People accused of drunk driving may feel truly confused after failing a chemical breath test. Sometimes, individuals who have only had one or two drinks end up facing accusations of drunk driving after an unexpected traffic stop.
Many motorists plead guilty because they assume they cannot fight impaired driving charges. After all, people tend to put a lot of faith in chemical tests. If a driver produced test results that were over the legal limit, they may assume that a conviction is all but inevitable. Some people find it very surprising to learn that those accused of impaired driving can successfully defeat even allegations backed by breath test results.
What are some of the defense strategies people use when responding to claims of drunk driving after allegedly failing a breath test?
Keeping the test results out of court
Police officers generally need to follow very specific rules about how they interact with members of the public and when they conduct searches of private property. In scenarios where police officers may have violated those standards, possibly by conducting a traffic stop without proper justification, a defense attorney may be able to stop the prosecutor from using any evidence obtained through an illegal traffic stop.
Providing medical context
Some people have medical conditions that could affect the accuracy of breath testing. For some people, issues related to their blood sugar might result in false positive results on breath tests. Other times, medications or specialty diets could affect the accuracy of test results. When there is medical evidence that can raise questions about the accuracy of test results, a defense attorney may be able to help a defendant avoid a drunk driving conviction.
Pointing out issues with the device
For a breath test device to produce reliable results, it has to undergo regular calibration and maintenance. If there are issues with the software, if there are gaps in maintenance records or if the device has not undergone calibration recently, it may be possible to raise questions about the reliability of those test results in court.
Discussing what happened before and during an impaired driving traffic stop with a skilled legal team can help a motorist fight back against drunk driving charges. Simply failing a breath test does not automatically guarantee that a driver will need to grapple with a criminal conviction.