Do Most People Assume They Have to Plead Guilty To DWI Charges?

Many people who come into my office and consult with me after they’ve just gotten arrested on a driving while intoxicated offense feel that there is no hope in getting out from under the case without a conviction. They think that a conviction is a foregone conclusion, often based on their driving, the results of their blood tests or the results of the breath tests that they submitted following their arrest. The truth of the matter is that every DWI case can be beaten. The worst cases you can possibly think of can have problems that make it difficult to impossible for the prosecutors to prove their case in court. The more sophisticated the science becomes in DWI detection and intervention, the more challenging it becomes for the government to prove its case in court.

Lately, we have seen a trend in the DWI prosecution of mandatory blood draws. If you don’t volunteer to give a blood sample, they will seek out a search warrant and get one. The blood analysis, collection and interpretation of the data that is performed on the machine – the gas chromatograph or mass spectrometer that determines the alcohol content in the blood – can complicate the prosecution. It makes it more scientific, more technical, and it creates more problems along the way that can give a competent defense attorney the ammunition they need to fight the case in court.

Just because you have been arrested, even if you have a blood alcohol concentration that is well over the legal limit, does not mean that you are definitely going to get convicted. We’ve beaten cases where the blood alcohol limit was two or three times the legal limit. Just because you are arrested doesn’t mean you should give up hope. Contact a competent criminal defense attorney in your region to consult with about which defense is best for your case. Don’t assume that you are going to get convicted just because you have been arrested.

At What Point In A DWI Case Does An Attorney Generally Get Hired By A Defendant?

A lot of times I get involved in defending somebody on a DWI shortly after the initial contact with law enforcement or shortly after the arrest. It’s not uncommon at all for me to receive a call at 2:00 or 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning from someone who has just been arrested for driving while intoxicated. It’s important for you to engage a criminal defense attorney as soon as possible to help defend you on the case. There are certain deadlines and timelines that are triggered automatically and if you wait too long to get a criminal defense attorney to represent you on the case, it may severely diminish your ability to defend against the charges. You only have 15 days from the date of the arrest to request a hearing on your driver’s license suspension based on your failure or refusal to give a breath or blood test.

We demand these hearings for every client that we represent. Although we lose the majority of them, they are excellent opportunities to gather evidence and to get the arresting officer on the stand committed to his version of the events. Later on, when we are in a trial on the criminal case, we have this previous testimony. If the officer’s new testimony differs in any way, we can use that to call his credibility into question. If you wait until after 15 days following your arrest for driving while intoxicated to engage with an attorney, it’s too late for us to demand the hearing on the administrative license suspension. That is why it is very important for you to engage a criminal defense attorney as soon as possible following your arrest for driving while intoxicated.

For more information on Pleading Guilty To DWI Charges In Texas, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (512) 478-9898 today.