October 6, 2024

Do you have a case for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs? We present the top 10 and the most effective ideas for defense. In addition to each method, we present its practical assessment, along with determining the suitability of a given method for defense for driving under the influence depending on the alcohol concentration. The DUI lawyer offers you the best choices there.

In any criminal case for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, you can and sometimes need to take one or several steps:

  • check the breathability of the breathalyzer
  • check the validity of the breathalyzer calibration certificate
  • Try to change the qualification to art. 87 kw – offense
  • seek for conditional discontinuance of proceedings
  • Check the legal status of the place of committing an act under art.
  • Order a forensic examination to the court expert
  • present to the court all personal circumstances of the perpetrator
  • demand a bloodbath instead of a breathalyzer test
  • take a detox treatment
  • apply for the use of alcohol lock in the car

Below we describe how in practice the penal case for driving under the influence of each of the mentioned methods of defense. Read also about the powers of the suspect and the accused .

Checking the Metering Uncertainty

Modern breathalyzers used to control the sobriety of drivers are fairly precise and accurate devices. Most of them, however, have a small margin of uncertainty of measurement, which may be taken into account in cases of insignificant, borderline alcohol concentrations in the exhaled breath, which may result in a change in the legal qualification of the offense under Art. 178a par 1 Penal Code per offense under art. 87 parishes 1 kw, and even acquittal.

The uncertainty of measurement is the value by which a given measuring device can be wrong. The measurement uncertainty value is always indicated in the breathalyzer calibration certificate, which has been tested for sobriety and shows how accurate the device is. While regarding the high concentrations of alcohol in the breath, taking into account the measurement uncertainty of +/- 0.01 – 0.02 mg / l most frequently, it may not have any meaning either for the basis of criminal responsibility or the situation of the party, in In the case of concentrations at the limit of acceptable norms or at the limit of the state of inebriation and condition after use, correcting the result by the uncertainty of measurement, can completely change the driver’s procedural situation.

It happens that the courts, before taking into account the uncertainty of measurement, consult experts in the field of mechanics, machines and measuring devices (exhaust analyzers) and to what extent the measurement uncertainty found in the calibration certificate may translate into results obtained in the course of control controlling the results or experts in the field of toxicology the purpose of the retrospective study and determination of the level of alcohol in the body driving while driving the vehicle. It happens that the test is performed sometime after stopping. 

The driver, before he was detained, was able to travel longer and gradually sober up. If the time lag between the stop and the first test was considerable, reference to measurement uncertainty may turn out to be wrong and pointless. After all, the concentration at the level of e.g. 0.25 mg / l in the exhaled breath revealed at the time of conducting the test, and thus often several dozen minutes earlier was certainly higher.