New Jersey DWI Lawyer BlogBeing arrested for drunk driving in New Jersey is a frightening experience with serious and expensive consequences. The state of New Jersey has banned plea bargaining for driving while intoxicated so, unless there is an genuine issue or flaw in the state’s case, the court cannot dismiss or even downgrade this charge. The secret to success in avoiding a conviction or in achieving a downgrade is, therefore, identifying issues that undermine the state’s ability to prove the offense. This is where unique training and experience in the disciplines surrounding a DWI case prove invaluable (e.g. highly level certifications in DWI, four (4) former dwi prosecutors, and our own Alcotest machine). And the lawyers at our firm, the Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall, possess credentials that are second to none in this regard thereby translating into some extremely impressive results in defending drunk driving.
How does our legal team get results?
The state uses breathalyzer readings or blood tests to establish a blood alcohol concentration(BAC) above the legal limit of .08%. There are standards that must be met by police with respect to each of these forms of evidence and our driving while intoxicated defense attorneys have unique qualifications to best identify where evidence deviates from the related standard and/or where there is a potential weakness in this proof. In this regard, we employ five (5) attorneys who are certified in operation and maintenance of the Draeger Alcotest 7110, the breathalyzer used by police in New Jersey. There are only approximately fifty (50) lawyers with this knowledge and certification in the entire state. Certification on the Alcotest machine gives our attorneys an in depth knowledge of the procedures required before and during the administration of the test. We believe that this is a major reason why we are able to eliminate the state’s ability to prove intoxication through Alcotest readings in first, second, third and even subsequent offenses.
And where the state is unable to present scientific evidence of intoxication in a case, something we are able to accomplish in an impressive number of cases, they need to resort to Standardized Field Sobriety Tests (SFST) to prove a DWI. When this happens, our defense team is highly skilled in attacking these proofs; we have four (4) lawyers who are certified in Standardized Field Sobriety Tests and two (2) of whom are among the five (5) certified in the state as instructors of Standardized Field Sobriety Tests. The SFST certifications ensure that police properly administered and scored psychophysical tests. Without a breath test reading, the state relies on these “psychophysicals” to prove intoxication. Even when these tests have been properly administered, our team of attorneys have been successful at providing medical explanations for failure of the tests. Arthritis, recent surgery, vision problems, and many other medical issues have been successfully used as explanations for failure of Standardized Field Sobriety Tests.
When the prosecutor is presented with flaws in the state’s case in both breath (or blood) results and psychophysical tests used to determine intoxication, they are more open to dismissing a DWI or downgrading the charge to reckless driving.
We are serious about defending DWI charges and are ready to put the state to the test.
The Law Offices of Jonathan Marshall have conveniently accessible locations throughout New Jersey including Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Bergen, Union, Middlesex and Ocean counties. Our attorneys have over 100 years of legal experience in the local courts throughout New Jersey.