Articles Posted in DWI Law and Legislation

While most people never imagine that they will be arrested and charged with driving under the influence, the fact remains that hundreds of drivers every week in New Jersey find themselves facing a charge of drunk driving, impaired operation of a motor vehicle due to prescription medications or illicit substances, or simply refusal to submit to a breathalyzer test. These days, with the rather stiff fines and other monetary penalties (not to mention possible jail time) that may come from a DWI-DUI conviction, it still amazes some people that so many DWI arrests actually take place on a daily basis.

For a great number of individuals who receive a drunken driving summons, the financial consequences are quickly learned, but there are also other penalties associated with a DWI conviction that do not always come quickly to mind. These include license suspension and the requirement of having an ignition interlock device (IID) installed on one’s vehicle for a period of time following the end of the aforementioned suspension. The inconvenience and stigma attached to these other post-conviction penalties have their own effect on those who have already fell the sting of fines and auto insurance premium assessments.

For anyone unfamiliar with IIDs, these devices are designed to prevent a vehicle from being started if the driver’s blood-alcohol content (BAC) exceeds 0.05 percent. Currently, in the case of first-time offenders, it is up to the court’s discretion to order the use of an IID for six to 12 months following restoration of a driver’s license. However, for those individuals convicted of DWI based on a BAC of 0.15 or greater, the law calls for mandatory installation of an IID during the license suspension period plus aforementioned six to 12 months following restoration of one’s license.
Continue reading

Here in the Garden State, penalties for driving while intoxicated are nothing to sneeze at, even for first-time offenders. For those individuals who have never before run afoul of the law, the realization that a conviction for DWI can eventually run into the thousands of dollars (when considering the fines, court fees, assessments and hiked-up auto insurance premiums required by law). Depending on the facts of the case, most especially the level of alcohol in one’s bloodstream, fines themselves can range from $250 to $500, with jail time also a possibility.

As New Jersey drunken driving defense attorneys, my colleagues and I have a great deal of experience in representing those motorists who have been accused of intoxicated driving or drug DUI, the latter of which can range from impairment due to taking doctor-prescribed medications to ingesting an illegal controlled dangerous substance (CDS), such as cocaine, meth, marijuana or some other narcotic drug.

License suspension is also a common consequence of a DWI or drug DUI conviction. For professional drivers this can mean the loss of a job or a serious change in one’s employment circumstances. But what many people don’t realize, at least when they first get arrested and charged with driving under the influence, is that there are currently no alternatives to having one’s operator’s license revoked or suspended. If the thought doesn’t enter the mind of a convicted DWI offender, the first time he or she needs to get somewhere will be a stark reminder of the severe consequences provided by the state.
Continue reading

We’ve discussed in prior postings the factors that lead to, and possibly precipitate, a drunken driving traffic stop. In actuality, the phrase DWI police stop is somewhat of a misnomer since a patrolman cannot, by law, base a traffic stop solely on a hunch or assumption that a motorist is intoxicated by alcohol or impaired by prescription drugs or some other controlled dangerous substance (CDS). On the contrary, an officer must have a valid and articulable reason — such as a moving violation or vehicle-related infraction — in order to legitimately pull a driver over. That aside, however, a traffic stop that develops into a DWI arrest involves a number of steps before drunk driving charges are pressed against a driver.

As experienced New Jersey trial attorneys with in-depth knowledge of drunk driving and drug DUI case law, our training and courtroom skill allow us to represent many individuals who have been accused of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence. As DWI lawyers, we often explain to potential clients that it is important to understand the basic factors that make up a good prosecutorial case for DWI or drug DUI; because, when it comes to arresting and charging a driver for intoxicated driving, the evidence collected at the time of the offense can make or break the state’s case.

Whether or not a DWI-DUI arrest is viewed by a judge as having been carried out properly depends on the totality of facts presented by the state when pursuing a conviction following a drunk driving stop and arrest. First and foremost, there needs to be actual evidence of inebriation or impairment, regardless of the type of charge, be it a DWI based on alcohol consumption, or a drug DUI due use of prescription medications, smoking of marijuana, or use of some other illegal substance. The degree of intoxication must also have been sufficient for the court to conclude that the driver was impaired to the point of being unable to safely operate his or her vehicle.
Continue reading

It has been fairly well established that a patrolman’s actions when stopping a motorist on the highway are within the definitions laid out in the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which pertain to the meaning of “seizure.” Keeping this in mind, it is interesting that for quite some time there was more than a modicum of doubt as to what constituted a valid police stop, much less one that leads to the arrest and incarceration of an individual.

Any doubts regarding what was proper or legal seizure by the police during motor vehicle stops were essentially quelled following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Delaware v. Prouse. In a nutshell, the majority held that police officers must, at the very least, have an articulable and reasonable suspicion that a motorist has violated some portion of a state’s traffic law or motor vehicle statutes. In addition to the frequently used “inability to maintain the lane” or “driving with a non-functioning brake light,” other justifications may include a suspicion that the motorist is not properly licensed or that the vehicle’s registration is expired.

Whatever the original reason for effecting a police stop, the state trooper or municipal cop must continue to meet the standards set by New Jersey legal statutes and other case law when conducting the stop. Time is an important consideration; this is because the law requires a patrolman to conduct the business of a routine traffic stop — whether or not it eventually leads to an eventual DWI arrest or drug DUI summons — in a reasonable amount of time. Though certainly not hard and fast, the time taken should not usually exceed that needed to obtain the motorist’s operator’s license and vehicle insurance credentials and to check those against the police department’s database of prior traffic offenses or other violations of the law.
Continue reading