California DUI Laws and Your Rights
Posted on December 3, 2007
Filed Under Criminal Law, DUI, Police |
A DUI in California can cost you your driving privileges, 48 hour or more of jail time and a fine of up to $1,000. Because over 50 percent of car accidents with fatalities in California involve a drunk driver, law enforcement has stepped up to try to drive the statistics down. If you’re caught driving drunk you’ll want to be aware of your rights, particularly since the police will likely try to ignore them. Aside from being informed of your constitutional rights (”Miranda” warning) upon arrest, your rights also include the following:
You are not required by law to submit to a field sobriety test.
Field sobriety tests include walking in a line, reciting the alphabet, etc. There are no legal consequences to refusing to submit to these tests, but if you do poorly on the test this can be used against you, so a polite refusal may be in your best interest.
You are not required by law to submit to a field breath test.
After you’ve been asked to walk in a line and recite the alphabet backwards, you may be asked to submit to a field breath test. You’re not required to take a field breath test if you’re over the age of 21.
Once arrested, you must be given the choice of a breath or blood test.
If you refuse to submit to the test you must be informed of your legal consequences, including:
• The suspension of your license will be for a full year rather than for four months for a first offense.
• Your refusal can be introduced as evidence in court for “consciousness of guilt.”
• Your refusal, if alleged in the complaint, can carry a mandatory minimum sentence of jail time.
The police should inform you of your right to a second blood test for independent analysis by your defense attorney.
If you choose a breath test, the results will be destroyed and the results aren’t as accurate as a blood test. You have the right to a second blood test for your defense, but many officers won’t bother to inform you of this right.
Once you submit to or refuse a blood or breath test, you have a right to an attorney.
Until you’ve taken the test or refused to take it (at the station, not a field test), you don’t have the right to speak to an attorney under California law.
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5 Responses to “California DUI Laws and Your Rights”
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I think DUI’s should have even more strict punishments. You are taking other people’s lives into your drunken hands.
It seems to be a rather intimidating penalty for an individual to endure but given the circumstances and severity of the damage caused by drunk drivers, it is well warranted.
Unfortunately, drinking too much alcohol impaires one’s ability to think rationaly. Once emboldened by a few stiff drinks, these penalties will have little effect on the psyche of a hardened alcoholic. Hopefully, the fear of the penalties will stop the individual from starting to drink in the first place.
If fear is the motivator to prevent a potential DUI accident or death, then the higher the fear, the higher the motivation.
Most people just want the whole ordeal to get over with as soon as possible. They never think about their personal rights or what they can do to challenge the charges.
I personally feel that a person clearly DUI should be compelled by law to submit to a breath test there and then. the public’s safety and well being are of no importance to the drunk driver, therefore why should he/she be allowed to refuse sobriety tests.
Since living in LA, I’ve seen many cases on local news where individual rights are pushed to the limit such that law suits are brought against the police.
The police do not have the right to my blood or breath at any point in my life. Police are there to protect the public (which include the driver, drunk or not). If a refusal is legal, and the driver is arrested for refusal, the protection of the public is accomplished by removing that driver from the road. I would feel free to refuse any search and seizure without a warrant for any circumstance. It might be a 50/50 chance I’d refuse a breathalysers even if I were completely sober (depends if I felt like defending my rights, or making to my destination on time).