What am I Facing with a Florida DUI Crash With Injuries?

People have been drinking alcohol with friends, family and their coworkers for thousands of years. It wasn’t until recently when the automobile became an American staple, that drinking became such a dangerous endeavor.

On foot, the only one that you’re likely to harm while under the influence is yourself, unless you’re operating heavy machinery. Once you climb behind the wheel, you’re surrounded by thousands of pounds of steel and you can do a great deal of harm if you’re under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Given the fact that driving is an American way of life as is drinking, each state across the country has established stiff anti-drinking and driving laws and Florida is no different.

Get arrested for a simple DUI where no one else was hurt, you’ll face misdemeanor charges, even if you crashed into a parked car or drove into a building or light pole (accident causing property damage only).

On the other hand, if you seriously injureanother person while you’re driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or a chemical substance, you’re looking at felony charges, even if you had no intention of hurting anybody else, or if it was your first DUI offense.

DUI Accidents Involving Serious Bodily Injuries

Under Florida law, if while driving under the influence, you cause serious bodily injury to another person, you would be guilty of a third degree felony, punishable by:

• A fine not to exceed $5,000
• Up to 5 years in prison

If someone else was killed as a result of your driving under the influence, you face DUI manslaughter charges under Section 316.193(3) of the Florida Statutes, which is punishable by a fine not to exceed $10,000, or up to 15 years in prison, or both.

If you were involved in a DUI accident in Miami involving serious bodily injuries or a fatality, I urge you to contact my firm for help. You never know which DUI defensestrategies are available until you seek the advice of an experienced DUI defense attorney such as myself.

To work with a former prosecutor who is one of Miami’s top-rated DUI defense attorneys, contact my firm, Jonathan Blecher, P.A. for a free consultation.

Watch Your Driving – Officers Are Standing By

Law enforcement is specifically trained to watch out for certain driving behaviors that indicate impaired driving. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted research, which has been adopted by law enforcement officers as scientifically valid information concerning the behaviors that are most predictive of impairment.

This NHTSA sponsored research led to the development of a DUIdetection guide and training materials, including a training video. The NHTSA’s detection guide (used by police nationwide) describes a set of behaviors that officers use to detect motorists who are likely driving under the influence.

Thanks to the NHTSA’s detection guide, officers in every state are watching for suspicious driving and for driving patterns that look careless; for example, not fully stopping, failing to maintain a single lane of travel, or wide turns. The police use such erratic driving behaviors, or distinctive patterns as a basis for a police stop to check the driver’s sobriety.

Some driving behaviors that indicate impaired driving:

• Weaving
• Swerving
• Almost striking another vehicle or object
• Stopping problems
•  Driving too slow
• Driving without the headlights on at night
• Following too closely
• Turning with a wide radius

The NHTSA teaches the police that the above cues predict a driver is driving under the influence (DUI) at least 35% of the time. If an officer, however, observes weaving cues along with any other cue, the probability of DUI jumps to at least 65%. Further, some cues such as swerving, and accelerating for no apparent reason have a single-cue probability greater than 70%.

Police officers are taught that the probability of DUI increases substantially whenever a driver exhibits one or more of the above cues.

If you display any of the above patterns and a law enforcement officer is nearby, don’t be surprised if you are pulled over on suspicion of DUI because the police have received specialized training to keep an eye out for any of the aforementioned driving patterns.

Arrested for DUI in Miami? Contact me, Attorney Jonathan Blecher for a strong defense. Not only am I a former prosecutor, but I have more than 30 years of legal experience and have successfully defended over 3,000 DUI cases. Contact my office to schedule your free consultation!

Tampa Sherriff's Department Gave Legal Advice to DUI Suspects

My colleagues at the Sammis Law Firm in Tampa, Florida alerted me to this practice by the Hillsborough County (FL) Sheriff's Office. It appears that the sheriffs took on a new role as legal advisors for their arrestees by handing out this flyer.

While nothing in the flyer is wrong, it’s incomplete and does not explain to the arrestee all of their legal options and secondary ramifications of electing to waive a formal review of the license suspension. And since when are police authorized to deliver legal advice to their prisoners?

What's Missing from This Notice?

It says nothing about the downside to electing to waive the formal review hearing. Waiving the Formal Review Hearing will result in a suspension for 6 months for a breath test over .08% and one year for a first refusal to submit to a chemical test.

It says nothing about the fact that this suspension will appear on your Florida driving record and could affect employment and insurance coverage. Some companies will treat the suspension as if it were a DUI conviction (which it's not) and not renew coverage.

It says nothing about the right to a formal review hearing to contest the legality of the suspension and that obtaining the business permit right now will toss that right in the garbage.

What Do You Give Up?

The Formal Review Hearing is a valuable discovery tool. The Bureau of Administrative Reviews will let us copy their entire file of police reports and breath testing/refusal. This gets me a leg up on prosecutors who won't see these documents for weeks. I also get to subpoena and take sworn statements of the police officers involved affording us a great opportunity for impeachment at a later time.

Since When Are Police Allowed to Dispense Legal Advice?

When my clients ask the police at the breath testing facility if they should take the breath test, the police invariably advise that they can't offer an opinion or give them advice. They tell my clients that if they refuse, their license will be suspended, which is all the law requires of them.

If a paralegal in my office were to give specific and material advice to a client about a legal matter, they might be subject to laws relating to the unauthorized practice of law. In these cases, the police are an adverse party who should steer clear of any advice or acts which could affect valuable legal rights.

DUI Laws – Past and Present

There were 9,878 traffic fatalities involving drunk driving in 2011, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Association (NHTSA.) While even one death is too many, that number has decreased dramatically over the last 30 years. In 1982, there were 21,113 such fatalities. This decrease is due, in no small part, to the efforts to change both legislation and public opinion by groups like MADD and SADD.

Drawing on the advances in drunk driving legislation in the 1980s, which raised the drinking age in the United States and lowered the legal blood alcohol count (BAC) level from .15% to .10% and then .08%, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended in 2013 that the BAC level be lowered further to .05%. Several states, including California and New York, have imposed an even lower BAC level (.04%) for those with commercial driving licenses.

DUI Enforcement Today

Today, law enforcement officers have an arsenal of laws and devices to help them keep drunk drivers off of U.S. roads and highways. While every state has slightly different laws, most include license suspension (often with work or school privileges) for a first offense. Others, including Ohio and Wisconsin, require DUI offenders with work driving permits to use special, easily-identifiable plates. Still others, including California, make it mandatory for such drivers to install an ignition interlock device that prevents a car from starting if the driver's BAC is too high. Drunk drivers in some states, including Ohio and California, risk having their cars impounded and forfeited for multiple DUI offenses.

The Future of DUI Enforcement

Ignition interlock devices promise to play a greater role in DUI enforcement in the future. Some countries, including Belgium, require all cars be equipped with such devices. Other countries, including Japan, are considering such legislation. There is also talk about making DUI a federal crime in the United States and thus eliminating all of the differences among different state laws. Whatever the outcome of that proposal, it's fairly safe to say that DUI laws in the United States will continue to get more strict.

This is the fourth and last post of a four-part series on the history of DUI laws in the United States and their enforcement. Over the last weeks, we talked about early DUI laws, DUI laws in the post-World War II era. We hope you'll take a minute to review our other three posts about how DUI laws in the United States have evolved over the past decades.

The History of DUI Laws in the United States – 1930 to 1960

The end of prohibition in 1933 brought alcohol back to American living rooms and restaurants. In addition, the gradual end of the Great Depression meant more average Americans were able to buy automobiles, often for the first time. This combination increased the number of alcohol-related accidents and re-focused America's attention on the problem of drinking and driving.

One of the most notable such accidents of that era involved best-selling author Margaret Mitchell, whose Civil War era novel, "Gone with the Wind" had earned her more than $1 million in royalties. Ms. Mitchell was crossing the street near her Atlanta home in 1949 when she was struck by an off-duty taxi driver motoring down the wrong side of the street. She died of her injuries several days later. The driver later admitted to having had several drinks.

Measuring Blood Alcohol Levels

The first DUI laws in the United States prohibited driving drunk, but left it up to the arresting officers to determine what "drunk" meant. It wasn't until 1938—more than 30 years after the first DUI laws were enacted--that legal blood alcohol levels were set. The first breathalyzer, called the "drunk o meter," was created by Indiana University professor Rolla N. Harger in 1931. This early, balloon-like device would change color if a person's breath contained alcohol. (The present-day breathalyzer test was invented in 1954 by an Indiana State Police Captain.)

This era also saw the American Medical Association get involved in drinking, driving and public safety. They created a Committee to Study Problems of Motor Vehicle Accidents in 1938. This committee was partially responsible for setting the legal blood alcohol level at .15 and below. Indiana took this information and enacted the first Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) law in 1939.

As the "Mad Men" era of the 1950s and 1960s ended and with it much of the "glamor" of excessive drinking, organizations like MADD and SADD began to have political clout. In addition, DUI laws began to become more stringent as public opinion shifted to favor such laws. In our next post, we'll look at how DUI laws changed from 1960 to 1990.

This is the second post of a four-part series on the history of DUI laws in the United States and their enforcement. Last time, we talked about how DUI laws began in this country. We hope you'll visit again over the next few weeks as we discuss how DUI laws in the United States have evolved over the past decades.

Is My Name Going to Be in the Paper After a Drunk Driving Arrest and What Can I Do About It?

Other people's misfortunes are always a source of interest. That's why newspapers continue to publish a "police blotter" of DUI arrests. It sells papers.

Newspapers themselves have dwindled in popularity as electronic sources of information have grown in popularity over the past two decades. Editors face less space in the print edition, lower ad revenues, less newsroom resources, less staff and an aging readership. Smart newspapers are using multimedia tools to enhance stories' relevance and accessibility. Online editions are easy to access by phone, tablet or desktop... and that creates reach and a fluid revenue stream.

You will find DUI mug shots in many papers, and online editions around the country. Police agencies will either buy space as an advertisement or the paper will use the unsold space as a way of drawing readership with the stated purpose of public responsibility.

Papers cloak themselves in the first amendment and argue protected speech. While the newspapers are a traditionally protected area of speech and commerce, the real problem is the mug shot websites that have sprouted up over the years. These sites purport to be providing a public service from public information sources, when it seems that the goal is to hold your mug shot hostage until you pay have it removed.

Recently, however, one of these mug shot companies, justmugshots.com, suffered a setback in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida and must defend a lawsuit against charges of privacy invasion and unfair trade. The New York Times recently reported that MasterCard, AMEX, PayPal and Discover would break ties with these types of companies.

Can someone be guilty of drunk driving in if they only had one drink?

Florida law no longer uses the term "drunk driving". If a person is driving with an unlawful blood/breath alcohol level over .08% they are presumed to be impaired by alcohol, and thus being "drunk" is not an issue. Additionally, if a person is driving under the influence of alcohol or a controlled/chemical substance to the extent that their normal faculties are impaired, they too could be convicted of DUI. So, there are really two ways to be convicted of DUI in Florida.

Generally, one drink will not yield a breath test result over a .08%, unless the drink was a 20 oz. Long Island Iced Tea (5 shots of liquor). However, every person has different levels of tolerance to alcohol. In that regard, while the breath test result won't be over the legal limit, the person's normal faculties may still be "impaired" by alcohol.

If you've been arrested for DUI, then you need to call my firm for tough representation.