnormal driving. He/she may try to show that the abnormal driving was caused by driver’s fatigue or some mechanical fault in your car.
Challenge the field sobriety test:
After having your car pulled over, the police officer will need to perform a number of standardized tests known as field sobriety tests or FST. These tests help determine whether or not you are under the influence drugs or alcohol. It is not necessarily illegal to drive after having a drink. However, driving after drinking excessively is against the law. You must remember that the field sobriety tests are not fool proof and they simply help indicate intoxication. If you pass the field sobriety tests, that should be brought up. Similarly, if you failed in the FST tests, you may try and prove that there were other factors leading to that.
These two were just the most common defenses against DWI. There may also be other defenses that your lawyer may use for defending the charges.
