Garland DWI Lawyer

The Attorneys at Grossman Law Offices Can Help You If You’ve Been Accused of Driving While Intoxicated in Garland

Around the Metroplex, Garland is not exactly known for its nightlife. However, the Garland police department still doles out a hefty share of DWI arrests every year. After being arrested for a drunken driving offense of any kind, you will need a knowledgeable and seasoned Garland DWI attorney to help secure the best attainable resolution.

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In order to successfully deal with a DWI charge, you need the help of a lawyer who has logged significant time handling cases in the Dallas County courts, building a reputation as a skilled attorney and mastering the procedures inherent in the courts. Of course, it’s not very hard to find any DWI attorney. If you’re willing to pay, you can find someone to put forth a minimum effort, take your money, and then file your paperwork with the court while hoping for leniency. That’s just not how we operate at Grossman Law Offices. Michael Grossman and his team of Garland DWI attorneys treat each case as a unique challenge. We don’t see our clients as giant dollar signs, but as people who need our help. Thus, we will take the time to handle your case with the concentration, energy, and resources it deserves.

Before proceeding with your case, you need to accept the fact that a DWI conviction isn’t going to subside after you pay the fines, fulfill the probation or jail sentence, and gut out a driver’s license suspension. A DWI conviction in all likelihood will never leave your record and could affect your employability and reputation for years to come. If you act like your arrest is no big deal, you will live to wish you hadn’t. For the past 20 years, our Garland DWI lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have been helping people just like you in Garland, all over Dallas County and throughout the Lone Star State. You likely don’t have any experience with cases like these, so this is your chance to benefit from the guidance of an expert. You can get a better idea of where you stand by calling us now for a free consultation at 1-855-427-0000 (toll free). We give you the opportunity to have a confidential discussion, telling your story to one of our lawyers, who can answer all of your questions and review your legal options.

Until you’ve decided to give us a call, our attorneys want to provide you with this informative article, so you can feel more comfortable about the legal process that lies ahead. We know that a defendant needs to be well-informed in order to make the right decisions about his or her case. Read on, learn, ease your worries, and then give us a call.

A Different Kind of Criminal

DWI offenders are not like other criminals. In fact, your average DWI defendant is your average American citizen – goes to work, pays taxes, has a family that cares about him or her and vice versa. These are not intentional criminals who intend to harm other people. It’s important to remember how alcohol can inspire someone to make bad decisions. Alcohol negatively affects both mental and physical abilities. Thus, when someone has had too much to drink, he or she actually lacks the ability to determine whether or not he or she has become too drunk to drive. Given this information, it’s easy to see how anyone who drinks alcohol could potentially become a drunken driver. Although, this is not how the prosecution initially views DWI defendants – they’re treated the same as other criminals. If convicted, you face the possibility of prison, the likelihood of probation and the certainty of heavy fines and a license suspension. With such severe consequences at stake, you need a Garland DWI lawyer who is capable of making the prosecution view you as a human who is innocent or at least a victim of circumstance who is deserving of leniency during sentencing.

Understanding Basics of Criminal Law

Until our clients understand more about the essentials of criminal law, there is very little point in discussing the specifics of DWI cases. First, you need to know that you have rights. The Constitution, particularly the first 10 amendments known as the Bill of Rights, provides all American citizens with certain rights. Thus, when you have been charged with any crime, the police must not violate your rights during your arrest and the subsequent investigation. Moreover, the state must be able to prove your guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt” to secure the conviction it seeks.

On the other hand, no matter what the geographical limitations of a jurisdiction, a community has the right to govern itself, so states, counties, cities, towns, and villages can all create their own laws so long as they do not infringe upon the Constitutional rights guaranteed to all citizens nor contradict the laws of an over-ruling government body. Let’s consider speed limits to understand this concept better. State Highway 78 winds through several different communities on the northeast side of the Dallas area. As it does so, the speed limit fluctuates up and down as each community has the right to determine what it should be. However, none of these communities can place the speed limit at 100 mph because that would violate the standards established at a national level. Each city or town can determine what it thinks the punishment should be, but again there are limits. Wylie can’t suddenly decide the penalty for speeding is 10 years in prison. When you receive a ticket in a given municipality, you must follow that locale’s rules for paying the fine, or signing up for defensive driving. Or, your other option is to request a court date in the county court and contest the citation.

When it comes to more serious offenses like robbing a bank or threatening the President, the federal court system takes over and justice has no bounds within the United States.

When moving from one jurisdiction to another, you will find that each court operates under a unique set of procedures and is governed by a judge who expects things to be done his or her way. Lawyers will even refer to this concept as a court having its own personality. In this way, courts are not unlike restaurants in a national chain. All of the restaurants exist for the same purpose – to sell the chain’s food. However, they all have different cooks and different servers. Thus, the lasagna at one Maggiano’s might not taste exactly like the lasagna at another. In one location, you may have the best waiter you’ve ever had, and in another, your food is served cold and the waiter spends most of your meal on smoke breaks. Courts all exist to dispense justice, but they all do it in different ways with procedures and punishments fluctuating from one locale to another. As we’ve mentioned, we’ve been trying DWI cases in the Dallas County courts for 20 years, so we know the prosecutors, procedures, and courts inside and out.

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If you’ve been convicted of a DWI, the penalties can be very severe – prison time, heavy fines, and the loss of your license. Sure, the Constitution provides you the right to have a jury trial, but that doesn’t mean going to court is the best option you have for resolving your case. Often times, a plea bargain, which can benefit both the defense and prosecution, is a much better venue for securing the best viable outcome to a DWI case. The risks for the defendant are great: jail time, loss of finances, and a temporary forfeiture of driving privileges, but you’re not the only side of this affair with something to lose. The prosecutor has his or her reputation and possibly even his or her job on the line. Prosecutors who can’t secure convictions will end up looking for jobs in the private sector in a very short amount of time. This is not necessarily fair, either, since the prosecutor cannot do his or her job well if the police officer didn’t do his or her job well in making the arrest and gathering the evidence. When there is something awry with the evidence or the method by which it was collected, then the prosecutor will be eager to arrange a plea bargain. Even when the evidence prepares solid, a smart prosecutor will still agree to a plea bargain to save the court’s resources and avoid the chance that a skilled Garland DWI attorney may be able to get some of the evidence excluded. For the defendant, a plea agreement can be a good idea to limit his losses, and for the prosecution a guaranteed win is preferable to an unwanted surprise in court.

How a Garland DWI Lawyer Can Help You with Your Case

When it comes to allotting punishment for a given crime, the American justice system is somewhat open-minded, allowing for a wide range of punishments that take into account the gravity of the crime, the previous criminal history of the defendant, what continued threat the criminal poses, and any extraneous circumstances. When it comes to any crime, judges or juries will have the discretion of sentencing convicted criminals to a variety of punishments. Someone who is found guilty of intoxication manslaughter can be given a maximum of 25 years in prison, but the judge will instruct the jury to consider different factors before calling for the maximum sentence. If someone has previous arrests for drunken driving offenses, he or she is more likely to receive a stiff punishment than one who has been caught in their first offense. If the evidence is too much to be surmounted, your only way of limiting the negative fallout from your case is to hire an attorney who can convince the court too see you as a minimum threat.

At Grossman Law Offices, our Garland DWI attorneys have been handling DWI cases in the Dallas County courts for 20 years. We know how to give you the representation you need. First, we’re going to want to sit down for a meeting, so we can listen to your version of events in your arrest. We want to hear everything, but you must tell us the complete and truthful story. If you withhold or misrepresent facts to your attorney, then you are only hurting yourself. After we know your story, we’re going to want to know what dirt the prosecution has against you and what its intentions are. Fortunately, there is a period called, “the discovery period” in which both sides are compelled to share their evidence. However, it helps to have a lawyer who knows the prosecutors, so this process goes smoothly, allowing for more time to negotiate a plea agreement or devise trial strategy. Once we’ve got all of the facts, we can figure out the best plan of action, whether it be preparing for trial or haggling a more beneficial deal with the prosecutors. As Again, you must be honest with your lawyer, or the trial strategy he or she plans will be a house of cards waiting to collapse. As the gears of justice begin moving, we will make sure you are kept aware of the progress of the case.

Types of DWI Cases

If you’ve got favorable facts and a competent and shrewd Garland DWI lawyer working for you, then a verdict of “not guilty” isn’t just impossible, but it’s probable. So that you have a better understanding of what might happen if you are convicted, on the other hand, here is some more information about the different types of DWI cases.

By now, if you weren’t previously aware of it, you indubitably know that it’s illegal to drive an automobile, or operate any other type of moving vehicle, when you are intoxicated. But, what is meant by the term “intoxicated” from a legal perspective. The state of Texas defines intoxication in conjunction to DWI as either when the driver’s BAC is greater than or equal to .08 percent or when the driver loses “normal mental and physical” ability as a result of over-consumption of alcohol or drugs.

Police officers try so hard to get suspected drunken drivers to take BAC tests because the first definition is much easier to prove at trial than the second. The second, more subjective definition has come to be interpreted over time as meaning what is normal for the specific driver in question and not for a “normal” or average person. Unfortunately, this creates a logical dilemma: how can the arresting officer know what is normal for any given drunken driving suspect when the two have never met before?

It’s due to this very question that law enforcement agencies insist their officers obtain damning results from breathalyzer or blood tests as proof. Moreover, the state wants to do whatever it can to make sure the driver pays the maximum fine he or she should owe for his or her crime. When someone has a BAC ranging from .08 percent to .16 percent, the fine for reactivating and maintaining his or her driver’s license is $1,000 annually for three years. However, when a drunken driver’s BAC test returns result greater than .16 percent, he or she owes $2,000 every year for three years if he or she wants to drive.

At Grossman Law Offices, we will help you find the best viable outcome to your case no matter if your BAC test was at the limit or well over or if you were merely arrested because the police officer thought you were intoxicated.

DWI Plea Bargains vs. Jury Trials and Other Options

Granted, we’ve already mentioned this necessity, but we feel the need to say it again. Honesty is absolutely essential when discussing your case with your attorney. If you embellish your story, then you risk harming your chances of securing an acquittal or at least a lighter sentence. If your attorney thinks the facts are in your favor or the state lacks adequate evidence, then he or she will want to go to court and secure that evasive acquittal. In rare instances, the prosecution will admit that it has no evidence and simply drop the charges against the defendant.

Don’t get too excited – dropped cases are fairly rare in DWI situations. Law enforcement agencies in Texas have been combating DWI for quite some time, and they know they’re doing. Over the course of time, methods have been devised for stopping suspects, questioning them, and gathering evidence that have proven to be resistant to challenges from defense attorneys. With some minor variations, all law enforcement officers in Texas follow essentially the same routine. They all align their cruisers in such a way that the DWI stop will be caught on videotape if not also audio. Then, the officer will ask that the suspect perform some roadside sobriety tests to be recorded on film. The office will only demand a breathalyzer if the driver refuses to take the field sobriety test or if he or she fails the roadside test. If you have failed or refused a breathalyzer or field sobriety test and the state has your drunken behavior on tape, then it could very well be in your best interest to work out a plea agreement rather than go to court.

When you work out some sort of plea agreement, the court usually repays you for saving its resources by applying a much lighter sentence than would have been the norm and usually allows for deferred adjudication, which enables the charges to be dropped upon completion of a probation program.

Again, your lawyer cannot might the right decisions about which course to pursue – a pleas bargain or a trial – unless you are honest about the circumstances of your arrest.

Your Rights in a DWI Case

When you are shocked by the flashing lights trailing behind you, it’s important to remember to remain calm and courteous when dealing with the police officer. Getting angry or flustered during any traffic stop only hurts your situation but the stakes are greater where DWI is concerned. The police officer plans to ask you a few standard questions, and then he will inform you why you have been pulled over. If your answers give the officer reason to suspect that you have been drinking, then you will be asked to exit your vehicle and submit to a field sobriety test. You may not know that you are not compelled to comply because the definition of intoxication when it comes to DWI is whether or not the driver has lost his or her normal mental and physical abilities. Therefore, should you have a condition that will disable you from passing the field sobriety test when sober, you may legally decline to take a field sobriety test. For example, if your dyslexic, you’re not going to be able to say the alphabet backwards.

Although, you need to be fully informed of the consequences before you take this route. Declining one roadside test will only compel the officer to ask that you take another. If you have a litany of excuses as to why you can’t take the tests, then you will look very suspicious on the video. Moreover, the police officer will tire of this game and move on to requesting that you take a breathalyzer. Just like with a field sobriety test, you do have the right to refuse to take a breathalyzer test. As we will discuss later in this article, these tests are often unreliable. The fallout for refusing a breathalyzer is far worse than that for declining a roadside sobriety test. You will be placed under arrest immediately, and your driver’s license will be confiscated and suspended before the officer even puts the cuffs on you. If your concern was over the reliability of the breathalyzer, you will then have the chance to take a blood test at the station. If you refuse to take this test willing, the officer will likely try to obtain a warrant from a judge to extract your blood for testing without your consent. Since most DWI arrests happen at night, this isn’t always practical.

On certain holiday weekends, however, the arresting officer may be able to take your blood against your will without waiting to find a judge. Since many more people drink alcohol on New Year’s Eve, Labor Day, Memorial Day, or the Fourth of July, certain judges authorize officers to take blood from unwilling suspects. While this doesn’t happen in Dallas County, it’s very common in nearby Collin and Tarrant Counties. If you’re driving through these areas and get stopped by a police officer on a holiday weekend, it’s likely you will be taking a BAC test whether you like it or not. People who have taken illegal drugs should make particular note of this tendency, for unlike a breathalyzer, a blood test documents the drug usage as well as the BAC level. It’s a terrible idea to use drugs and alcohol before driving. But, if you have, you might be better served by taking a breathalyzer test than allowing the state to test your blood.

In the end, you’re going to need the help of a skilled and seasoned Garland DWI attorney like those at Grossman Law Offices no matter what prompted the arresting officer to detain you for suspicion of driving drunk – a refusal to take a breathalyzer or a failed blood of breathalyzer test. You need someone capable of providing you with the best possible conclusion to what seems like an impossible situation. Our attorneys will make sure that any improperly or illegally obtained evidence is excluded from court.

Texas DWI Penalties

Since the end goal of the court system is just as much to protect the people as punish the guilty, juries and judges are permitted plenty of wiggle room when sentencing someone convicted of DWI. Before assigning a sentence, the court will take into account the defendant’s previous DWI history and the severity of the harm caused to others by the offense. Thus, we’d like to provide you with a list of the different charges a drunken driver might face and the according punishments:

First-time DWI

When convicted of this Class B misdemeanor, the defendant may be sentenced to a maximum of 180 days in jail, have his or her driver’s license suspended for between 90 days and a year, and fined as much as $2,000.

Extreme DWI

Even when convicted for a first DWI, someone who recorded a BAC of .15 percent or greater has committed Extreme DWI in Texas, a new Class A Misdemeanor punishable with up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $4,000, and a driver license suspension between 180 days and two years.

Second-time DWI

A second DWI conviction is classified as a Class A misdemeanor and can be punished by a driver’s license revocation of a maximum of two years, as long as one year in prison, and a fine as high as $4,000.

Third-time DWI

A third conviction is categorized as a 3rd-degree felony and could result in as much as 10 years in prison, a fine of $10,0000 and a maximum driver’s license revocation of two years.

Open Containers

Having an open container carrying alcohol in it only makes a convicted DWI defendant’s sentence worse, adding a minimum of six days to a jail term and as much as $2,000 to any fines.

Driver’s License Surcharges

If you want to drive again in the three years after receiving a DWI, then the court-ordered fines you will be forced to pay are just the beginning. You must pay an annual surcharge for three years in order to retain the privilege of driving. When your BAC was less than .16 percent, then you will be charged $1,000 each year for three years. When the driver’s BAC was tested over .16 percent, then the annual surcharge increases to $2,000 for three years. Not only does the surcharge rise for additional offenses -- $1,500 for a second DWI conviction and $2,000 for a third – but those figures also double for a BAC of .16 percent or higher. Moreover, if you accumulate more than one DWI in a three-year period, then you must pay off the surcharge fines simultaneously. In other words, if you get three DWIs in three years, then you could be looking at an annual surcharge as high as $9,000 if your BAC was .16 or higher every time. Although, it bears mentioning that given those circumstances, you’re likely to spend time in jail or have your driver’s license suspended for at least two years.

Intoxication Assault

When drunken drivers harm innocent bystanders, the punishments intensify. Just by injuring another person in a drunken driving accident, the driver convicted of the DWI is guilty of intoxication assault, which is a 3rd-degree felony, carrying a maximum fine of $10,000 and a jail sentence of between two and ten years.

Intoxication Manslaughter

When it comes to discussion of which DWI offense is most damaging, the debate is short. If a drunken driver gets into an accident that kills someone, then the driver has committed intoxication manslaughter, a second degree felony. The jury has the prerogative of sentencing you to 20 years in prison for intoxication manslaughter, as well as, a fine as high as $10,000.

Community Supervision

All DWI convictions carry the threat of jail time, but intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault are the only crimes for which a convicted defendant is guaranteed to spend time in prison no matter what the circumstances of the crime. Intoxication assault carries a prison requirement of at least 30 days, while an intoxication manslaughter conviction is accompanied by at least 120 days in prison. Moreover, an intoxication assault with a deadly weapon conviction does not allow any probation. When it comes to most other DWI offenses, the preferred punishment doled out by the court will be probation.

There’s little debate that probation is much more preferable than jail time, but it still calls for significant sacrifices on the part of the probationer. You will be given a period of time in which you must comply with all of the court’s mandates regarding your probation and regularly report to a probation officer, paying $50 a month for the right to do so. In Dallas County, you may not be required to report in person to your probation officer every month, but you will at the very least have to mail in a probation report on a monthly basis, confirming that you are following the terms of your probation. You may also be ordered to fulfill the following conditions in order to complete your period of community supervision: commit no crimes, drink no alcohol, complete the required amount of community service hours through an assigned community service program, pay fees and fines that the court has required as scheduled, and attend alcohol education seminars. Depending upon your probation officer, you might be asked to take urine tests to confirm your assertion that you’re not drinking, but you won’t be required to do so every month. Convicted drunken divers who have a history of drug usage are much more likely to be asked to submit to regular testing.

For those convicted of a first DWI, you don’t have to worry about an interlock device being installed in your vehicle. On the other hand, if you receive more than one DWI conviction during a 10-year period, then you could be forbidden from driving any car that has not been outfitted with one of these mechanisms. An interlock device is attached to the car’s ignition system and requires that the driver blow an alcohol free breath sample before the car will start. If the driver has alcohol on his or her breath, then the car will not start, the probation office will be notified, and the driver must wait two hours before attempting to try the interlock device again. These devices are embarrassing a sobering reminder of the situation in which the driver has gotten him or herself each and every time the driver starts his or her car.

Once you’ve got a DWI conviction on your record, it’s likely there forever. Only rare DWI cases can be expunged from the driver’s legal record, and even those offenses remain on the driving record of the defendant, increasing insurance rates for the next decade.

Taking chances with your reputation and your future isn’t necessary when you can hire a Garland DWI lawyer who can protect your rights and give you an excellent chance of securing the best possible solution to your legal predicament. At Grossman Law Offices, our attorneys have been dealing with all types of drunken driving cases in Dallas County for two decades, so we can help you find a resolution to your case with which you can live.

Blood Alcohol Level in Texas DWI Cases

Throughout this article, we’ve made references to blood alcohol concentration (BAC). Invariably, you’re aware that the legal level of intoxication when driving is .08 percent, but why is that the chosen level of intoxication? BAC measures the amount of alcohol you have flowing through your circulatory system. In the early 1990s, the federal government applied pressure to the states to lower the legal limit of intoxication from .10 percent to .08 percent BAC because that is the scientifically established point at which your normal and physical abilities become negatively affected. The state has three methods upon which it relies to detect BAC level:

• 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.

Not even a habitually drinking mathematician could accurately calculate his or her own BAC after he or she has reached the legal limit. However, the state’s methods for doing so are not always accurate either. The different measuring methods for BAC all base their formulas off of what should be the norm for any given human. The flaw in this logic is that only a small percentage of humans actually are “normal.” The unique body shape and chemistry of any given suspected drunken driver could throw off the accuracy of the BAC test. In fact, a single person could take the three different types of BAC tests and come up with different responses each time. Based upon the second definition of DWI, police officers can attempt to arrest someone suspected of drunken driving without a BAC test backing up at the arrest as evidence. However, the officer’s opinion alone is seldom enough to secure a conviction.

Breathalyzer Inaccuracies

As time quickly flies between the point at which a driver was stopped under suspicion of drunken driving and the administration of a BAC test, the validity of the test becomes even more suspect. The prosecution needs to prove that the driver was drunk while driving, but in many cases a BAC test cannot be given until as long as 90 minutes after the traffic stop. Such a test only proves how drunk this driver was an hour and a half after the incident.

If you’re thinking to yourself, “what different could an hour or 90 minutes make?” then you’re way off base. During that ensuing time, the body is both absorbing alcohol into circulation in the blood stream and processing alcohol out of the system. The speed of this process changes in relation to the driver’s weight, whether or not he or she used drugs as well as alcohol, the speed the alcohol was drunken, and the different types of alcohol that were consumed. Considering these factors, a delay of even 45 minutes could be enough to alter BAC test results. What makes these tests highly suspect in our opinion is the unpredictability of who the inaccurate test will favor. For instance, a driver could have stopped drinking a long time before getting behind the wheel. When this driver was pulled over, his or her BAC was .09 percent. During the elapsed time before taking the BAC test, the driver sweats out some alcohol and manages to drop his or her BAC all the way down to .07 percent, allowing him or her to avoid arrest. However, if the driver had three shots before getting into the car to drive home with a BAC of .07 percent, then the driver’s BAC could have risen to .09 percent, leading to an arrest for drunken driving.

If you think too much time passed between the point at which you were pulled over and the point at which your BAC was tested, then you need to call a skilled and experienced Garland DWI lawyer and find out for sure.

Texas DWI Testing Procedures

The truly frustrating thing about BAC testing is the irony involved. Blood tests are the most accurate ways of testing BAC, but they’re the least practical tests to administer in the field. Thus, in order to administer a blood test, a significant amount of time will elapse, throwing off the accuracy of the test. By default, portable breathalyzers have become the chosen form of BAC test in most states, despite their less accurate results.

In the Lone Star State, the Intoxilyzer 5000 is the widely used breathalyzer among law enforcement agencies. This machine detects the amount of alcohol on the breath using infrared light detection. The technology upon which the Intoxilyzer is based is 30 years old, so your breathalyzer test is effectively in the hands of a machine no more advanced than a Commodore 64.

Given the level of technology, it shouldn’t be any surprise that the Intoxilyzer has been known to have problems like mistaking ordinary substances like mouth wash for alcohol. That’s fairly rare, however. The formulas upon which the Intoxilyzer bases its calculations present a far bigger threat. The machine bases it’s calculations on the blood t breath ratio normal for a human being of 2100/1. As we’ve already mentioned, most human beings are not normal, and their blood to breath ratio could deviate from the norm by as much as 1,000 parts. Thus, the Intoxilyzer will report an inordinately high BAC for anyone with a low blood-to-breath ratio and an inaccurately low BAC for someone with an abnormally high blood-to-breath ratio.

Intensifying these apprehensions with this machine, no one but law enforcement officers are permitted to test them for accuracy, and the manufacturer of the Intoxilyzer refuses to warranty its reliability.

By a slight change in procedure by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the results of Intoxilyzer 5000 could be virtually foolproof. This machine is capable of storing breath samples so that a more accurate gas chromatographer test can be conducted on them later, but the DPS refuses to require the law enforcement agencies in this state to take advantage of these capabilities. By doing so, the DPS would ensure greater accuracy with BAC testing, but they’d also likely see fewer convictions as initial tests could be overturned.

By now, the Intoxilyzer 5000’s tendency for inaccuracy has been well documented, so don’t throw in the towel just because you’ve failed a BAC test. A clever Garland DWI attorney like those at Grossman Law Offices may be able to convince the jury that the test was inaccurate and should be considered invalid.

Underage Drunk Driving Criminal Attorney

Before someone turns 21 and can legally consume alcohol in this country, he or she must abide by completely different drunken driving laws. When it comes to alcohol-related laws, anyone under 21 I a minor; whereas, 18 is usually considered the point at which someone becomes an adult. Since they can’t legally drink, anyone under 21-years-old is forbidden from driving a car after consuming ANY alcohol, a crime known as Driving Under the Influence (DUI).

No matter what you might have thought after getting your license, driving is a privilege in this country. It’s not a right handed down by God and Henry Ford. If you or your teenager son or daughter is found to have any alcohol in his or her system by a breathalyzer or blood test, then this will lead to an immediate license suspension of 60 days. When pulled over by a police officer who wants to question them about suspected DUI, minors have the same rights as adults suspected of DWI – they can refuse to answer the officers questions and decline to take both roadside sobriety or BAC tests. Just like with the older counterparts, the price to pay for refusing a BAC test is steep. For a first-time DUI, the driver’s license will be suspended for 120 days, and the term of that revocation doubles for a second offense. If you know you’ve been drinking and are a minor, it’s usually a much better idea to take the breathalyzer test and accept your medicine. An adult stands a chance of lowering his or her BAC enough to avoid a DWI, but that’s simply not possible for a minor and a DUI. You simply won’t be able to process all of the alcohol out of your blood stream. However, this is not the case for a second DUI, where a second failed breathalyzer could lead to a maximum driver’s license suspension of one year.

The DUI punishment, furthermore, only begins with the license suspension. If the court has reason to suspect you’re an alcoholic who can’t stop drinking and driving, then your license could be stripped until you turn 21. Moreover, the court can assign a minor to mandatory rehab for both alcoholism and drug abuse.

In addition, minors can still be arrested and convicted of DWIs on top of DUIs. Minors who are convicted of driving with a BAC over .08 percent and are 17-years-old or greater face the same punishment as if they were adults: up to180 days in jail and a fine not to exceed $2,000, plus additional drive’s license surcharges. If a minor who is under the age of 17 is convicted of a DWI, he or she could be headed to juvenile detention.

First-time DUI

While classified as a Class C misdemeanor just like a DWI, a first-time DUI conviction is punished much less severely, considering the offender is a minor. Convicted minors don’t have to worry about going to jail, but they will have to complete between 20 to 40 hours of community service. They’re forbidden to appear in court without their parents, and they must attend mandatory alcohol awareness seminars where they may also be required to be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. The lone advantage to a first-time DUI is that it’s one of the few drunken driving offenses in which the convict is eligible to expunge the record from his or her record. After completing the conditions of a deferred adjudication agreement, a minor can have a DUI arrest completely removed from his or her record.

Second-time DUI

When convicted of a second DUI, the license suspension doubles, and the community service hours increase to 60 hours. Nor can a second DUI conviction be expunged form the minor’s record; even though, the court may still allow a deferred adjudication plea.

Third-time DUI

Third-time DUIs are treated as much more serious offenses, categorized as a Class B misdemeanor, which disallows deferred adjudication entirely. For any minors over 17, the sentence is very similar to a first DWI – possibility of 180 days in prison and a fine as high as $2,000. Just like with an adult accused of DWI, jail time is a long-shot, and probation far more likely.

If you or your son or daughter hadn’t done something foolish, then you probably wouldn’t be reading this sentence. You don’t want to compound the mistakes that have already been made by failing to secure the help of a clever and time-tested Garland DWI attorney who can minimize the consequences.

ALR Hearing After a DWI

When refusing to take a breathalyzer test, the age of the driver will have no impact on the fact that his or her driver’s license will be temporarily revoked on the spot. After which, the law enforcement officer will provide a temporary license with which the driver can continue to drive for 40 days. During this period, the suspect can challenge the suspension by requesting an Administrative License Revocation hearing (ALR hearing).

Either the DPS or the arresting officer will supply you with mailed notification of the license suspension after which you will have 15 days to request an ALR hearing. If you do not submit an ALR request within this time, then you surrender the right. Once the hearing takes place, your Garland DWI attorney can present evidence and attempt to convince the judge your license should not be revoked.

Given the volume of cases in the Dallas County courts, many ALR hearings are unable to be scheduled prior to the cessation of the 40-day provisional license. Should this happen to you, then the temporary license extends until the hearing can be held. Should you lose your ALR hearing, you can appeal within 30 days, in so doing extending the provisional license for an additional 90 days. On the other hand, should you win your ALR hearing, the appeal, or your trial, then the driver’s license suspension ends.

Your life is not over just because you’ve had your driver’s license suspended as the result of a DWI or DUI. At Grossman Law Offices, our Garland DWI may be able to help you get your license back.

Occupational Driver's Licenses

Just because you’ve had your driver’s license suspended and you’ve lost your ALR hearing doesn’t mean your driver’s privileges are necessarily gone entirely. Lawmakers in the state of Texas are sympathetic to the fact that people need to have a way of getting to work or school and taking care of this children. While DART’s service to Garland has gotten better, it’s not always possible to get what you need to get done using public transportation. Rather than forcing people into a situation where they must illegally drive, the state of Texas allows people who have had their licenses revoked to apply an Occupational Driver’s License (ODL). No doubt, ODL’s are far more preferable to walking or sweating it out on a bus stop, but they’re pricey and severely restrict your driving rights. While driving on an ODL, the DWI convict can only drive to locations permitted by the court and must keep a trip log detailing all of the facts about the trip – date, time of departure, intended destination, time of return, and reason for the trip.

Moreover, you can’t get an ODL just by sending in a check to the DPS. You must submit a special petition to the judge requesting an ODL. If this request does not properly contain the required information – the crime committed, the reason for needing the license, and the intended locations where the driver will be driving, then it could very easily be rejected. You need an attorney familiar with Dallas County procedure to request your ODL, so you can make sure you get it.

Differences Between Public Intoxication and DWI

Unfortunately, most people think of public intoxication and DWI as being virtually the same offense. Not only is that assumption way off-base, but the two crimes don’t even define “intoxication” in the same manner. We’ve discussed the definition of intoxication in terms of DWI at great length, but in terms of public intoxication, intoxication occurs when a person has become so drunk that he or she has become a danger to him or herself or others.

As we’ve also mentioned, police officers have developed time-tested methods and procedures for ferreting out drunken drivers and gathering evidence against them. When it comes to DWI, law enforcement officers are not expected to follow any set procedure. They just respond to their opinion that someone has become too drunk for his or her own good or the safety of others.

Since the nature of the danger presented by public intoxication is so much less than DWI, the punishment tends to be far less severe. If someone is drunk, walks out of the bar, sits down on the bumper of his or her car, and falls asleep, then this person is not a very big threat to society. However, if the same person gets in the car and drives off, he or she presents a tremendous danger to him or herself and others. Thus, public intoxication is considered a Class C misdemeanor punishable only with a $500 fine and no prison time. When arrested for a P.I., you really don’t need an attorney, just a checkbook to pay the $500. Someone who chooses not to acquire adequate representation in a DWI case is playing Russian roulette with his or her future. To obtain the best possible resolution to your legal situation, you’re going to need help from a knowledgeable and seasoned Garland DWI attorney.

Texas DWI & Child Endangerment

When children are told by their parents to get into the car for a ride, they don’t have breathalyzers to test their parents. Thus, the state of Texas takes measures to protect children from drunken drivers by creating a separate charge called DWI with a minor that treats this offense like child endangerment. DWI with a minor is classified as a state felony and is punishable with up to two years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000. Furthermore, police officers are far more likely to arrest a DWI with a minor in the vehicle suspect without a BAC test, because protecting the child is considered paramount. When it comes to single parents, the punishment enforced by the criminal court may not be as bad as the additional punitive measures ordered by a civil court. A DWI with a minor conviction could lead to a loss of custody, either to an ex-husband or wife or the state.

Don’t put the future of your family in the hands of a novice attorney or leave it up to your layman’s understanding of the law. Only a familiarity with the Dallas County court systems can enable a savvy and experienced Garland DWI attorney to know the best methods for convincing the court that the arresting officer erred in his or her procedures or the BAC test was inaccurate. At Grossman Law Offices, we know what it takes to convince a Dallas County court that your children were not in harm’s way at the time of your arrest.

More on Texas Intoxication Assault and Manslaughter Charges

The public perception of intoxication assault, intoxication manslaughter, and DWI with a minor in the vehicle is extremely low. For both intoxication assault and manslaughter, it’s fairly easy for the prosecution to prove its case against you. The prosecution merely needs to establish that the driver was drunk at the time of the accident and the wreck resulted in someone’s injury or death. Making this even easier for the defense, the arresting officer has the right to take blood samples for testing from the accused against his or her will. Moreover, when convicted, the consequences are dire – $10,000 fines for both convictions, between two and 10 years in prison for intoxication assault, of which 30 days are mandatory, and up to 20 years in prison with 120 days mandatory for intoxication manslaughter.

Before you decide to try and save money and represent yourself, remember that it could result in your losing your freedom. The old saying, “anyone who represents himself in court has a fool for a client,” was devised in response for people who made the mistake of doing so. You don’t want to end up as a joke told between two lawyers. The only way to find an acceptable resolution to your case is by hiring a Garland DWI lawyer you can trust, like those at Grossman Law Offices.

Your Rights When Suspected of a DWI

If you’re a citizen of the United States, your rights are always protected when accused of a DWI. However, driving isn’t a right; it’s a privilege. While you have the right to refuse a BAC test, the state has the right to renounce this privilege. Before this rule, too many suspected drunken drivers avoided convictions by declining the BAC test. The state of Texas ignores the problems with BAC testing and insists that only a guilty person would refuse to take a breathalyzer. Refusing a breathalyzer can also be used against a driver in court when charged with a second or third DWI. However, refusing the BAC test only results in a 90-day license suspension.

No matter what you decide to do about a breathalyzer test, remember that everything you do is being captured by the surveillance system in the officer’s cruiser. By appearing drunk, you could be damning yourself to a conviction.

No matter what you might think after a lifetime of watching cop shows, you rights don’t include the right to consult with an attorney while you’re in the middle of a traffic stop. A suspect only has a right to counsel when being interrogated about a criminal offense. However, you do retain “right to remain silent,” and you can remain mum during questioning. While this will anger the arresting officer and surely inspire him to arrest you, it will also leave the state lacking any evidence but your silence.

Grossman Law Offices Can Help

At Grossman Law Offices, our Garland DWI attorneys have been finding ways to help those accused of DWI find resolutions to their cases that they can live with. Our experiences with trial and error have helped us master both the procedures in the Dallas County courts and the laws involved with DWI.

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Only a hustler would blindly guarantee that you’re going to get off Scot-free. We won’t insult your intelligence like that, but we can assure you that we will devote all of our attention and resources to helping you in any way that we can. We know how to help all kinds of people facing various offenses for drunken driving: teenagers who went out for a drive after one wine cooler, a Dad who had one beer too many at the Cowboys’ game and then drove home with the kids, someone who refused to take a breathalyzer test, or someone who crashed into another car injuring the driver. This is your chance to take advantage of the years our team of attorneys have spent accumulating their experience in the Dallas County courts. You can call us now for a free consultation at 1-855-427-0000 (toll free) with no obligation. Our attorneys are waiting to confidentially discuss your situation, giving you the opportunity to ask any questions you may have. We will then explain your legal options, clarify the subjects you don’t understand and then explain how we can help. You don’t have to go through this trying time alone. Call us now.