Just by driving or controlling your vehicle on any public road in any state, you have given that state your implied consent (in some states, referred to as expressed consent or informed consent) to have law enforcement officers who develop a reasonable suspicion of impairment to seek to test your blood for drugs or alcohol. However, as it is with most laws, the State is held to specific standards as well, if they are going to exercise this option of requesting that you be tested. This blog post describes these “implied consent” laws, and how you can use them to your advantage if you and your attorney have been arrested for DUI-DWI.
These laws, and the standards to which the State and law enforcement officers are held, can be very specific and technical. A time difference of plus or minus ten minutes one way or another, or in what order things were done in your DUI-DWI arrest, might be critically important for your defense. If the police did not follow the established implied consent procedures in your state, your attorney may be able to get the charges against you dismissed even before a trial. This is why your attorney will need to know as precisely as possible what happened between you and any law enforcement officer, what was said by anyone at the arrest location, at what point in time it was said, and when anything was done (such as placing you in handcuffs or calling a tow truck). If your attorney’s questions seem overly critical or nit-picky, his or her efforts to build your defense are the reason.
