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While every criminal case is different, there are common issues present in
every DUI case that an attorney needs to explore.
For example, why did the police officer make contact with the defendant?
What was the reason that the police officer stopped the defendant and
investigated what was happening? Does the police officer have evidence
establishing that the defendant was driving or in actual physical control of the vehicle?
After making initial contact with the driver, why did the police officers
then escalate their contact into a DUI investigation? What evidence does
the officer have that the driver was in fact impaired by alcohol or drugs?
Did they have the driver perform field sobriety test? Did they note any
alleged signs or symptoms of impairment such as balance issues, speech
issues, odor of alcohol, similar physical effect?
And finally, once the officer has decided to arrest the defendant what, if
any, chemical evidence is there of impairment? Did the defendant submit to
a breath test, a urine test, a blood test? What, if anything, can the
government bring into the case to try to objectively establish that the
defendant was, in fact, impaired while driving?
All of these issues are important for the attorney to explore because a
lack of evidence in any of those areas could be critical to the government's case against you.