Whether to involve the prosecution through formal discovery will depend on your case and will be based on a strategic judgment by your attorney as to the importance of the information. Large or complex discovery requests may draw extra scrutiny on your case by the prosecution; formal discovery will also result in the prosecution having access to the evidence as well. Thus, your lawyer must be judicious and weigh the positives to be gained from formal discovery.

The below list of information a lawyer may seek in breath cases is indicative only. It is unlikely all of the items listed below will be necessary in the same case. For additional information, contact an Orange County DUI lawyer.

Types of Information Sought:

• Training history of the arresting officer on the machine used to test you.
• Current laboratory license. Sometimes, officers who transition from other departments are not trained on the breath machine in the new department.
• The manual prepared by the manufacturer for the breath machine used to test you.
• The laboratory’s method that has been adopted or submitted to the state for breath alcohol testing.
• Any available titration records for the simulator solution.
• Any available police logs illustrating the number of people tested during the two-month period before your test and the two-month period after your test.
• Accuracy-check records for the two-month period before your test and the two-month period after your test.

If you would like to discuss your case further, please do not hesitate to call Chad Maddox, an Orange County DUI lawyer, today. The initial consultation is free of charge.

A competent attorney will also want to attack the use of complex instructions at the time of the test. The majority of field sobriety tests have many requirements, and despite the complex nature of a lot of the instructions, the tests are usually explained and demonstrated only one time and in as little as 10 to 15 seconds. A person is expected to have an instant retention of those instructions.

Additionally, the prosecution might ask the officer to repeat the instructions in open court, just as they were given to the defendant at the time of the test. On cross-examination, your Orange County DUI attorney might want to ask that same officer to provide an estimate of how long it took him or her to give you the instructions for the test in an effort to show that they’re given in a matter of seconds.

Then, in closing arguments, your attorney may proceed to ask the jurors if they, themselves, can recall the exact instructions of the field sobriety tests in order to demonstrate the difficulty of retaining such information. If you need an Orange County DUI attorney, please contact Chad Maddox at (714) 695-1500 for a free consultation.

For example, courts have found traffic stops made after a police officer heard a car’s screeching tires to be reasonable in some cases and unreasonable in others. In a Texas case, the court held that a traffic stop was justified when the defendant’s tires broke traction and were spinning and squealing. On the other hand, a Florida court held that a stop was not valid after a police officer observed the defendant exiting a hotel parking lot with squealing tires, but did not witness any other suspicious driving by the defendant. A good Orange County DUI defense attorney would try to compare the facts of a case to the Florida situation, rather than to the Texas situation.

A skillful Orange County DUI defense attorney will know how to use the facts of your case to get you the best outcome possible. For a free evaluation of your case, call Chad Maddox.

Referrals from people you know, other attorneys, and court employees may also be useful.

You can represent yourself, but it is not recommended that you do so. It is usually not wise to represent yourself because:
• The prosecutor will have no motive to make a fair plea bargain;
• You don’t know anything about the court’s procedural rules; and
• You may not be able to appreciate whether you have a good or bad defense.

When you first meet with your Orange County drunk driving defense attorney, be sure to discuss in detail all the financial arrangements, such as:
• What is the attorney’s fee?
• What does the fee cover?
• Does the fee cover any hearings regarding your driver’s license?
• Does the fee include trial, appeal, or post-conviction relief? If not, what will the fee for those be?
• Does the fee cover the situation where the case is dismissed and the prosecution refiles the charges?
• What additional out-of-pocket expenses apply?

A drunk driving arrest is a serious matter. For the best advice about your case, contact experienced Orange County drunk driving defense attorney Chad Maddox today for a free initial consultation.

Furthermore, when people get embarrassed, mad, or scared, they may end up with a flushed face. And in the cases of those who have been stopped by a police officer, it would not be uncommon for them to be upset or nervous when they are confronted, and accordingly, they will experience a quick flow of blood to the face.

During the cross examination of the police officer involved with your case, a skilled Orange County drunk driving defense attorney might want to watch to see whether the officer ever becomes embarrassed about something during his or her examination. For instance, if the officer misspells a word on a drawing or forgets the prosecutor’s name, he or she may become embarrassed and experience a flushed face due to the pressure of the embarrassment. Should that happen, it would be an excellent time for your attorney to ask the officer about perfectly sober people experiencing a flushed face.

If you need an experienced Orange County drunk driving defense attorney, please call Chad Maddox for a free consultation.

How should the Orange County DUI defense lawyer address this issue so that the jurors don’t hold the defendant’s refusal against him or her. Clearly, the wrong approach would be to ask the jurors: “Would you hold against my client the fact that he refused to perform the one-leg-stand test?”

Instead, an experienced Orange County DUI defense lawyer would ask the following: “My client has been charged with DUI. Mr. Juror, can you imagine a situation when it might be appropriate for a person to refuse to perform the one-leg-stand test?” After Mr. Juror suggests some possibilities, the DUI defense lawyer asks other jurors to suggest additional situations in which a defendant might reasonably refuse to perform the tests. By doing this, the DUI defense lawyer opens up the jurors’ minds to the possibility that it can be acceptable to decline to take the tests. And, if during cross-examination of the arresting officer the DUI attorney suggests those same situations, and the officer considers them to be unreasonable, the jurors may reject the officer’s testimony, perceiving him as someone who doesn’t relate to their ideas of what is reasonable.

If you’ve been arrested for DUI, contact Orange County DUI defense lawyer Chad Maddox.

Another technique that your attorney may choose to utilize involves the use of impeachment evidence. If your lawyer has such evidence, he or she may decide to introduce it early on when cross-examining of the arresting officer. Doing so will decrease the officer’s credibility for the rest of his questioning.

Additionally, your attorney may propose to the jury that there is possibly police officer bias; he or she will question the officer about whether or not he gets paid overtime for his testimony. If the particular officer at your trial has a track record of arresting DUI suspects in questionable cases, it is highly likely that those cases will be asked about in court, which means more overtime for the officer.

Keep in mind, though, that convincing a jury of officer bias will be a difficult task; thus, your attorney will most likely only hint at this. Still, even if the jury does not believe that the officer is possibly biased, making the inquiry about the officer’s overtime pay will at least reduce some of the impact when your expert is asked the predictable question about his or her fee.

If you need an experienced Orange County drunk driving defense attorney, please call Chad Maddox today for a free consultation.

Q: Mr. Juror, do you serve alcohol in your house?
A: Yes.
Q: What type of alcohol do you serve, where do you keep it, etc?

The answer will disclose a lot about this potential juror’s feelings about alcohol. For example, a juror who maintains a full bar at home may have quite different opinions about alcohol consumption than a juror who opens a bottle of beer or wine now and then.

Q: When was the last time you served alcohol in your home?
A: Last Sunday. Some friends came over to watch the Super Bowl.
Q: After the game, did you let your guests drive their cars?
A: Yes.
Q: Have you ever driven a car after drinking alcohol?
A: Yes.
Q: And you arrived home safely?
A: Yes.

Note that a person is not necessarily biased against DUI defendants just because he or she does not drink alcohol. An effective Orange County DUI defense lawyer will ask additional questions to find out why a prospective juror does not drink. For example, he or she may be allergic to alcohol and not have a particular bias against people who drink.

If you or someone you love has been arrested for DUI, contact Orange County DUI defense lawyer Chad Maddox.

However, in certain types of cases, such as crashes, hit and runs, and witness reports, you may not have actually been driving when the police officer arrested you, and the officer cannot truthfully testify that he or she saw you driving. If that’s your case, it would behoove you to testify. Otherwise, the jury will wonder what you’re hiding if you weren’t even driving. Sometimes the actual driver can present the SODDI defense. However, your testimony will also usually be required.

An SODDI case is effective because there isn’t any confrontational evidence to deal with. If no one actually witnessed you driving the car, your Orange County drunk driving defense attorney’s task will be to diminish any circumstantial evidence connecting you to the crime and any purported admission you made.

To maintain an effective defense, you must be able to truthfully and unfailingly testify that you were not driving. Even in the face of a strong cross-examination about your blood alcohol level and your poor performance on a field sobriety test, you must consistently assert that you were not driving.

If you’ve been arrested for DUI, contact experienced Orange County drunk driving defense attorney Chad Maddox today for a free initial consultation.

Memorable Evidence

Focusing closing arguments on defense-oriented, memorable evidence from the trial is useful in helping the jury recall important information. Discerning the evidence in the defendant’s favor that the jury is most likely to remember, and focusing on this evidence, can work to ensure the jurors remain aware of exculpatory evidence.
Jury Instructions:

Most courts use standard-form jury instructions in criminal cases. It is therefore important to marry key words from these instructions into the closing argument, creating a link between how the judge instructs the jury to think about the case, and how you define the “story” of the case to the jury.

Confronting pro-prosecution evidence and reasonable doubt

One cannot will away evidence the prosecution puts forth to make its case. This evidence must be addressed head-on, with vigor and persuasion. It should be explained in a manner that is commensurate with what the jury heard and with the requirement that the State prove each element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. For example, presume the jurors were presented with evidence of a chemical test result that was above the legal limit. One promising defense route could be the presentation of evidence that appears inconsistent with the chemical test result. This could come in the form of lay witness testimony that the defendant was not intoxicated, video evidence of sobriety, or other evidence that casts doubt on the chemical test. Illustrating to the jury evidence that contradicts the pro-prosecution evidence, as well as reminding the jury that they must find all elements as true beyond a reasonable doubt, can be used to convince jurors that the test results suffer from serious legitimacy issues and cannot be wholly reliable.

Respect

Treat your client with the respect and dignity he/she deserves at all times. It is important that the jury identifies with your client. Should you de-humanize your client, the jury will notice and take note.

For more information on how you can be best represented in defending your DUI charge, contact an Orange County DUI defense attorney today.