What Are My Rights If I Am Arrested For A DWI?
Part 3
Here are your rights under the law: You are not legally required to participate in the Field Sobriety Tests mentioned above. If you think that any or all of these tests can be used to provide incriminating evidence against you, you are within your rights, if you refuse to participate. Before any relevant investigation or tests are carried out you can ask that your attorney be present.
Driving While Intoxicated Blood And Breath Tests: Your Rights
Normally, your arrest marks the last stage of the DWI investigation. You will be requested to give a blood or breath sample during this stage. Proper procedure dictates that the officer hands over to you and reads out, as you follow along, a copy of form DIC-24 or Statutory Warning. On top of asking you to provide a sample voluntarily, the form also explains the consequences of refusing to hand over a breath or blood sample:
- • Longer license suspension period as compared to if you had agreed to the tests,
- • In future prosecution processes, your dissent could be referenced.
Here’s A Description Of Your Legal Rights:
To ensure that you comprehend the right to turn down breath and blood tests, and the possible consequences of this decision, you have the right to look at and have the form read out to you. Any tests conducted in the course of the investigation may be contested if the officer failed to give you the form to look at and read it with you.
A legal search warrant, executed by a judge may be used to compel you to give a blood sample if you decline to take the breath or bold test. You have to take the test once the warrant is issued. A reliable attorney specializing in the field of DWI cases should check whether, before getting a legally valid blood test, the officer followed due process.
The legal guidelines followed in the execution of a blood or breath test are waived once you voluntarily agree to take the tests. Bear in mind that the law gives you the right to avoid self-incrimination. You are simply reiterating the fact that you don’t want to assist the prosecution when you refuse to take part in the blood and breath tests voluntarily.
Law enforcers are bound to abide by all the rights of citizens under our law. The only purpose of breath and blood tests carried out by law enforcers is to collect proof against your claims. More importantly, the risk of getting erroneous test results is high given the fact that their testing methods are inaccurate in most cases.
For instance, the accuracy of blood tests may be affected by flawed blood draw and testing processes associated to mistakes made by operators and/or contamination, while samples taken during breath tests cannot be retested as they are not preserved after collection. Participating in tests that are likely to produce inaccurate results is definitely not a wise decision.
The Official DWI Arrest: Your Rights
Your Miranda rights must be read out to you by the arresting officer once you are officially arrested for DWI.
The officer will then proceed to ask you whether you are willing to continue discussing the charges leveled against you, bearing in mind the rights they just read out to you.
Your answer to this should be an emphatic no! After which you should ask to speak to a lawyer.
Give Jim a call today and let him give you a free consultation so that you can get the help that you need. You can contact Jim for your free consultation! Click here to go to the first article in this series.