DWI, DUI, OUI
ARRESTED FOR DWI?
OVERVIEW OF LOUISIANA DWI LAW
Louisiana law considers you to be "over the limit" when your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is at or over .08 grams. This means that after typically two or more drinks most people are driving above the limit. However, this can vary widely depending on the individual persons body composition. Following the initial stop, the police officer will generally ask that you submit to several physical tests (SFST) and answer a series of questions including where you were coming from and how much you had to drink. Depending on your responses, the officer will likely take you to the police station and ask you to blow into a Breathalyzer machine.
1. THE OFFICER HAS ACTIVATED HIS EMERGENCY LIGHTS AND YOU HAVE STOPPED YOUR VEHICLE.
Most DWIs begin by the officer stopping your vehicle on a traffic violation such as weaving, failure to signal, speeding, burned out tail-light, etc. However, nearly any infraction of the law, no matter how small is sufficient for the officer to begin a DWI traffic stop.
2. THE OFFICER ASKS YOU TO SUBMIT TO THE "STANDARDIZED FIELD SOBRIETY TESTS" (SFST). WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
As a general rule, if you have had anything to drink, or feel impaired in any way for any reason, it is advisable to deny all of the tests offered by the police officer. The tests are designed to gather evidence against you to aid in the prosecution. It is best to give them as little evidence as possible. Additionaly, it is advisable to refuse to answer any questions the police officer may ask as these are also designed to elicit information that will negatively impact your case.
3. THE OFFICER ASKS YOU TO SUBMIT TO THE "BRETHALYZER". WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
As a general rule, if you have had anything to drink, or feel impaired in any way for any reason, it is advisable to deny all of the tests offered by the police officer. The tests are designed to gather evidence against you to aid in the prosecution. It is best to give them as little evidence as possible. Additionally, the penalties increase depending on the reading the brethalyzer machine registers. On a first offense, there is a mandatory 48 hour jail term for blowing at or over a .20. If two people were both impaired at or over .20, the person who took the brethalyzer would be sentenced to jail time, while the person who refused it would not.
4. YOU HAVE BEEN ARRESTED AND TAKEN TO JAIL. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Contact an attorney immediately. There are a number of time delays which can affect your case negatively if you wait to act. Wimberly Law Firm has handled thousands of DWI cases and will fight for you every step of the way from the administratve process regarding your drivers license through trial and appeals if necessary.
5. WHAT CAN WIMBERLY LAW FIRM DO FOR YOU?
Wimberly Law Firm can save your drivers license from being suspended, and get you a temporary license while the case is pending.
Wimberly Law Firm can represent you throughout the trial process going all the way through the appeals court process if necessary. Wimberly Law Firm has had many successes getting the charges dropped prior to trial, and also winning at the trial level.
With the current climate of strict penalties and vigorous prosecution for DWI, you need a lawyer who is knowledgable and aggresive in defending your case.
Law on DWI tests takes effect today
Starting today, Louisiana drivers face increased penalties for refusing to submit to a breathalyzer test when suspected of driving while intoxicated.
Under the new law, Act 288, a suspect who refuses to take the test loses his driver’s license for one year, up from the previous six-month penalty. If a person refuses the test more than once in a five-year period, the driver’s license will be suspended for two years.
About 39 percent of the drivers across the state refused the test — 7,947 of 20,631 DWI cases — in 2008, according to the LSU Highway Safety Research Group.
“It was simply a product of either the perceived or imaginary thought process of people being advised by legal counsel to not take the test in order to beat it,” said Murphy Painter, chairman of the Governor’s DWI-Vehicular Homicide Task Force.
The task force was the prime promoter of the legislation, which won lopsided approval in the Legislature this year.
“The whole purpose of the law is to have some valid consequence,” Painter said.
“It’ll have zero effect,” said Glynn J. Delatte Jr., a Baton Rouge lawyer who specializes in DWI defenses. He testified against the legislation in April.
“I would never, ever submit to a breath test without also demanding a blood test,” Delatte said.
Delatte said the machine used in Louisiana to conduct breath tests is not up to the standard used in other states. Breathalyzer machines use infrared spectroscopic analysis to detect alcohol vapor.
Some of the tests taken under differing conditions — people suffering diabetes or exposed to the chemical toluene, for instance — will indicate alcohol consumption when none is present, he said.
A blood test is more accurate and does not expose some of those nondrunken drivers to criminal prosecution and mandatory penalties, he said.
Drivers who refuse to submit to the test can ask for an administrative hearing and continue driving, Delatte said. But Louisiana law has become so punitive that submitting to the test could open drivers to mandatory jail time — 48 hours for a reading of .15 — or losing their licenses for a couple of years under specific instances, Delatte, a former state trooper, said.
Drivers are legally intoxicated if they register a .08 percent blood-alcohol reading.
Lt. Col. John LeBlanc, executive director of the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, said, “You’re compelled to take the test. It’s part of the implied consent when you are issued the driver’s license.”
The goal of the new law — and future legislation that will be sought by the task force — is to decrease the number of fatalities in crashes involving alcohol from an average of 449 a year to 438 by 2010, LeBlanc said.
“We want to change the culture and through that we should have fewer people killed in Louisiana as a result of alcohol impairment,” LeBlanc said. He added that nearly half of the crash fatalities on Louisiana roads involve drunken drivers.
State Rep. Damon Baldone, D-Houma, was lead sponsor of House Bill 445, which was approved by the Louisiana Legislature on June 17 and signed into law on July 1. It went into effect today.
It was part of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s package of legislation.
Painter said the governor’s DWI task force would reconvene in November to consider how to standardize legal procedures across the state and improve the tracking system to make sure drivers arrested for DWI don’t slip through the system.
