Challenging the Use of Field Sobriety Tests in Arizona DUI
If you've complied with an officer's request to follow a light with your gaze, count while standing on one foot, or walk back and forth along a line, you've performed a field sobriety test. Your ability to follow what might be confusing or complicated instructions could have a significant effect on the officer's decision to arrest you for DUI, especially if you're a commercial driver's license holder, underage driver or someone else vulnerable to conviction on a low blood alcohol reading.
Field Sobriety Test Mistakes Can Support a Successful Challenge
To learn how an experienced DUI defense lawyer can help you avoid the consequences of a DUI arrest and conviction by challenging the use of field sobriety test evidence against you, contact The Gillespie Law Firm in Phoenix for a free consultation. Our lawyers understand how field sobriety tests fit into the DUI investigation process and how easy it is for arresting officers to make mistakes in administering them and interpreting the results.
In refusal cases or where the blood or breath test results are unreliable, the field tests might stand as the most important evidence of intoxication against you. Before submitting to them, it might have helped to know that you don't have to do them — you can always refuse a request for a particular test.
Field sobriety testing more often serves as information creating the probable cause for the DUI arrest rather than as direct evidence of guilt. In other words, if you're asked to stare at a light or pace a line, the officer hasn't yet committed to an arrest and the resulting blood or breath test. If we can show that the officer improperly administered the field sobriety test, we'll have the opportunity to challenge the whole case on the grounds of an improper arrest.
There are many ways to attack the use of a field sobriety test:
- Overweight, elderly, disabled or injured suspects shouldn't be asked to perform the test
- People in shoes with heels of two inches or higher shouldn't perform them, either
- Improper administration of any of the three standardized tests
- Performance of unnatural tasks or nonstandardized tests
- Test performed on uneven, wet or loose surface
- Officer selectively noted elements of the suspect's behavior in the police report while omitting observations consistent with sobriety
Our lawyers' use of recorded interviews with arresting officers frequently shows that our attorneys understand the do's and don'ts of field sobriety testing better than they do. When we go over the interview transcripts with our clients, we point out the specific weaknesses and discuss how they might affect our broader defense strategy and your options.
Call 888-613-5322 to Learn About Your DWI Defense Options
Find out more about our experience with challenges to field sobriety evidence in Arizona DUI cases. Contact The Gillespie Law Firm in Phoenix for a free consultation.
