Honolulu DUI Lawyer Talks About Driving While Intoxicated

After a DUI arrest, you'll want to retain a seasoned DUI attorney to be able to best have your legal rights protected. It's vital they are very educated of intoxication levels and how they're related to the legal guidelines of DUI.

1. Precisely what does DUI stand for?

What's Driving Under the Influence? It is a criminal offense. Due to the undeniable fact that it's illegal to operate a vehicle on public roads whilst under the influence of alcohol or other intoxicating substances, DUI is a criminal offense. Through these statutes, the word "intoxicated" is used rather than "drunk".

2. What's the meaning of the term, "intoxicated"?

You could be "intoxicated" without being drunk, but you can't be drunk but not be intoxicated.

The DUI statute determines "Intoxicated" in two ways. 1st, a driver is "intoxicated" when, by using alcohol, medications, controlled substances or any mixture of these, she or he no longer has the utilization of "normal" "physical" or "mental" faculties. "Intoxication" is defined as a state when one's alcohol concentration is .08 or higher.

3. Exactly what are "normal" bodily and psychological faculties? How is "normal" defined?

The "normal psychological and bodily faculties" in the statute is referring to are the ones of the specific individual who has been arrested. They're not generalized to some fictitious average person, similar to those of the arresting policeman, or the jurors in a DUI trial. Actually, "normal" is a subjective term and refers to a number of different measurements of response in the individual who is under arrest. To give an analogy: "normal" would not be some position on a 12" ruler. However, it's explained much better as the distance in between two particular points on the ruled for instance, somewhere between 2" and 8".

4. How much is .08 alcohol concentration?

The actual definition of alcohol concentration by statute is: a. the quantity of grams of alcohol in every 100 ml of blood; b. the quantity of grams of alcohol for every 210 liters of breath, or c. the quantity of grams of alcohol for each 67 ml of urine.

Even if you have been drinking, it is extremely difficult to tell if your blood alcohol concentration is .08 or higher. Apart from that, the alcohol concentrations described here are not all the same in every circumstance. In some instances, these concentrations might indicate a person is guilty, whilst in others, they might be a sign of innocence. By definition, a person might be found guilty of intoxication due to having a concentration of .08 blood alcohol and concurrently be found innocent of intoxication due to the lack or impairment of physical and psychological capability.

The law states that it is actually a crime of DUI when a person operates a vehicle at a time in which the alcohol concentration in his or her system is .08 or greater. You are not breaking the law if your BAC is .08 prior to or after driving. The time in which the assessment was taken is very important. It decides whether or not the alcohol concentration recorded is actually applicable to the time in which the suspect was indeed driving a vehicle.

The timing of the assessment in question might offer a test of ability for the prosecution as well as the defense team that represent the person charged with DUI. Rarely is an alcohol concentration test carried out properly at the time of or just after the moment of arrest. Your alcohol concentration test may be finished quite a bit of time following driving: generally between 45 minutes and seventy five minutes. When this happens, the delay in testing can raise questions. It will be difficult to tell if the individual being tested actually had a blood alcohol level that was above the legal alcohol concentration level at the time that he/she was really driving an automible.

It may be difficult to determine if somebody is intoxicated even when driving. There are a number of factors that might impact the final verdict and shape your DUI defense. Hiring an expert Honolulu DUI lawyer can greatly improve your chances of success when defending your DUI case.