Austin DWI Attorney

If You’ve Been Accused of Driving While Intoxicated in Austin, then the Attorneys at Grossman Law Offices Can Help

Containing the nation’s second-largest university and the renown 6th street district with its seemingly countless bars and clubs, Austin is a town where a lot of people like to have a very good time. Unfortunately, many of them do not venture out into the night in cabs, but drive themselves, leading to an inordinately high number of DWI arrests.

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If you or somebody whom you care about has been charged with a DWI or other form of drunken driving offense in Austin, then in order to secure the best possible resolution for your case you will need a savvy and experienced Austin DWI attorney on your side. To prevail, you don’t just require an attorney who knows DWI laws, but you must have representation that understands how the Travis County courts operate and is a known entity to the folks in the district attorney’s office. When your lawyer has a favorable reputation with the prosecutors in your case, it only makes the trial process go more smoothly. It’s not hard to find an attorney who will take your case and your money and then just lackadaisically guide you through your case without doing anything more than hope for the court to be lenient. That’s not how Michael Grossman and his associates at Grossman Law Offices practice law. We give every case we take our full attention, resources, and expertise, as we do everything legally in our power to secure an acquittal or the best possible outcome to the case that the circumstances allow.

Importantly, you must understand that DWI convictions have far-reaching effects. You’re not just at risk of being sent to jail, losing your license, or fined exorbitant amounts. You also risk your good reputation, as a DWI conviction never leaves your record and could sully people’s opinions of you for years to come. If you don’t approach your case with gravity and respect and hire an attorney who can successfully lead you through the legal process, the end result could be dire. For the past two decades, our lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have devoted our time to finding ways to limit the fallout for people charged with DWI in Austin, the rest of Travis County, and all over the Lone Star state. Through trial and error, we have mastered the legal process involved with DWI in Austin, and you have the opportunity to take advantage of our expertise. You can contact us right now for a free and confidential consultation at 1-855-427-0000 (toll free). We’ll field any questions you have, listen to your story, and discuss he viable options for delivering the best possible outcome.

After two decades in this business, we understand that you’re more than a little freaked out right now. We also understand that knowledge is not only power, but it puts defendants at ease with the confusing and frightening situation in which they are mired. Therefore, we’ve compiled this informative article that is intended to help people accused of DWI better understanding the laws and procedures involved with such criminal proceedings. The only way you can make the right choices to secure the best possible outcome to your legal predicament is if those choices are informed decisions. After reading this, we believe you’ll have a much stronger understanding of DWI laws and the processes involved with the criminal law system.

A Different Kind of Criminal

To begin this discussion, we must first understand what makes DWI unique from other facets of law – the nature of the criminal. People who are charged with DWIs are not hardened criminals like someone who commits a bank robbery. DWI offenders are regular citizens who had too much to drink and did something foolhardy. Alcohol impairs not only physical ability but also mental acuity and decision-making; thus, anyone who drinks can theoretically become too intoxicated to determine whether or not he or she can drive home safely. While criminals may be normally respectable citizens, the crime of DWI is still prosecuted as if the perpetrator is a criminal. If you are convicted of DWI, even the first time, you will pay heavy fines and lose your license for a given amount of time, and you could very well end up in prison, as well. If you go it alone during your case, you will likely be convicted and then receive a much stiffer penalty than if you had hired an Austin DWI attorney who has built relationships with the court.

Understanding Basics of Criminal Law

Before we begin explaining the specifics of DWI laws, we must first discuss some generalities about criminal law in general. In the first 10 amendments of the Constitution, what is known as the Bill of Rights, all American citizens are afforded certain rights which every jurisdiction in the land must respect regardless of what crime someone has been charged with. In other words, police officers must not violate your rights during their investigation and arrest, and the court must be able to prove your guilt or set you free.

However, local municipalities of all kinds also have the right to establish the standards of their community – whether that’s what constitutes pornography or how high the speed limit should be on Main Street. Let’s consider the issue of driving while using cell phones as a microcosm for this concept. At this time, it’s illegal to text on a cell phone while driving through school zones, but in some areas it’s also illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving… even with a head set. A few communities have even outlawed the use of cell phones while driving entirely. Freedom of speech is constitutionally guaranteed, but freedom of texting is not… no LOL intended. In order to enforce these cell phone laws, each city, town, or village may establish its own fines. When you are stopped while on the phone and receive a citation for your actions, you will need to address the issue in the applicable local court by either paying your fine or challenging the charges.

When federal laws have been violated, as when someone threatens the President or hijacks a luxury liner, this issue is resolved in the federal court system, which has no geographical bounds within the United States.

One of the reasons you need an Austin DWI attorney is that every court has developed it’s own system of procedures and punishments to dole out justice for every crime. These days nobody quite has the leeway of Judge Roy Bean, but every judge has his or her own way of doing things. Among lawyers, we say that every court has its own personality. Let’s think about a chain of sports bars. You really like going to one of them in your neighborhood. The food is good, the wait staff is friendly and sharp, and they have every single NFL game playing on at least one screen every Sunday. Then, you go to another franchise of the same chain in Charlotte, and the food doesn’t taste quite the same, the bartenders can’t even figure out how to use the satellite TV system, and they insist upon putting on college basketball and NASCAR instead of the game you’re trying to watch. All of these sports bars have the same purpose to sell food and liquor to patrons who want to watch sporting events on massive screens, but they all have their different methods for doing so. The same can be said for courts. They all dispense justice, but they all have different methods of doing so. Procedures and punishments differ from one court to another, so you need the help of an Austin DWI lawyer who knows the Travis County courts and their judges and prosecutors like we do.

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When charged with a DWI, you could be up against very serious negative fallout if convicted. You will most assuredly be fined and lose your driving privileges for some time, but you could be jailed as well. Whatever happens, if you are found guilty of a DWI, then your reputation takes a hit forever. Every potential employer who runs a background check on you will discover the embarrassing truth. While the Constitution guarantees you the right to a jury trial, that doesn’t necessarily mean this is the best route for you to pursue. In many instances, you may be much better served by coming to a plea agreement and so may the prosecution. You both have something to risk. Obviously, your reputation can take a huge hit, you could spend time in jail, lose your license, and have to fork over thousands of dollars in fines and fees. While not as highly invested personally in its case, the prosecution still has something in common with you in that its reputation is also at stake. A few losses will put the prosecutor in the doghouse with the district attorney, and too many will end up in termination. Prosecutors are expected to deliver victories. What makes this a particularly tough situation for the prosecutor is that he or she must rely heavily on the competency of the arresting officer. If the officer botched the gathering of evidence by violating your rights, or simply arrested you based upon a lack of evidence, then the prosecutor will not win the case. Even if the officer did his or her job, a clever and crafty Austin DWI lawyer can often convince a jury to overlook the results of a blood alcohol concentration test depending upon the circumstances. When the evidence is weak, the prosecutor will be desperate to work out a plea agreement, but they have significant incentive for doing so even with the case they have is much stronger. Since they’d much rather have a guaranteed victory, they’re often likely to work out a favorable plea agreement with an Austin DWI lawyer whom they know is capable of beating them.

How an Austin DWI Attorney Can Help You with Your Case

People who say justice is blind have never examined the equitable method we have for dispensing punishment in this country. Judges and juries are usually given a wide range of punishment they can sentence upon convicted criminals.. In this way, the court can take into consideration both the harshness of the crime and the future danger to society presented by the criminal. When convicted of a DWI, a drunken driver can be sentenced to a wide range sentences taking into account any previous DWI offenses and whether or not someone was hurt or even killed in the incident. Until the prosecution is forced to view you as a specific person who just made a solitary mistake, it will treat you just the same as any other criminal and pursue the maximum penalty against you.

At Grossman Law Offices, our Austin DWI attorneys have been practicing law in Travis County for 20 years, so we’ve learned the proper procedures and the most effective ways to present evidence to sway a judge or jury. To begin your case, we’re going to want to sit down and talk. At first, you will do all of the talking, and we will listen intently. We need to know your true account of the facts, so we can do the best job we possibly can. You must tell your lawyer the truth to attain the best outcome possible. Once we’ve heard your story, we will find out the prosecution’s. During the discovery period, the prosecution must share all of its evidence and its intentions as to what sentence it will pursue. However, this process goes much more smoothly when your lawyer has already built a working relationship with the prosecutor, enabling him or her to spend more time working out a plea bargain or preparing for trial. Once we know how your version of events corresponds to the police officer’s story, we can develop a strategy. Now, do you understand why you can’t lie to your attorney? Because he or she won’t be able to develop an adequate trial plan if you do. As we proceed with the execution of this plan, we will make sure you are kept abreast of all developments as they happen.

DWI Plea Bargains vs. Jury Trials and Other Options

In order to know whether or not we should go to trial or attempt to come to a plea agreement, we simply must have access to all of the facts in a case. That is precisely why you must tell your lawyer your honest assessment of your case. If you misrepresent any aspect of your case, in the long run, you are only harming yourself. If we find your rights have been trodden upon, or the prosecution has little evidence, then will want to go to court to resolve the case. In some rare cases, the prosecution has so little proof to make their case that they will simply drop their charges.

As we said, that’s extremely rare. Law enforcement agencies in this state have been going after drunken drivers for a very long, and they have all developed time-tested techniques of stopping suspected drunken drivers, questioning them, and gathering evidence to prove their case in court. They’ve gotten very good at what they do and will line up their cruisers in such a way as to capture the entire interaction with the suspect on video. In the event the suspect struggles with a field sobriety test or merely refuses to take it, then the officer will request a breathalyzer test. Of course, the validity of the breathalyzer test can be questioned in court. On the other hand, if you fail the breathalyzer or refuse it and then fail a blood test later, then you’d be wise to work out a plea agreement. Juries tend to be naturally slanted against drunken drivers, so it’s not a very good idea to take chances in court.

Should you choose to go to court and then lose, the state tends to repay you for wasting their time and money with a much stiffer sentence. If you work with the state and plea bargain, then you stand a much better chance of securing a favorable deferred adjudication sentence that drops the charges against you after you have completed the required probation.

Types of DWI Cases

Don’t misunderstand us. Depending upon the facts of your situation, your case may very well be winnable at trial. Armed with the right set of facts, a skilled Austin DWI lawyer can deliver an acquittal. We won’t know how to proceed until we discuss the facts of your case. However, we do want you give you an idea of where you stand by explaining a little more about the different types of DWI offenses with which you can be charged.

If you’ve lived in this country for any amount of time, you’re well aware that it’s illegal to driver while intoxicated in Texas and all of the other states. Although, what does this mean exactly? In Texas, “intoxicated” can be defined two ways. First, is the one you likely learned when you were charged with DWI; even if, you weren’t aware of it already. If your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeds .08 percent, then you are considered legally intoxicated. While this definition provides a concrete barrier for official intoxication, the other definition is far more vague: when someone has lost “normal mental and physical abilities,” as a result of the consumption of alcohol, drugs, or a combination of both.

Concerning the second definition, the courts have come to recognize this standard as referring to what would be normal for the specific driver in question and not for the average of all drivers. Obviously, the problem this standard creates is: how can the police officer have any idea of what your normal physical and mental abilities are?

Now that you understand the ambiguity of this alternative definition, you can see the reasons why police officers work so hard to secure some form of BAC test. They want to lock down concrete evidence of the intoxicated driver. Moreover, a BAC test can ensure that a severely drunken driver pays the full price for his or her offense. In an effort to punish people who present a greater danger to society more severely, some fines rise depending upon the level of drunkenness of the driver. Someone who is just mildly intoxicated, with a BAC ranging from .08 percent to .16 percent, must pay a surcharge of $1,000 every year for thee years in order to retain his or her driver’s license. However, when someone is extremely drunk when charged with DWI, with a BAC in excess of .16 percent, then this annual surcharge increases to $2,000 for three years.

At Grossman Law Offices, our Austin DWI attorneys know how to get you the best possible outcome to your drunken driving case no matter if you failed a BAC test or a police officer just arrested you because he or she claimed your normal mental and physical abilities were impaired.

Texas DWI Penalties

Like we brought up earlier, courts have many options when deciding how to sentence convicted DWI transgressors and will take into account the severity of the crime and the DWI history of the defendant when doling out punitive measures. The following is not only a list of the different crimes, but also the ranges of punishment the court has for sentencing for each offense:

First-time DWI

This is a Class B misdemeanor, allowing the court to punish convicted offenders with a driver’s license suspension of between 90 days and a year, up to 180 days in jail, and a maximum fine of $2,000. If the person's BAC (blood alcohol concentration) is at or above .15%, the charge is automatically bumped up to a Class A misdemeanor.

Second-time DWI

After being convicted of a second DWI offense, a DWI defendant is charged with a Class A misdemeanor, and can be sentenced to as long as one year in jail, a fine as high as $4,000, and a driver’s license revocation for two years.

Third-time DWI

A third DWI conviction is classified as a 3rd-degree felony, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, a fine not to exceed $10,000, and loss of driving privileges for up to two years.

Open Containers

If a driver who is later convicted of driving while intoxicated has an alcoholic open container in the car with him at the time of he or she is stopped, then that only piles punishment onto his or her sentence. An open container convictions adds a minimum of six days onto the offender’s sentence, as well as, a fine as high as $2,000.

Driver’s License Surcharges

Moreover, the state of Texas hits DWI convicts with more excessive fines than just what the court orders. The Department of Public Safety will apply its screws to anyone convicted of a DWI. After the driver’s license suspension ends, the offender must pay a hefty surcharge in order to reinstate his or her license every year for the first three years after the license is reinstated. As we mentioned earlier, someone whose BAC was measured below .16 percent is only on the hook for $1,000 annually for three years, but anyone whose BAC was over .16 percent must pay double that amount for three year. Those people who have picked up multiple DWI convictions in a short amount of time need to also make important note that the surcharges rise to $1,500 for a second DWU conviction, and $2,000 for a third, with these figures also doubling when the offender’s BAC was greater than .16 percent. Furthermore, multiple offenses in a three-year period can lead to multiple, overlapping surcharges. In other words, if a person was convicted of two DWIs in two years and had a BAC over .16 percent in both instances, then he or she will have to pay $5,000 per year to drive in the overlapping years.

Intoxication Assault

As we have suggested, the state created DWI penalties for the purpose of protecting the safety of the general public, so DWI penalties get harsher for offenses that present a greater threat to the greater good. If a drunken driver is found guilty of being involved in an accident that resulted in injuries to others, then that offense is known as intoxication assault, which is a 3rd-degree felony accompanied by a prison sentence of 2-10 years and a maximum fine of $10,000.

Intoxication Manslaughter

Even more severe, indubitably the most severe DWI offense, is intoxication manslaughter in which someone is killed in a car accident with a drunken driver. This is a 2nd-degree felony, and anyone convicted of this charge can receive up to 20 years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Community Supervision

All of these DWI offenses are accompanied by possible prison sentences, but in most cases probation will be allowed. The exceptions are intoxication assault, which has a mandatory prison sentence of at least 30 days, and intoxication manslaughter, which has a mandatory prison sentence of 120 days, and intoxication assault with a deadly weapon, which has no possibility of probation at all.

For most people, probation is much better than spending even a day in jail, but community supervision is still far from fun. If you receive probation, then you will be given a certain amount of time in which you must comply with regulations mandated by the court. During this time, your actions will be monitored by a probation officer. Should you fail to comply with the conditions of your probation, then you will be sent to prison for the prescribed sentence. By now, you’re wondering what the probationary requirements normally are. In Travis County, to begin with you must pay $60 per month as a supervision fee. When your probation first begins, you will be required to report to your probation officer on a monthly basis. After time, your probation officer may allow you to mail in a monthly probation report as opposed to appearing in person, so long as you meet all of your probation requirements on time. The probation officer will want to ensure that you are fulfilling all of your community supervision obligations, including: refraining from committing crimes, not drinking any alcohol, paying all court-ordered fees and fines as schedules, working he required community service hours, and attending and alcohol education classes. Moreover, particularly if your DWI involved drugs as well as alcohol, you may be asked to take a urine test to prove you have not been drinking or using illegal drugs.

If this is your first DWI, then you don’t have to worry about the state ordering you to install an interlock device on your car. What’s an interlock device you’re wondering? It’s a mechanism that is attached to your ignition system and is designed to forcibly prevent a convicted drunk driver from committing another DWI offense. In order to start the car, the driver must blow into the interlock device, a breathalyzer-like mechanism. If the interlock detects alcohol on the driver’s breath, then it locks down the car for two hours before the driver can be tested again. Once a driver has been convicted of multiple DWI offenses within a given 10-year period, the court will order installation of an interlock device on his or her car and forbid the driver from operating any vehicle without such a mechanism. Any failed interlock text will be reported to the drunken driver’s probation officer. On the other hand, interlock devices are embarrassing to use in front of others, and it’s terribly emotional painful. Every time the driver starts his or her car, he or she is reminded of the DWI offenses he or she has committed.

In most instances, a DWI will remain on your record permanently; as such offenses cannot be completely expunged from the driver’s record in most cases. In the rare event a DWI can be expunged, a record of the offense still remains with the DPS for driver’s license purposes, so insurance rates will be hiked up for the next 10 years.

You can’t afford to gamble with your future and your reputation, so you must seek out the guidance of a skilled and experienced Austin DWI attorney to protect your rights and secure the most favorable outcome possible to your case. No matter what DWI offense you were arrested for committing and no matter what evidence the state has against you, the attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have dealt with a similar case in the two decades we’ve been handling DWI cases. We will know how to deliver an acquittal, or we will at least minimize the damage to your life if the evidence against you is simply too substantial to overcome.

Your Rights in a DWI Case

While they draw the ire of most people (particularly those who choose to drink and drive), police officers are just doing their jobs when they pull someone over under suspicion of drunken driving. Thus, if you’re stopped for any reason, you should hold remain calm, hold your temper, and be polite. Getting upset is only going to draw the ire of the police officer and make him or her less cooperative. The police officer will ask you a few questions trying to gauge if you may or may not be drunken given your answers. If at that point, he or she suspects you of drunken driving, then he or she will ask you to step out of the car and take a few field sobriety tests. You need to know that you are not compelled to take these tests. As we explained, one of the standards for intoxication when it comes to DWI is that the driver has lost normal mental and physical abilities. Depending upon what the officer asks you to do, you may feel as if you couldn’t pass the roadside sobriety test when you were 100 percent sober. For example, if you have an astigmatism that causes you to have trouble focusing on certain points with your eyes, then you likely could not pass a Horizontal Gate Nystagmus test (HGN test). Thus, you are completely within your rights to decline to take an HGN test.

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When you take this tactic, the police officer will answer by suggesting you take some other form of field sobriety test. Not only will the office then demand a breathalyzer test if you continually refuse one field sobriety test after another, but it also makes you look pretty bad on the video footage if you make too many excuses. As we will discuss later on this article, breathalyzer tests have questionable accuracy, so you do have the right to refuse a breathalyzer. However, this is a decision to be very seriously considered by the suspect because a breathalyzer refusal will lead to the immediate arrest of the suspect and the suspension of his or her driver’s license. After being taken the police station, the suspect will be afforded the chance to take a far more reliable blood test. If you refuse the blood test, then the officer will do his or her best to secure a warrant to extract your blood for testing without your consent. In some jurisdictions, this will be impossible since most DWI offenses occur late at night when most judges are sound asleep.

However, on certain holiday weekends, certain communities change this tendency. Many judges in conservative suburban Texas communities have decided that drinking is so widespread on holidays like New Year’s Eve, Christmas, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and the Fourth of July that they can sign warrants preauthorizing police officers to extract blood from suspects for the purpose of BAC tests. The officer literally fills in the blanks on the warrant detailing the suspect’s name, date, and various other details of the arrest. If you are stopped by a police officer who suspects you of drunken driving in such a community on one of these weekends, then your BAC is getting tested whether you like it or not. Furthermore, if you have been using illicit drugs on top of alcohol, a blood test will provide evidence of this in addition to the usage of alcohol; whereas, a breathalyzer will not. In many cases, it may just be more prudent to take the breathalyzer test.

No matter what the facts regarding why the police officer arrested you – a failed breathalyzer, a failed blood test, or a refusal to take these BAC tests – you can’t hope to fight off the accusations without the help of a savvy and trial-tested Austin drunken driving lawyer. The attorneys at Grossman Law Offices will make sure the evidence that has been gathered against was collected in accordance with your rights, or it will not see the light of day in a courtroom.

More on Texas Intoxication Assault and Manslaughter Charges

Rightly so, the public has a dismal perception of intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter convictions. Moreover, to secure a conviction, the prosecution need only prove an accident occurred, the defendant was drunk, and someone else was hurt. The state has no obligation to show malicious intent. To prove its case, the arresting police officer even has the right to extract blood for testing from someone suspected of intoxication assault or manslaughter against that person’s will. When convicted, the consequences are very dire, with jail time mandatory and possibly as long as 20 years along with fines up to $10,000.

You don’t want to end up as an admonishment to other DWI defendants as you prove the old saying, “anyone who represents himself in court has a fool for a client.” If you want to end your DWI case with the best resolution possible, then you need the help of an Austin DWI lawyer who has built years of familiarity with these laws, as well as, a respected reputation in the Travis County courts.

Blood Alcohol Concentration in Texas DWI Cases

As we’ve already mentioned several times and you likely knew before reading word one of this article, someone with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent is considered legally intoxicated in the state of Texas. But, do you know what a BAC of .08 percent actually means? Essentially, it sounds like what it is: the driver has consumed enough alcohol that his or her blood stream has become comprised of .08 percent alcohol. Scientific studies has shown that a normal person’s ability to make normal mental and physical functions becomes impaired at this level, so they’ve bullied all of the states into passing .08 percent as the legal level of intoxication, lowering it from .10 percent where it had been established until the early 1990s. In order to determine a suspect’s BAC, law enforcement agencies rely upon three proven methods:

• The amount of grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath.
• The amount of grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
• The amount of grams of alcohol per 67 milliliters of urine.

Upon reaching the legal level of intoxication, not even skilled mathematician could successfully estimate his or her own BAC while drinking non-stop. Sure, the above BAC tests are far more accurate than tracking one’s own BAC, but they’re still far from foolproof. All of the methods of BAC measurement base their calculations on what is normal for an average human being’s body chemistry. Depending upon how the suspect’s body chemistry compares to the average, his or her BAC could fluctuate up and down from one form of testing to another, causing him or her to be considered legally intoxicated by a blood test but slightly under the legal limit according to a urine test. Moreover, a suspect can be arrested based merely upon a law enforcement officer’s assertion that he or she has lost normal mental and physical abilities.

Breathalyzer Inaccuracies

When it comes to BAC testing, elapsed time between the traffic stop and the administration of the test presents one of the largest challenges to accuracy. The state must be able to prove that the driver was intoxicated when he or she was actually driving. However, it’s fairly common for a BAC test to be given anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half after the initial traffic stop.

Considering the long history of the world, 90 minutes isn’t even a blink of an eye, but when it comes to accurately testing BAC – it’s an epoch. As the minutes crawl by, the suspect is slowly working alcohol through his or her system, with the rate depending upon that person’s body chemistry, weight, amount of food eaten, rate of and kinds of alcohol consumed, and the possibility of drug usage. Making the reliance on these tests highly questionable, the elapsed time could work both in favor of the defendant or against him or her. Let us elaborate. It’s possible that one driver is stopped by a police officer when his or her BAC was only .07 percent, but he or she had undigested liquor floating around in his or her belly. As the driver waits for a blood test to be given at the station, his or her BAC rises to .09 percent as this alcohol is absorbed into the blood stream. Just as likely, however, is that the driver stopped drinking well before getting behind the wheel and then is pulled over when he or she was legally drunk with a BAC of .08 percent. But, before the BAC test can be given, the suspect manages to sweat enough of the alcohol out of his or her system to drop his or her BAC down to .07 percent.

A skilled Austin drunken driving lawyer can make sure your evidence is excluded or at least discounted by the jury if too much time elapsed between your traffic stop and your BAC test calls for your BAC to be considered accurate.

Texas DWI Testing Procedures

Besides the question of elapsed time, there are few other mystifying problems with BAC testing. Allowing samples to be kept for later testing, blood tests are without a doubt more accurate than breathalyzer tests. Unfortunately, blood tests cannot be conducted in the field, take a long time to process after they are conducted, and would be dangerously unsanitary even if they could be done by the side of the road. Then, the delay before the police officer can ferry the suspect to the station for a blood test is so long as to call the accuracy of the test into question. Breathalyzer may lack the infallibility of blood tests, but they’re portable and easily administered.

Across the Lone Star State, police agencies turn to the Intoxilyzer 5000 as the breathalyzer of choice. This device calculates BAC by measuring the alcohol on the breath using an infrared light detection system. However, this machine’s computer processor is 30-year-old technology. In other words, when it comes to measuring your BAC, law enforcement officers are using a system that is technologically comparable to an Atari, so should we even surprised there are glitches with the device.

Granted, it’s not the most common mistake perpetrated by the Intoxilyzer 5000, but it has been known to detect alcohol on someone’s breath based upon some other substance that contains an alcohol-like compound, such as mouthwash. The fallibility you will need to watch out for is the Intoxilyzer’s questionable formula for estimating BAC. This machine calculates BAC based on a blood to breath ratio that is typical for an average human being – 2100/1. However, any given person can have a blood-to-breath ration as high as 3100/1 or as low as 1100/1, and someone with such an extreme blood-to-breath ratio will have an inaccurate BAC when tested by the Intoxilyzer 5000. Someone with a low blood-to-breath ratio will have an abnormally high BAC, and vice versa for someone with a high blood-to-breath ratio.

The reliability of the Intoxilyzer 5000 is made more questionable by the fact that Texas law enforcement officers are the only people permitted to test the accuracy of these machines, and the manufacturer will not guarantee Compounding these concerns, the manufacturer of the Intoxilyzer won’t assure its reliability.

Making this situation truly distressing is the fact that the Intoxilyzer 5000 could be much more reliable if the Texas Department of Public Safety would change its mandates regarding how the device is used. The breathalyzer of choice in Texas can store breath samples for a considerable amount of time, allowing a more reliable test called a gas chromatographer to be performed on the sample, giving an infallible BAC. However, the DPS refuses to require officers to save the gas samples or conduct a gas chromatography test on them. Why would the DPS want to take action that would theoretically lead to the revelation of faulty BAC tests and subsequent acquittals?

Since the accuracy of the Intoxilyzer 5000 is highly questionable even to its staunchest supporters, you’re not necessarily losing your case just because you have tested intoxicated by a BAC test. If the reliability of your BAC test can be called into question for any reason, then the Austin DWI lawyers at Grossman Law Offices know how to convince the jury to ignore it.

Underage DWI & DUI

For a minor, anyone who cannot yet legally drink, drunken driving laws change completely. When it comes to laws involving drinking, minors are considered to be anyone less than 21 years-old and not the standard of 18 as is the case with most other laws. Since these minors are not allowed to drink alcohol, they can’t be caught behind the wheel with ANY alcohol in their systems at all, or they are guilty of Driving Under the Influence (DUI). If you, or your teenage son or daughter, has been accused of a DUI, then our Austin DWI lawyers can help.

While minors may not have the right to consume alcohol, they do have the right to refuse a field sobriety test or breathalyzer test, just like an adult. However, there are harsh consequences for doing so. Remember, driving is a privilege and not a right. If the underage driver refuses a breathalyzer test for a first DUI, he or she can have his or her driver’s license revoked for a maximum of 120 days. For a second DUI, his or her driver’s license will be suspended a maximum of 240 days. On the other hand, for failing a breathalyzer test on a first DUI conviction, the minor’s license will be suspended for only 60 days. However, a failed breath test on a second DUI conviction will lead to a driver’s license suspension of one year. This isn’t like with an adult’s BAC test in which he or she can refuse a breathalyzer test hoping his or her BAC will drop below .08 percent before a blood test can be given. A minor isn’t going to be able to get all of the alcohol out of his or system. Thus, when facing a first offense, it’s usually best to relent to the breathalyzer and limit the license revocation.

Getting a driver’s license suspension is only the beginning of punitive measures for a DUI, however. If the court fears you are a habitual alcoholic or drug user, then it can revoke your driver’s license permanently until your 21, and they also have the right to compel you to enter rehab to deal with these issues.

Additionally, not only can minors be charged with DUIs, but they can also be convicted of DWIs when a BAC test reveals their BAC to be in excess of .08 percent after they’ve been stopped while driving. When the drunken minor in question is 17 or older, he or she can be tried as an adult and face a maximum fine of $2,000, a jail sentence not to exceed 180 days, and the applicable surcharges to reinstate his or her driver’s license. When a minor who is under 17 commits a DWI, she or he can be sent to juvenile detention.

First-time DUI

Even though it’s a Class C misdemeanor that threatens no jail time, a first-time DUI is not something to be scoffed about. If convicted, you will need to complete 20-40 hours of community service. For the duration of your trial, your parents will need to accompany you to court, since you are a minor, and you will have to attend tedious alcohol awareness classes, where your parents may also be required to tag along. The lone good news accompanying a first-time DUI is that an experienced Austin DWI attorney will be able to secure deferred adjudication that allows you to expunge the arrest upon completing the terms of your probation and turning 21.

Second-time DUI

There are only a few major differences between a second DUI conviction and the first. As we’ve mentioned, the driver’s license suspension is longer, and so are the community service hours, with 60 being standard. Finally, while a minor convicted of a second DUI can still enter into a deferred adjudication agreement, he or she is no longer eligible to expunge the arrest upon reaching the legal drinking age.

Third-time DUI

A third DUI is classified as a Class B misdemeanor, disallowing both the possibility of deferred adjudication and expunction. For minors who can tried as adults, a third DUI can carry a maximum prison sentence of 180 days and a fine ranging from $500-$2000. However, while deferred adjudication is not possible, probation is still highly likely in this instance.

You wouldn’t be sitting at your computer reading this sentence if you or your son or daughter hadn’t made a tremendous error in judgment. If you attempt to handle your family’s legal situation on your own without the help of a well-seasoned Austin drunken driving attorney, then you’re making an even bigger mistake. Only someone who understands the laws and the intricacies of the Travis County courts can minimize the negative fallout of your situation.

ALR Hearing After a DWI

As we’ve discussed several times already, refusing a breathalyzer test will result in the suspect’s driver’s license being taken up and immediately suspended by the arresting officer. Until this situation can be resolved legally, the driver will be issued a 40-day provisional license.

After receiving notification of the driver’s license revocation, a defendant has 15 days to request an Administrative License Revocation Hearing (or an ALR hearing) in order to challenge the loss of his or her license, or he or she waives the right to do so. An ALR Hearing gives the defendant the chance to convince the court he or she should keep his or her driver’s license.

In most cases, the ALR hearing cannot be scheduled until after the 40-day provisional license has subsided. Don’t worry. In this event, the temporary license continues remains valid until the hearing can be held. If you lose the ALR hearing, then you are permitted 30 days to appeal. Once the appeal has been filed, the temporary license is good for another 90 days. Should the defendant win either the ALR hearing or be acquitted at trial, then the driver’s license suspension ends immediately.

You shouldn’t throw up your hands and surrender if your driver’s license has been suspended due to a DWI or DUI. Our crafty Austin DWI lawyers at Grossman Law Offices can likely do something to improve your situation.

Occupational Driver's Licenses

Just because you lose your ALR hearing and are forced to plea bargain your case into probation, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be riding the bus. Our lawyers can help you get an Occupational Driver’s License. While Texas’ lawmakers are committed to stemming the damage done by drunken driving, they also realize that all Texans sill need o get to work or school, and provide for the needs of their children. Unless you’re heading to school at the University of Texas and live on a bus route, public transportation is woeful in the state’s capitol. Thus, anyone who has had his or her license revoked for a DWI or DUI can still obtain an Occupational Driver’s License (ODL). ODLs are most definitely better than walking or sweating it out at a bus stop, they’re also expensive and greatly limit the driving privileges of the license-holder. To legally maintain an ODL, the driver is expected to track all of the details of his or her trip – date, time leaving, intended destination, time returning, and total miles – in a driving log.

Moreover, applying for an ODL isn’t easy. The court will want to see a special petition that outlines the need for the ODL, the crime that was committed, and every county into which the driver intends to driver. Someone holding an ODL does not have the right to drive throughout the state. If you attempt to apply for an ODL yourself, you risk he chance that you won’t follow the proper procedure, leading to the refusal of the license. Don’t leave the issue of how you’re going to get around up in the air. Contact Grossman Law Offices now, and our attorneys will make sure you get the ODL you need.

Differences Between Public Intoxication and DWI

Lumping public intoxication and DWI together, as most people do, is a huge mistake. Not only is one crime far more serious than the other, but the word “intoxication” is defined differently when it comes to each crime. When it comes to public intoxication, it refers to someone who becomes so drunk as to present a danger to him or herself or others and not when his or her BAC exceeds .08 percent or he or she loses “normal mental and physical” ability as is the case with DWI.

During a DWI traffic stop, a police officer is expected to follow the inflexible procedure his or her department has developed for evidence gathering in such a situation. When it comes to someone suspected of public intoxication, no such standards of procedure exist. The entirety of the investigation is a sober police officer deciding that the suspect is so inebriated as to present a danger.

In addition to the definition of intoxication and the way these two drunken crimes are investigated, someone committing public intoxication presents a far smaller threat to society than a drunken driver. Think about it. What’s more hazardous to the general public, passing out on a curb outside a bar or swerving down I-35 in your Cadillac? As a result of the diminished threat presented, public intoxication is a Class C misdemeanor that warrants no prison time with a conviction, only a $500 fine. While you won’t need the help of a skilled Austin DWI attorney to resolve a public intoxication charge, you need somebody with significant experience protecting your rights and giving maximum effort to ensure you are acquitted or receive the minimum punishment permissible.

Texas DWI & Child Endangerment

Tragically, children are often put at risk unknowingly when they get into a car with a driver who is intoxicated. As a result, the Texas Legislature has created a separate offense called DWI with a minor in the vehicle that is classified as a state felony and a form of child endangerment. Anyone convicted of this crime can be sentenced to prison for as long as two years and fined as much as $10,000. In many instances, police officers will even arrest people suspected of DWI with a minor in the vehicle without a BAC test just to protect the children from harm. When it comes to single parents, the punishment for DWI with a minor in the vehicle can be far more severe than that which is doled out by the court. If convicted, the single parent could be forced to surrender custody of his or her children – if not to the ex, or any grandparents, but possibly even to child protective services.

Only a seasoned and skilled Austin DWI attorney who has experience in the Travis County court system is worthy of being trusted with the fate of your family. You need a clever lawyer who knows how to question the actions of the arresting officer or the accuracy of the BAC test. At Grossman Law Offices, we know how to convince a jury that your children were safe when you were pulled over. If you entrust your case to an inexperienced attorney who doesn’t know what he or she is doing, then you may never be able to put your family back together.

Your Rights When Suspected of a DWI

Drunken driving violations don’t fall under the Patriot Act, so your rights are always protected when charged with a DWI. Remember, driving is a privilege and not a right. While you have the right to refuse a breathalyzer test, that choice will likely result in your driving privileges being revoked. Prior to the existence of this law, suspected drunken drivers just refused the breathalyzer test and then walked away from their case without any negative fallout. In order to stop this, the Texas Legislature determined the need for convictions outweighed the concerns over the accuracy of breathalyzer tests. Not only will your license be revoked after refusing such a test, but the refusal itself can also be used as evidence to prove the state’s case. However, if you take and fail a breathalyzer, then your attorney may be able to call the accuracy of the test into question. Meanwhile, your license will only be suspended for 90 days.

If you take or refuse the breathalyzer, remember that your actions are being recorded by the cameras in the officer’s cruiser. By appearing intoxicated, you are providing the prosecution with evidence.

Unfortunately, you can’t call your attorney while your sitting in your car during a DWI traffic stop. You may have misconceptions about the “right to attorney” based upon a lifetime of watching cop shows and movies, but this only pertains to a criminal interrogation and not a routine traffic stop. However, the story is different when it comes to the “right to remain silent.” The police officer is going to ask you questions, but you don’t have to answer them. Thus, the prosecution will be left with no more evidence than silence and a blank stare. Be warned, though, that this strategy will definitely end up with your arrest and an arresting officer determined to secure a conviction.

Grossman Law Offices Can Help

At Grossman Law Offices our Austin DWI attorneys have spent the past 20 figuring our ways to help wrongly accused DWI suspects secure acquittals and other drunken drivers minimize the consequences of their poor judgment. In that time, we’ve seen virtually every conceivable type of drunken driving case and a wide variety of scenarios, teaching us the ins and outs of both DWI law and the court procedures of Travis County.

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We can’t assure you that we’re going to be able to obtain a not guilty verdict. That’s simply not possible given the circumstances of every case. However, we will devote our full attention and resources to making sure your case ends with the most favorable outcome possible. No matter who you are or what you’ve done, there is something we can do to help you – someone who declined a BAC test, a parent who drank one too many beers at the game before driving home, a teenager who got a DUI after drinking his or very first beer, or an adult who is racked with guilt after killing someone in a drunken driving accident. This is your opportunity to benefit from our decades of experience. Pick up the phone now and dial 1-855-427-0000 (toll free) for a free and confidential consultation. One of our skilled Austin DWI attorneys is waiting to hear the story about what happened to you and field the many questions you may have. We clarify any misconceptions you may have, discuss your legal options and explain what we can do to resolve the situation. You’re going to need a skilled DWI attorney on your side to secure the best outcome possible, so call now.