El Paso DWI Attorney

Have You Been Accused of Drunken Driving in El Paso Texas? Call Grossman Law Offices Today

Dating back thousands of years when Indians started using the Pass of the North on trading, hunting and warring expeditions, El Paso has always been a place used by travelers. However, those Indians were on foot, and if they chose to travel while drinking Mezcal, then the worst thing they encountered was a bump on the head. In modern day El Paso, when people drink and then hit the trail, there are much more dire consequences. If you were arrested on any sort of a drunken driving charge, then you will need the assistance of a skilled and knowledgeable El Paso DWI lawyer to secure the best allowable outcome to your case. El Paso is a thriving metropolis and as the seat of El Paso County, the city is a pretty easy place to find a lawyer to take your case and your money.

When you’re up against the prospect of such serious charges, you need the assistance of an attorney who knows the procedures and personality of the El Paso County courts, while at the same time, has extensive experience dealing with drunken driving cases specifically. When someone is found guilty of drunken driving, the state has a wide variety of punishments that it can choose to enforce. Whether you’re trying to secure an acquittal or just limit the life-altering damage of the sentence, you will need the help of a trial-tested El Paso drunken driving attorneys like those at Grossman Law Offices. Our attorneys have spent over 20 years helping people who’ve been charged with drunken driving secure an outcome to their cases that they can live with. Our experience has exposed our attorneys to practically every type of drunken driving case and circumstance that could arise in a DWI. Whatever the specifics of your DWI situation, we can help you find the best possible outcome to your case.

We’ve dealt with so many other accused drunken drivers that we know the confusion and trepidation you’re trying to cope with at this moment. In order to put your mind at ease, our El Paso DWI attorneys have assembled this informative article. By informing you about the basics involved with drunken driving laws and punishments, we hope to put you in position to make the best decisions about your case. A DWI conviction carries the threat of jail time and the certainty of heavy fines and a temporary driver’s license revocation. Moreover, a DWI conviction can be extremely damaging to the reputation of the convicted offender. Anyone can discover the conviction in a couple of minutes with a fast Internet background check – business competitors, journalists, employers, family, or potential lovers. In order to limit the harm done by a conviction and give yourself the best opportunity to beat the charges, you need the assistance of a skilled and experienced El Paso DWI attorney. At Grossman Law Offices, we know how to help you, so call us immediately for a free and confidential consultation at 1-855-427-0000 (toll free). Please read the information we’ve assembled for you about drunken driving charges and arm yourself with knowledge about DWI.

DWI Criminals Differ in Nature than Others Who Break the Law

In most cases where someone is arrested for a criminal offense, the law breaker did so intentionally, knowing full-well that the crime would do harm to others. However, drunken drivers are usually upstanding citizens who did not mean to intentionally harm someone but merely made the mistake of having too much to drink when they had the responsibility of driving. If you didn’t realize it, someone who has become intoxicated has lost the ability to make rational decisions, so he or she cannot determine whether or not his or her degree of intoxication has become debilitating. Thus, the court tries to keep this in mind when doling out DWI punishment and considers the harm caused by the particular DWI offense, as well as, the driver’s previous drunken driving history or lack thereof. In order to get the court to view you as someone who just made a lone poor decision and dispense a lighter sentence, then you need the help of skilled El Paso DWI lawyer. Otherwise, you risk getting hit with a stiffer penalty than you deserve. While our attorneys at Grossman Law Offices will do whatever they can within the confines of the law to secure an acquittal for you, if that’s not possible we know we can help you obtain the best possible outcome the facts will allow.

The Basics of American Criminal Law

If you don’t have a basic understanding of the American legal system, then we can’t very well just dive right into the specifics of drunken driving cases. Thus, we first want to explain how our legal system operates, and we hope this review of Government 101 doesn’t offend you. The United States Constitution affords every American citizen certain rights, with its First 10 Amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, providing the freedoms or Forefathers thought were most important. When a person is accused of a crime, his or her rights must be respected. His or her guilt must be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt in order to secure a conviction, and law enforcement agencies must conduct their investigation and make the arrest with regard to the individual’s rights.

Conversely, the state and all of its jurisdictions have rights too, and towns, cities, counties, states, and the federal government all have the right to maintain their own community standards by creating their own laws so long as those laws do not conflict with those of a higher jurisdiction or impede upon the rights of the individual. To grasp this principle, let’s take a look at how it is applied specifically by examining laws regarding cell phone usage while driving. While Texas Governor Rick Perry vetoed a law that would have banned the usage of cell phones while driving in any school zone in the state of Texas, many smaller communities have responded to the statistics linking cell phone usage to car accidents and have banned the use of all cell phone devices in school zones. In other communities, only handheld phones have been outlawed, and in still other cities, there is no ban on talking on cell phones while driving. In other states, the citizens have different thoughts on the dangers of cell phones and have applied different laws. In New Jersey and New York, drivers are banned from using cell phones anywhere while behind the wheel of a car.

When people break this law or any law, the individual community has the right to decide what the punishment should be within reason of course. You can’t be fined $50,000 for driving through a school zone while texting. The community where the crime occurred also may determine the procedures regarding how offenders must go about accepting their punishments or fighting the charges. In the end, all who think they’ve been wrongly charged have the right to demand their days in court, but in so doing, the procedures of the jurisdiction in question must be followed.

When crimes are more serious, like kidnapping or a terrorist act, then the federal government takes over prosecution and has no limit to its right to rule in any state throughout the land.

In addition to creating laws, individual jurisdictions and to a smaller degree judges have the right to create the procedures by which their court will be run. Thus, each court is said to actually have its own personality. It’s much the same concept as with shopping malls. Every mall exists for the same purpose – to provide shoppers with a wide variety of stores that can meet their shopping needs in one convenient location. However, all malls go about doing this in various different ways. They have different stores, different architectural layouts, and different eating options in the food court. The same concept translates to courts. They all have the purpose of ruling on questions of law, but each one goes about doing this slightly differently and in its own unique way.

No matter what jurisdiction that hears your DWI case, you can expect to lose your license for a period of time, be fined heavily, and possibly even be sentenced to jail. Handling your own case is a disastrous idea when failure brings such stiff consequences. You require the guidance of an El Paso DWI lawyer who has been dealing with these cases for years.

While you know why you have incentive arrange a plea agreement in order to lessen the consequences of the crime you’ve been accused of committing, you may not realize that the prosecutor also has reason to sit down and work out a plea bargain. While they’re not up against jail time, prosecutors must worry about their job safety when they lose cases. A prosecutor who lets drunken drivers go free will be looking for a job in a very short amount of time. To the prosecutor, this situation is not necessarily fair since success or failure in the courtroom is often dependent upon the evidence. If the arresting officer does not perform his or her job correctly and gather evidence and make the arrest with respect to the offender’s rights, then the evidence will be tossed out of court and the prosecutor will end up with a loss on his or her record. In some cases, a clever DWI defense attorney will be able to win an acquittal even when the evidence has been gathered properly. On the other hand, prosecutors can protect their win-loss record in court by coming to a plea agreement that goes in the books as a victory.

How a Skilled El Paso Drunken Driving Attorney Can Help You

DWI laws in Texas were created for the purpose of punishing offenders in relation to the harm they’ve done and could continue doing moving forward. When someone presents a greater risk – either by injuring someone else in a drunken driving accident or by committing repeat offenses – then the court can dole out much more severe punishments. On the contrary, a convicted offender may be able to obtain much lesser punitive measures if his or her El Paso DWI lawyer can get the court to see the offender as a citizen in good standing who just made a single mistake.

At Grossman Law Offices, our attorneys have been helping people accused of drunken driving for two decades, so we’re prepared to deal with any type of drunken driving case. We’ve helped out some DWI offenders by winning acquittals and others by bargaining for plea agreements, and we’ve developed a system for handling drunken driving cases that we know works. Initially, we’ll want to meet with you to discuss exactly what happened and why you were arrested for DWI. When discussing your case with us or whomever you choose to be your attorney, you must be honest. Otherwise, you risk the possibility that your lawyer will develop a trial strategy based upon incorrect facts and that could be disastrous. Once we’ve listened to what you have to say, we will use the discovery period to find out what evidence the state has and what punishment it intends to pursue. This is where our experience in El Paso can be a great benefit in easing the communication process with the prosecution. After we’ve gathered both sides of the stories and discovered what evidence the state has against you, we can devise the best plan of attack for moving forward with your case.

General Information about DWI

Now that we’ve reviewed the basics of our system of law, we can begin explaining what happens in a drunken driving case. We’re assuming since you’re reading this that you’ve already learned that it’s illegal to drink and drive in this country. That’s if you were living under a rock and didn’t realize it already. On the other hand, many people do not realize how the law determines someone to be intoxicated in the state of Texas. In this state, the law defines intoxication in terms of DWI with two different definitions: when someone has a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent or higher or when that person has lost “normal mental and physical abilities.”

In court, the vague definition of losing one’ normal mental and physical abilities has come to mean that specific person’s normal abilities and not those of an average number. On the one hand, this standard is very ambiguous, and on the other hand it’s extremely difficult to actually prove in court. If the police officer has never met the suspect, then how can he or she make the determination that this person has lost normal mental and physical abilities?

Given this problem, police officers are instructed to attempt to secure a BAC test on anyone suspected of drunken driving before arresting that suspect. In Texas, police officers have another reason for needing a breathalyzer test – the new Extreme or Aggravated DWI law that went into effect in September of 2011. When a driver scores a BAC test of .15 percent or higher, he or she is guilty of a separate crime that comes with much stiffer consequences as we will discuss later on in this article. Texas lawmakers passed the new law because the most severe drunken driving accidents tend to be caused by blackout drunks, and this law gives these people incentive to driver more responsibly.

At Grossman Law Offices, our El Paso DWI lawyers are ready and able to help you whether you’ve been accused of Extreme DWI or your BAC was under .15 percent.

Debating the Merits of a Trial vs. a Plea Bargain

By all means, you definitely want to take your case to trial if the officer who made the arrest stomped on you rights or the state’s case is not very strong. If the prosecution’s case is completely unfounded, then an effective El Paso DWI attorney should be able to get the judge to throw the case out of court by issuing a summary judgment.

However, instances of summary judgments in DWI cases that go to court are actually fairly rare because law enforcement officers have developed a system for processing drunken driving cases that has been tested by time and thousands of arrests. When an officer gets the idea that a driver may be driving a car while intoxicated, then he or she will begin following the car and recording its erratic driving on the video camera in his or her cruiser. After turning on lights and siren and stopping the suspect, the officer positions his or her car so that the video camera will continue taping the interview with the suspect. The officer then follows a set procedure for interviewing the suspect. If he or she sounds drunk or admits to drinking, then the officer will request that the suspect take a roadside sobriety test. If the possible drunken driver does not perform well on the test or declines to take it, then the officer will ask the driver to take a breathalyzer test. If the driver refuses to take the test or if he or she has a BAC over .08 percent, then the officer places the suspect under arrest. By passing the test, the driver is free to drive home. Even when the driver has failed a BAC test, he or she may be able to challenge the test in court with the help of an aggressive El Paso DWI lawyer. Still, in most cases when this occurs, a failed BAC test of some sort should compel the defendant to arrange for a plea agreement. Even a cleverly devised strategy to attack a failed BAC test could still fall short of convincing a fickle jury. At Grossman Law Offices, we want to come up with the best course of action for each one of our clients based upon the facts if his or her case.

When deciding whether or not to take a case to court, the victim must understand that his or her punishment will be much more severe if he or she chooses to go to court and loses as opposed to just arranging a plea bargain.

Penalties for DWI in Texas

Like we discussed earlier, the driver’s DWI history and the harm he or she caused in the accident help the court to assign a punishment to the drunken driver. While prison terms are among the allowable punishments, most convicted offenders are merely assigned probation. So that you have a better idea of what you’re up against, here’s a list of the DWI charges and the maximum punishments allowable for each one:

First-time DWI

When a DWI offender is convicted of a first DWI and has a BAC between .08 percent and .15 percent, then the state of Texas considers that to be a Class B misdemeanor that can be punished with as much as 180 days in jail, a fine as high as $2,000, and a driver’s license suspension between three months and a year.

Extreme DWI

When the drunken driver scores a BAC in excess of .15 percent, on the other hand, the state of Texas classifies the crime as a Class A misdemeanor, bringing a possible prison sentence of two years and a fine not to exceed $4,000.

Second-time DWI

When a DWI offender does not reform his or her behavior, a second DWI conviction is treated very much like an Extreme DWI conviction. It’s considered a Class A misdemeanor, with a maximum prison sentence between 180 days and two years, and a maximum fine of $4,000. In addition, the driver’s license of the offender can be revoked for as long as two years.

Third-time DWI

As we’ve mentioned, the purpose of DWI laws is to attempt to protect the public from the dangers presented by drunken drivers. Thus, those who cannot change their ways are punished quite harshly. When someone is convicted of a third DWI, he or she is guilty of a third-degree felony in this state, with the prison sentence increasing to 10 years, the fine rising to $10,000 and the driver’s license suspended for two years.

Open Containers

Choosing to drink while physically driving at the same time only makes punishment worse, for drivers who are caught with open containers holding alcohol will have six days in prison and a fine of $2,000 added to whatever punishment the court has ruled for the drunken driving.

Surcharges to Reinstate Driver’s Licenses

Once a driver has had his or her driver’s license suspended, he or she will need to pay an annual surcharge for each of the first three years after the driver’s license is suspended in order to reinstate driving privileges. For a first-time DWI, the surcharge is $1,000 each year for three years, but the price goes up to $1,500 annually for a second DWI and $2,000 for a third. However, if the DWI was an Extreme DWI, then the price of the surcharge doubles each year, and when a driver receives more than one DWI conviction in a three-year period he or she must pay the surcharges simultaneously for any years that overlap. It’s fairly common that irresponsible drivers are forced to pay $5,000 for a single year, and it’s possible to owe a surcharge as high as $9,000.

Intoxication Assault

When a drunken driver injures others in an accident, he or she will be punished more severely because the harm done by the action is far worse. Intoxication assault is classified as a 3rd-degree felony with a possible prison sentence as long as 10 years and a fine as high as $10,000. When someone is convicted of intoxication assault, at least 30 days in prison is mandated, while a person convicted of intoxication assault with a deadly weapon is not eligible for probation at all.

Intoxication Manslaughter

When someone kills someone else in a drunken driving accident, the crime is called intoxication manslaughter and is treated much more strictly than any other drunken driving crime. It’s a 2nd-degee felony, with the jail sentence running as long as 20 years and a fine as high as $10,000. For convicted intoxication man slaughterers, there is also a mandatory prison sentence of at least 120 days before probation is permissible.

Community Supervision

Intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter carry mandatory prison sentences, but most other drunken driving charges will be punished only by probation.

However, probation doesn’t mean that someone accused of DWI should take a lackadaisical attitude toward the punishment. Probation is not fun and will cause a serious damper on the offender’s life. Every month, the probationer must pay a $60 fee for the right to meet with a probation officer who will make sure the offender is following all of the stipulations of his or her probation. Probation requirements generally entail refraining from drinking alcohol and breaking the law, staying out of bars and away from bad influences, paying all fines and court costs as scheduled, and completing all alcohol awareness classes and community service by the required time limit. You may also be required to take monthly urine tests to confirm that you are abstaining from alcohol and drug use, and if your DWI arrest involved drugs as well as alcohol then the likelihood of drug testing is very high. After you meet with your probation officer several times and establish that you are complying with the terms of your probation, you may be able to mail in probation reports and only appear in person once every few months. Although, whether or not that is allowed is at the personal discretion of the probation officer.

When someone has been convicted of multiple drunken driving offenses, then he or she will be ordered to install an interlock device on the ignition system of his or her car and is forbidden to drive any car without one. In order to start a car outfitted with such a system, the driver must breathe into the device and confirm that he or she has not been drinking. If any alcohol is detected on the driver’s breath, then the car will not start and the interlock mechanism will not permit another test for two hours. Moreover, the driver’s probation officer will be contacted about the violation. Interlock devices are obtrusive even when the driver has refrained from drinking because it’s embarrassing to have to blow into your ignition to start your car, and it’s a terrible way to impress employers, dates, and family members.

Once someone has been convicted of a drunken driving offense, the conviction will usually remain on the driver’s record forever as DWI convictions can only be expunged in very rare instances. Additionally, even when the conviction can be expunged from a criminal record, it remains on the driving record, causing inflated insurance costs for many years into the future.

Texas DWI and Child Endangerment

Sometimes children are forced to ride in a car with adults who have too much drink, so the state of Texas tries to protect these children who cannot speak out against their parents for themselves. Thus, Texas legislators have created a separate drunken driving offense that treats this crime like a form of child endangerment: DWI with a minor in the vehicle. When police suspect someone of this crime, they will often arrest them without a BAC test just to protect the children from harm. This crime is a state felony and is aggressively discouraged with a possible jail sentence of two years and a fine of $10,000. For some people who commit DWI with a minor in the vehicle, however, the consequences can be far more severe than the punishment and penalties handed out by the court. Single parents could potentially lose custody of their children to their ex-husband or wife, an in-law, or possibly even the Child Protective Services.

Since you could potentially see your family destroyed if convicted of DWI with a minor in the vehicle, you need to secure a competent and experienced El Paso DWI lawyer to hold your family together. In fact, you need the help of a skilled El Paso drunken driving attorney no matter type of DWI offense for which you’ve been arrested. At Grossman Law Offices, our lawyers have been dealing with DWI cases for more than 20 years, so we’ll know how to deliver the best allowable outcome after we hear the facts of your case.

More Information on Intoxication Assault and Intoxication Manslaughter

If you are arrested for intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter after injuring or killing another person in a suspected drunken driving wreck, then your blood will be taken for BAC testing whether or not you like it. This adds another advantage to the prosecution, when it already benefited from the natural prejudice the jury will have against anyone accused of such a heinous crime. Moreover, the burden of proof for the prosecution is incredibly easy compared to practically any other crime. In order to prove the guilt of someone convicted of intoxication assault, the state must only demonstrate the driver was drunk at the time of the accident. The accident doesn’t need to be entirely the driver’s fault, nor must there be any malicious intent in order to secure a conviction. Of course, the consequences are quite dire when convicted of either of these crimes, with a $10,000 fine likely and the possibility of up to 20 years in prison.

If you’re charged with any drunken driving offense, then you need the help of a skilled and trial-tested El Paso DWI attorney. Considering the challenges involved and the stiff consequences at stake, anyone is out of his or her mind to attempt to deal with intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter charges on his or her own.

Blood Alcohol Concentration for Texas DWI Cases

Most people know that .08 percent BAC is the recognized ceiling for legal intoxication in all states in this country, including Texas. In Texas, police officers use one of three methods to determine someone’s BAC:

• Measuring the grams of alcohol per 100 milliliter of blood;
• Measuring the grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath;
• Or measuring the amount of alcohol per 67 milliliters of urine.

When you have been drinking throughout the course of the night, you have very little chance of tracking how drunk you’ve become regardless of how high your I.Q. One’s level of intoxication can be assessed much more accurately using a BAC test of some sort, but that doesn’t mean this tests are full-proof either. Every one of these BAC tests relies upon average body chemistry in order to make its calculations. If the suspect has aberrant body chemistry, then that can throw off the BAC test, making the results questionable. Moreover, a person could be determined to be intoxicated by one type of BAC test only to be found still legally sober by another.

Breathalyzer Anomalies Explained

In order to find a driver guilty of drunken driving, the state must be able to convince the court that he or she was intoxicated. Thus, the biggest problem with BAC testing is presented by the passage of time. BAC tests become more questionable the longer a driver has to wait before taking the test. Even when a breathalyzer test is administered roadside, the driver usually won’t blow until at least 30 minutes after being stopped and sometimes much longer. When the driver demands a blood test or one is given against the driver’s will after he or she refuses a breathalyzer, then BAC measurement won’t be taken until an hour or two after the driver was pulled over under suspicion of drunken driving.

As that time passes, the driver’s body is processing the alcohol through his or her system, and the effect on a BAC test can either aid the driver in avoiding an intoxicated BAC test or lead to a false positive. Exactly how fast the alcohol is processed depends upon many factors: how quickly the alcohol was consumed, the amount and types of food the driver ate before and/or while drinking, the speed of his or her metabolism, the different types of alcohol that were drunk, and the driver’s height and weight. If a driver consumes a large amount of alcohol and stops drinking long before going home, then he or she could have a long enough amount of time to allow for his or her BAC to drop below the legal limit, despite the fact that he or she was actually intoxicated at the time of the traffic stop. Meanwhile, another driver could have taken a few quick drinks before hitting the road only to get pulled over while still legally sober. In the ensuing passage of time before the BAC test is administered, however, the alcohol enters the blood, making the driver test over the legal limit.

When a failed BAC test leads to your arrest, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be found guilty. Call us up and consult with an El Paso DWI attorney you can trust so that you can find out if the BAC test that condemned you was fair or questionable.

Breathalyzer Testing Procedures in Texas

Blood tests are far more reliable than breathalyzer tests, but there are two reasons they’re not used as the BAC test of choice. The first is that blood tests cannot safely and effectively be given by the side of the road for obvious logistical reasons. The second problem is that the amount of time that elapses before a police officer can transport a suspected drunken driver to the police station to take a blood test usually renders the blood test unreliable. Thus, law enforcement personnel turn to the breathalyzer to determine the BAC of suspects in the field.

Specifically, Texas law enforcement officers use the Intoxilyzer 5000. This machine uses 30-year-old computer technology to determine BAC by measuring the amount of alcohol in the breath with infrared technology. When administering a test that could affect the suspect’s history, the state of Texas turns to technology so old that you wouldn’t want to rely upon it for a laptop computer. However, the policies involving the machine do nothing to dissuade concerns. The makers of the Intoxilyzer 5000 will not provide a guarantee that the breathalyzer is accurate, and nobody but law enforcement personnel is allowed to test the machine for accuracy.

In the field, the concerns over the Intoxilyzer 5000 only increase. The machine has been known to mistake ordinary harmless substances for alcohol. Although, the greatest misgivings with the Intoxilyzer 5000 come from how its method of measuring alcohol in the blood through the amount in the breath can be thrown off by abnormal body chemistry. The Intoxilyzer 5000 measures BAC by relying on a blood-to-breath ratio of 2,100 to 1 that is typical for a normal human being. The problem with this principle is that very few people actually have normal body chemistry. People can have blood-to-breath ratios as high as 3,100 to 1 or as low as 1,100 to 1. When someone with an extremely high blood to breath ratio takes an Intoxilyzer 5000 breath test, the results will be incorrectly low. On the contrary, someone with a low blood to breath ratio will test inaccurately high on an Intoxilyzer 5000 test.

Sadly, the Intoxilyzer 5000 could be a far more reliable device if the Texas Department of Public Safety would utilize it properly. There is a much more accurate test that can be performed on breath samples called a gas chromatography test, and the Intoxilyzer 500 has a feature that allows it to store breath samples for later testing. In a mind-boggling move, the DPS won’t require officers to save the breath samples or have the gas chromatography test performed later. The only conclusion one can draw from this decision is that DWI convictions are more important to the DPS than justice and equity.

All of these concerns with the Intoxilyzer 5000 mean that you’re not necessarily going to be found guilty of DWI just because you’ve failed a breathalyzer test. If the circumstances of your failed BAC test can be questioned, then a knowledgeable and experienced El Paso DWI lawyer may be able to convince the jury to ignore the test results and set you free.

Your Rights When Suspected of a DWI

While the freedom of speech is one of the rights guaranteed to all Americans by the Bill of Rights as we discussed earlier, you don’t have to exercise that freedom to its full extent when you’ve been pulled over under suspicion of drunken driving. While you might want to give the police officer a piece of your mind when you’ve been pulled over, it’s a far better idea to remain polite and cordial. Police officers will just become determined to arrest someone who causes them problems. You’re not required to respond to the officer’s questions at all, but it’s a good idea to answer cordially. No matter what you do or say, everything is being recorded for posterity. If your answers give the officer the notion that you’re intoxicated, then he or she will then request that you take a field sobriety test. Since the standard of intoxication in terms of drunken driving is when someone has lost normal mental and physical ability, you’re permitted to refuse any BAC test that you would not be able to do under normal circumstances. If you are dyslexic, then you will not be able recite the alphabet backwards even when you have not been drinking.

Although, you should take care not to decline to take several field sobriety tests, for in so doing, you will end up appearing very guilty on the video. If you decline to take multiple roadside sobriety tests, then the officer will just take the next step and ask you to relent to a breathalyzer test. Since breathalyzer tests are often questionable, you can decline this test also and ask for a blood test, but doing so will result in your immediate arrest and the suspension of your driver’s license. Once you’re taken to the police station, you will then have the chance to take a more accurate blood test. If you choose not to take a blood test on your own free will, the police officer will likely try to have your blood drawn for testing without your consent. Although, this can’t always be accomplished since judges aren’t always available late at night when most DWIs take place.

However, you should note that these laws have begun to evolve in communities throughout Texas. In some cities, judges have responded to high rates of drunken driving on certain holiday weekends like New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July – by pre-authorizing search warrants to extract their blood. All the arresting officer needs to do is fill in the name and details of the suspect, and then he or she may draw blood against the suspect’s will. In fact, San Antonio’s Bexar County is even experimenting with allowing this controversial procedure on every weekend from Labor Day 2011 through the end of the year. This change in the law can particularly important for people who have been drinking and using drugs. If they relent to a breathalyzer test, their level of intoxication may be determined, but their drug usage remains concealed. With a blood test, the state will have documentation of drug usage as well as intoxication.

At Grossman Law Offices, our El Paso DWI lawyers will help you find the most acceptable outcome to your case if you failed a BAC test or refused to take one.

Minors Under 21 DUI and DWI

While laws generally consider a minor to be anyone under the age of 18 in this country, when it comes to DWI laws, minors are anyone under the age of 21, for that is the age at which Americans can legally drink alcohol. Barred from legally drinking, people under 21 cannot drive with any alcohol at all in their systems. When someone does so, he or she is guilty of Driving Under the Influence (DUI), which may be a little misleading for people from other states where DUI refers to the crime that is known as DWI in Texas. While the consequences of DUI convictions aren’t as severe as those for DWI, you will still need the help of an experienced El Paso DWI lawyer if you or your teenager has been accused of DUI.

When stopped and questioned about a possible DUI, minors retain the same rights as adults in a similar situation regarding a DWI. Minors may decline to take tests designed to assess their sobriety at roadside, as well as, a breathalyzer test, but doing so carries similar consequences as those faced by adults. Refusing a breathalyzer for a minor results in their immediate arrest and revocation of driving privileges for 120 days for a first-time DUI. For a second DUI conviction, the driver’s license suspension increases to 240 days. On the other hand, a failed breathalyzer test confirming a minor guilty of DUI only leads to a 60-day driver’s license suspension. Thus, when a minor is under suspicion of DUI, he or she would likely be wise just to relent to a breathalyzer. Since any amount of alcohol in the system leads to a positive BAC test in a minor, those under 21 can’t hope to delay an hour for a blood test and hope to slide under the legal limit. A blood test in two hours will still show trace amounts of alcohol. Of note, when a minor is convicted of a DUI after a second failed breathalyzer, then he or she could face a driver’s license suspension of up to one year.

For minors that can’t seem to stop drinking or appear addicted to drugs, the court can revoke their driver’s licenses until they turn 21 and/or could order them into rehabilitation.

Just because minors can be charged with DUI doesn’t mean they’re immune from also being charged with DWI. Quite the contrary, any minor with a BAC over .15 percent will be charged with Extreme DWI, and any with a BAC from .08 percent to .15 percent will face DWI charges. When found guilty, if the minor is 17 or older, he or she can face prison time, while those under 16 could be sent to juvenile detention.

• First-time DUI - When a minor is convicted of a DUI for the first time, it’s a Class C misdemeanor that carries 20-40 hours of community service as punishment along with mandatory attendance in 15 hours of alcohol awareness class. Minors must take a test to pass this class, and anyone who fails or misses any of the five classes must repeat the course. Furthermore, the minor’s parents will be required to attend every court session and could also be ordered to accompany the minor to alcohol awareness class. The one bright spot with a first DUI conviction is that it is the only drunken driving conviction that can be completely expunged from the driver’s legal record. If the minor is offered deferred adjudication and completes the terms of probation, then he or she can petition the court to wipe his or her record clean when he or she turns 21.

• Second-time DUI - A second DUI only has a couple of differences from a first DUI conviction. The offense can no longer be expunged, while deferred adjudication is still offered. Additionally, mandatory community service goes up to 60 hours.

• Third-time DUI - Classified as a Class B misdemeanor, a third DUI is a much more serious offense as reflected in the punishment that is much more akin to punitive measures for a DWI than another DUI offense. Minors older than 16 will be tried as adults and could be sentenced to a maximum of 180 days in jail and fined at least $500 and as much as $2,000.

If you or your teenage son or daughter hadn’t already made a poor choice, then let’s face it – you wouldn’t be reading this right now. If you don’t find the right El Paso DWI lawyer to handle the legal situation stemming from your own or your child’s DUI arrest, then you’re only making another bad decision.

ALR Hearing to Resolve a Driver’s License Revocation

Anyone who declines a breathalyzer test after being asked to take one by a police officer, who suspects him or her of drunken driving, will immediately lose his or her driver’s license. Before arresting the suspect, however, the officer will issue the driver a 40-day temporary license to cover the period of time before the revocation becomes official.

After the arrest, the defendant will receive notification in the mail of the intended driver’s license suspension. The defendant then has 15 days to file for an Administrative License Revocation Hearing (ALR Hearing), in which his or her lawyer can argue that the driver’s license revocation was unwarranted.

Since our court system is quite crowded, the ALR Hearing usually cannot be scheduled until well after the 40 days on the temporary license has expired. Don’t worry – the provisional license remains active until the ALR Hearing. If you subsequently passed a blood test after turning down a breathalyzer, then you have very little to worry about. You will be able to get your license reinstated. If you fail in your attempt to get your license back, then you have 30 days to appeal the ruling, which then extends the temporary license for an additional 90 days. When you go to trial on the DWI charge, you can get your license reinstated if you’re able to secure an acquittal.

In other words, you haven’t necessarily lost your driving privileges just because you failed a breathalyzer test. If you get hold of a clever and experienced El Paso drunken driving lawyer like those at Grossman Law Offices, then you may be able to get back behind the wheel in a month.

Occupational Driver’s Licenses

Just because you’ve failed in your quest to get your driver’s license back through an ALR Hearing doesn’t mean you’ve necessarily lost your driving privileges for 90-180 days. Lawmakers in the state of Texas understand that most people need a way of getting to work or school and caring for their children and families, but public transportation in most cities around the state, including El Paso, are woefully insufficient. Thus, convicted drunken drivers are allowed to apply for Occupational Driver’s Licenses, which enable them to get to work and other essential locales like their children’s school and the grocery store. However, ODLs only add to the extensive cost of a DWI, as they’re very expensive. Additionally, ODLs come with greatly restricted travel and require the driver to keep track of all of the details of every trip in a travel log, documenting the date of the journey, the times of departure and return, the intended destination, the reason for the trip, and the total miles driven. In most cases, travel on an ODL is limited to one county, but that can change if one’s job requirements call for more extensive travel.

Successfully obtaining an ODL requires following the specific format and process required by the court in El Paso County. Apply for an ODL incorrectly, and your petition could very well be rejected. To give yourself the best opportunity of getting to work without calling a cab, you need the help of a seasoned drunken driving lawyer who knows the expectations of the El Paso courts.

Public Intoxication As Compared to DWI

To assume that DWI and public intoxication (PI) are the same is mistaken. While both crimes involve the use of alcohol, they don’t even define the term intoxicated the same. We’ve discussed the definition as it pertains to DWI, but someone is assumed to intoxicated in terms of PI charge when he or she has become so intoxicated that he or she presents a danger both to him or herself and the public.

Additionally, these crimes differ dramatically in terms of how they’re investigated. As we’ve already explained to you, Texas law enforcement officers follow very specific guidelines for investigating a DWI and making the arrest. Public intoxication, conversely, has no established protocol. Instead, someone is determined to have committed PI solely on the basis of a police officer’s opinion.

For obvious reasons, PI offenders create far less hazard to society than a drunken driver. A hazardously intoxicated individual is much more dangerous when sitting behind the wheel of car or truck than passed out in a stranger’s backyard. Hence, the state is far more lenient in its punishment for PI due to the fact there is very little risk to the public. PI is grouped as a Class C misdemeanor and threatens no jail time – only a $500 fine. Unless you want to contest a PI charge, you won’t need a lawyer. Just follow whatever court procedure is in effect and pay for the fine. A DWI charge is completely different, and you’re going to need an aggressive and local El Paso DWI attorney if you want to secure the best outcome you can hope for.

The Rights of a DWI Suspect

Remember, in the United States, driving is a privilege and not an innate right, and the state can take away this privilege when you don’t use it responsibly. Thus, the state of Texas revokes the driver’s licenses of anyone who refuses a breathalyzer test. If Texas didn’t do this, then everyone would refuse to take breathalyzer test, and our streets would be a gauntlet of drunken drivers on a nightly basis. Thus, when someone refuses a breathalyzer test, he or she not only loses his or her driver’s license, but the declined BAC test can also be presented at trial as evidence of the driver’s possible drunkenness. However, if you take and fail a BAC test, a seasoned and clever El Paso drunken driving attorney could be able to get the jury to ignore the results due to their questionable nature. In many cases, suspects are likely better off just relenting to the breathalyzer test.

Whatever you decide to do, you should always keep in mind that all of your actions and words are being recorded on the cruiser’s video system and act accordingly to assist your case.

When being questioned at the side of the road for suspicion of DWI, you do not have the right to call your lawyer and ask for advice no matter what you think you’ve seen in the movies and on television. “The right to an attorney” only pertains to a criminal interrogation and not to a standard traffic stop. On the contrary, television has likely also taught you the Miranda right “to remain silent,” and you certainly can refuse to answer the police officer’s questions. Just keep in mind that this course of action will likely result in the officer becoming determined to arrest you.

Grossman Law Offices has Experienced El Paso DWI Attorney Who Know How to Help

Over the course of the past 20 years, our lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have handled hundreds of drunken driving cases, and we’ve developed contacts and rapport with the prosecutors in El Paso County. Due to our immense experience, we’ll know how to assist you with your case no matter what the details.

If your best option is to arrange for a plea agreement, then we’ll use our contacts to work out the best offer possible. But, if the facts tell us to go to court, then we will exhaust the full extent of our knowledge, time, and resources to do whatever we can to secure an acquittal. We’re prepared to handle any type of case – minors accused of DUI after drinking their first beer, parents who had one glass of wine too many at a dinner party only to get pulled over on the way home with the kids in the car, drivers who tragically kill someone else in a drunken accident, or someone who refuses to take a breathalyzer test but was actually under the legal level of intoxication. We’re prepared to help anyone. We offer free and confidential consultations at 18-55-427-0000 (toll free), so call us now to find out how we can help and to ask any nagging questions that are still bothering you. We’re here to help, so don’t take on this daunting process alone.