If you have been arrested and charged with driving under the Influence (DUI), you know the stress involved. The legal penalties and damage to your reputation are harsh. If convicted, you will lose your driver’s license for a period of time and when you get it back, your insurance rates will be substantially higher. You may even spend time in jail. Penalties are increased for each subsequent conviction.
Unfortunately, when you obtained your Florida driver’s license, you impliedly agreed to take a breath or blood test to measure your blood alcohol content (BAC) if stopped for suspicion of DUI. If you refuse, your driver’s license will be suspended by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
Defenses to a positive Breathalyzer test
If your Breathalyzer test shows a BAC of 0.08 or higher, you will be arrested and charged with a DUI. A few ways your DUI defense attorney may challenge the validity of the test include, but are not limited to:
- The Breathalyzer device may not have been properly calibrated.
- The device may not have been property maintained.
- The officer who administered your test did not have the proper training.
- The criteria for administering the test may not have been followed. For example, you must not have chewed gum, burped, thrown up, used breath spray, sucked on a mint or other similar acts within 20 minutes of taking the test.
- Certain medical conditions, such as hypoglycemia, result in a false positive BAC.
- Some diets, such as a high protein, low carbohydrate diet, create false positive BACs.
- Breath sprays containing alcohol may create false positives.
- Other challenges may also be made that can invalidate the test results.
Contact us for more information. We thoroughly investigate the facts of each case and always work to achieve the best possible outcome for each individual based on their unique situation.