Being arrested and charged with a DUI in Florida can be a scary situation. The legal consequences for a first-time DUI offender include up to six months of incarceration and a fine between $500 - $1,000. You could also lose your privilege to drive. This can make you feel uncertain about how you will be able to get to work and earn a living.
Just know that you have legal options after being arrested for DUI. If you're asked any potentially incriminating questions, such as how much you've had to drink, you don't have to answer. Your first course of action should be to consult with an experienced Florida DUI defense attorney.
What to expect during your initial consultation
In order to schedule a consultation with an attorney, you can call our office or fill out the online form on this website, providing a basic overview of your arrest. During your initial consultation, your attorney will ask questions relating to:
- If the police had "reasonable suspicion" to pull you over
- The exact nature of your arrest
- If you were administered a field sobriety exercise or a breath test
- Any questions you were asked by police
- Statements you made to police
- If you were administered any additional tests after being booked
- What your charges were
- If your driver's license was suspended or revoked
- If you have had any previous DUI offenses or criminal charges
This will allow your attorney to decide how best to devise a strong legal defense for you.
Building a strong legal defense
The prosecutor will rely solely on evidence provided by the police officer who arrested you. This may include results from a field sobriety test or breath test, traffic violations you were pulled over for, and statements you made to police.
Here are some examples of how your attorney may help you build a strong legal defense:
- Dispute the field sobriety exercise and breath test results. A skilled DUI attorney can find flaws in both of these types of “evidence.” Field sobriety exercises are simply roadside gymnastics that sober drivers couldn't perform and don't always provide any viable evidence of DUI in court. Breath tests can be disputed since Breathalyzer tests often produce inaccurate blood alcohol concentration (BAC) results.
- Question the officer's reason for pulling you over. If you didn't commit any traffic violations or been stopped at a sobriety checkpoint, then the police officer may not have had a legitimate reason for pulling you over.
- Disputing the relevancy of statements you made. While you should never answer any questions that can be potentially incriminating, police often take statements out of context and may attempt to use them against you.
Never give up hope after an arrest. Instead, contact an attorney at Aguilar & Sieron, P.A. who will fight to uphold your rights and help you fight the charges. You can't do this on your own. We serve clients in Clay County and throughout northeast Florida.