Thomas, Ahnell, Laraway & Smith, LLC
How Do You Defend Yourself in a DUI Case?
Denver DUI Defense Attorney Explains the Process of Investigating the Situation
After an arrest or citation for DUI in Denver, most people are not capable of properly defending themselves in court against the district attorney. In this video, DUI defense lawyer and former assistant district attorney Jake Johnson explains the process of investigating the situation to properly defend a client in court. Our criminal defense lawyers explore every avenue possible to aggressively advocate for our clients, whether its negotiating with the prosecutor or representing their rights in a DUI trial. The quicker you reach out to our Colorado DUI lawyers, the better.
Transcription:
Well every DUI case is different. From the onset we look at the police reports that we get. We look at videos. We talk to our clients to get a really good understanding as to what happened the night in question. So again, a defense is going to start from the moment that the police even get behind the vehicle. First thing we’re going to be looking to do is to make an argument that there was no reason for them to make a stop of you in the first place. Again, a stop has to be justified by a traffic infraction of some sort. So we’re going to be looking to try and argue that there was no reason for them to even make contact. If they get that far, then the next thing we’re going to try to argue is that based on the circumstances, the way you look, the way you sound, the way you do on the field sobriety test, we’re going to argue that there was no reason for them to even ask you to do a blood test or a breath test in the first place. If we get that far, next thing we’re going to do, when we go through, we want to look at the blood test or the breath test. We want to look at the machines, make sure everything was working correctly. We want to look at the, it’s called the chain of custody. The chain of custody is from the moment blood leaves your arm until it goes to the refrigerator, until it goes to the lab and back. We want to make sure there’s no gaps so that we can track it. We want to make sure it’s your blood. After all those things are said and done, if we don’t think that there’s any sort of real, viable defense, then we move on to the negotiation stage, which is trying to negotiate with the DA to reach some sort of a favorable plea offer.