Being pulled over and charged with driving under the influence (DUI) can be a frightening experience, especially if you are under the legal drinking age or you know that your blood alcohol content (BAC) level is above the legal limit. If you were tested for alcohol and your BAC was at or above 0.08, you probably have concerns about whether you will be convicted of DUI.
If you are worried about DUI charges, the best course of action is to contact an experienced DUI attorney to help with your case. The following article will also provide some basic information about what you can expect in a DUI case if your BAC was at or above a 0.08, such as:
- Whether you can be convicted of DUI if you are under 21.
- What questions your attorney will be asking to figure out how to handle your case or get it dismissed.
- The importance of reviewing your test results, and how this could impact your case.
Will I Be Convicted Of DUI In The Bay Area If My BAC Was 0.08 And I’m Under 21?
Yes, if your blood alcohol content (BAC) level was 0.08, it is possible to be convicted of driving under the influence (DUI), even if you are under 21. If the prosecution can prove the elements of a DUI, even if you are under 21, then you can be convicted of a DUI. This means they must show that your BAC was at 0.08 or greater when you were driving, or that you were impaired when you were driving.
There are different ways these can be charged, depending on the alcohol level. If you are under 21, there is a zero-tolerance policy. For the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) purposes, if your attorney is unable to win the hearing with the DMV, then you are facing a one-year license suspension with no driving ability.
Can I Get My DUI Dismissed In The Bay Area If My BAC Was At The Legal Limit Of 0.08?
If the district attorney in the Bay Area has charged you with a DUI and your breathalyzer results were exactly at the legal limit of 0.08, your attorney should investigate the case. This means looking at every piece of possible evidence, starting with the police report your attorney should receive when the case starts.
The goal is to check whether the officers had sufficient cause to pull you over and do a DUI investigation. As your attorney, we would focus on finding answers to questions like:
- Should the police officers have initiated the DUI investigation?
- What reasons did they have?
- Did they smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage?
- Did you tell them that you had something to drink?
- What was your driving like?
- Was there an accident?
- And others…
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Next, your attorney will be looking at the procedures. Hopefully, the procedures were caught on video through the officers’ dash camera, body camera, or both. Here, we will be asking questions such as:
- What procedures did the officers follow?
- What did they say about putting you through this DUI investigation?
- Were your rights violated?
- And more…
If we see that your rights were violated, we can try to get the case dismissed by showing that your constitutional rights were violated. We will also look at your arrest and the admonishments that were given to you. Sometimes an officer does not properly admonish someone, which can lead to a dismissal.
Another area that your attorney should be looking into is the testing process and results, whether it was breath testing or blood testing. For breath testing, we would request machine records on one or both of the machines, depending on how many were used to test your breath.
We would look at accuracy records, calibration records, and maintenance records. We want to see if the devices that were used had been taken out of circulation or if they had any issues before or after your test was given.
As your attorney, we would review the results of other tests and check whether the device was reading high or low. Since 0.08 is exactly at the legal limit, if the machine is reading high, this could make a difference. We will review the discovery, the science, and the printouts showing the testing that has been done on that device for calibration and accuracy.
If we have evidence saying that your BAC was at 0.08 but the machine is reading high, it could actually be a 0.07 or a 0.06. These are facts we can present to the district attorney, and if they do the right thing, they will dismiss your case.
These are examples of some of the ways we can try to get the DA to dismiss your case. The key is proper investigation, which takes following through and knowing what to look for. It also requires knowing the law, which is what we do in each and every one of the cases we handle.
For more information on DUI Charges In California, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (415) 523-7878 today.
Call Us 24/7 For a FREE Case Evaluation (415) 523-7878
