Top 10 DUI Attorney for the State of Georgia

If you get arrested for DUI the first thing to do is to contact lawyers to find an experienced DUI lawyer that you feel is competent and that you are confident can handle the intricacies that come with providing your DUI defense. Time is sometimes of the essence because if the officer served the person with a DDS-1205 or administrative license suspension form, that individual has only 30 days to decide what path they will take as to that specific license issue. Our DUI lawyer can help you get through the legal process as quickly as possible. 

If you are convicted for a first-time DUI offense, your license or privilege to drive in Georgia (if you are an out-of-state license holder) will be suspended for a certain period of time. That period depends on a person's age and whether there was an administrative license suspension. They may be eligible for a limited driving permit, but that will depend on the circumstances of their case. If you are under 21 when you are convicted of a DUI, you will not be eligible to get a permit once your Georgia driver's license is suspended.

Typically, a police officer can smell the odor of alcohol when they approach an individual, so the answer to the question is unlikely to determine whether the officer either follows up with more questioning or with a request to submit to field sobriety evaluations. An individual is not required to answer any questions about drinking including how much, when, or how recently the drinking stopped when questioned by a police officer. 

No, roadside field sobriety tests (also called SFSTs or FSEs) are voluntary. This means that an officer cannot require a person to perform these evaluations or tests. Additionally the law states that if an individual does not submit to a standardized field sobriety evaluation, that refusal to submit is not admissible in evidence against them at a trial.

Similar to roadside testing, an officer cannot require a person to submit to a portable, roadside alcosensor breath testing device. Similarly to FSEs, a refusal by an individual to submit to a portable roadside alcosensor device is not admissible against an individual at a trial of their case.  

Less safe means that a person is impaired by alcohol, drugs or prescription medications to the extent that they are less safe to drive than if they were not impaired. It can also be restated as incapable of driving safely. This is a very vague term and leaves a lot of area for interpretation as to whether a person is less safe or DUI. The amount of alcohol, drugs or legally taken prescription medications that makes an individual less safe may be different for that of another individual. Officers and prosecutors try to use everything they can to say somebody is less safe to include their driving and performance on field sobriety evaluations. They try to point to as much evidence as they can to say that somebody is impaired or less safe. Our criminal defense lawyer can advocate on your behalf to show why those clues may not be as persuasive as the state would want a judge or jury to believe. 

Yes, a police officer can charge somebody with a DUI even if they do not see them driving. The prosecutor needs to be able to prove that a person was in physical control of a motor vehicle while they were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, which does not require the officer to see the person actually drive the car. An accident is an example of a case where a police officer could arrive after the driving was over and still be able to charge a person with a DUI. 

A conviction for a DUI requires a minimum period of license suspension. During that period of suspension, people are oftentimes able to obtain a limited driving permit that allows them to drive to work, school, medical appointments, and other specified activities. The only way to completely avoid a suspended license is to avoid the DUI conviction, with either a reduction or dismissal of the DUI charge. 

A first DUI conviction for a person over 0.08 grams of blood alcohol concentration requires a person to serve 24 hours in jail with other statutory minimum sentence requirements. Some courts are willing to waive the remainder of that time, especially in a DUI less safe case. As the number of DUI convictions for a person increases, generally, that comes with an increase in expected jail time. However, the expected jail time for a first or subsequent DUI oftentimes varies significantly depending on the county in which the person is convicted. 

A DUI conviction stays on your record, which is the reason why it is so important to get a lawyer that is experienced in DUI law to have the best opportunity to avoid a DUI conviction. DUI lawyers look for all possible legal and factual defenses to avoid a DUI conviction.