Articles Posted in DUI

Florida voters are on the verge of determining whether marijuana should be legal in this state for medicinal purposes, as so far 21 other states and D.C. have done.

It’s important to note that such a measure wouldn’t make driving while intoxicated legally acceptable under any circumstances. This is why our Fort Lauderdale DUI defense attorneys are unclear about why state legislators felt it necessary to introduce Florida Senate Bill 1118.

If passed, this measure would result in substantial changes to the state’s current DUI statutes, under FL Statute 316.193. The rewrites are extensive (and can be read here), but the crux of the issue is this: Police and prosecutors would no longer need to prove that a driver who consumed any federally-controlled substance was actually impaired by that substance. Rather, the measure would establish an arbitrary “metabolite DUI” provision. In these cases, prosecutors would only need to show that the drug was present in the driver’s system prior to getting behind the wheel.
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Colorado, one of just two states in the country to approve the use and sale of marijuana for recreational purposes, also has one of the strictest drugged driving laws in the nation, holding that the presence of 0.5 nanograms of pot in one’s system necessitates a DUI.

The state’s department of transportation has recently unrolled a series of advertisements aimed at discouraging driving while stoned. The primary message: “Get high, Get a DUI.”

Our Fort Lauderdale DUI defense lawyers recognize this approach as a bit misguided. Here in Florida, the drug remains illegal for any purpose, but voters will be given the opportunity in November to decide whether to green light medicinal marijuana, following in the path of 21 other states and the District of Columbia.
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Since pop singer Justin Bieber was arrested in South Florida for DUI recently, it has become apparent that there were some things that the singer did that may not work in his favor with regard to his criminal case. However, there are some things that his DUI defense lawyers will no doubt work to his advantage.
The case is relevant not so much because of Bieber is a relatable celebrity (many would argue the opposite) but because the situation resembles so many others involving young people arrested for DUI.

To start out with, we have these basic facts, as gleaned from the news media’s reporting:
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Outrage was spurred after a 16-year-old drunk driver received 10 years of probation following a fatal wreck in which four people were killed and two seriously injured.

A psychologist at the trial testified that the teen, who lived on his own in a home purchased by his father, suffered from “affluenza,” and was the entitled product of wealthy parents who reportedly never allowed him to suffer any consequences for his actions.

The teen driver was reportedly traveling 70-miles-per-hour in a 40-mile-per-hour zone when he collided with the broken down vehicle of a teen girl, whom two families had stopped to help. Two of the teen’s passengers reportedly suffered severe and permanent brain injuries. The defendant’s blood-alcohol content reportedly measured at 0.24 three hours after the crash, and prescription drugs were found in his system.

The teen could have faced up to 20 years behind bars for his DUI manslaughter arrest.
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The Fourth Amendment well establishes that before a police officer can initiate a traffic stop, he or she must have reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed or is about to be committed.

But in the case of Navarette v. California, the question is what obligation does a patrol officer have to corroborate anonymously provided information relating to reckless drivers. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take on this issue, with oral arguments slated to for late next month.

The resulting decision is likely to have a great impact on whether Broward DUI defense lawyers will have additional grounds on which to challenge the evidence against our clients.
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These days, people have become accustomed posting almost every element of their lives on social media. There are vacation photos, music choices and even snapshots of daily meals.

But this atmosphere of over-sharing has in some cases led to the casual and sometimes bold admittance of involvement in criminal activity.

A recent South Florida drunk driving arrest may well illustrate this, if the reports prove true.
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The Florida DUI arrest of a former corporate bigwig from New York may well have made headlines regardless of the words that came out of his mouth. However, those headlines undoubtedly appeared more prominently as a result of his perceived audacity.

Like far too many people, this individual made the mistake of assuming he could talk his way out of a DUI. In the process, he probably made the situation worse.

What we try to stress to our clients is that almost nothing you say to a police officer is going to make him or her have pity on you and let you go if in fact you’ve been drinking and driving (which you should never admit). It’s even less likely that an officer will be intimidated by threats of who you are or who you know. In fact, that almost always serves to make the officer more determined to arrest you.
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The issue of the accuracy of breathalyzers in Florida is once again being raised with the recent arrest of a woman whose blood-alcohol level might suggest that she should have been in a coma.

Our Fort Lauderdale DUI defense lawyers know that this is just the latest in a long line of cases raising serious doubt about whether breathalyzers are in fact an effective measure for determining one’s true level of intoxication.

According to media reports, the defendant, from North Florida, was stopped after reportedly running off the road on a Wednesday evening. At the time, she admitted to deputies that she had been drinking. But said she “felt fine” and consented to undergoing several field sobriety tests.
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With the start of the school year comes a heightened risk of Florida DUI arrests, not just for newly-minted teen drivers, but parents as well.

While the summer months can be spent lazily at the beach or grilling out at home by the pool, the school year is packed with child-oriented activities. That includes not just ferrying younger children to-and-from school, but also to all sorts of sporting an extracurricular activities.

These demands will have parents out and about more. Even moderate consumption of alcohol or the controlled consumption of prescription medications or over-the-counter drugs could expose parents to the potential for a DUI.
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You may have heard that starting on July 1, a new law went into effect in Florida that aims to ban the sale of certain drug paraphernalia, such as bongs, pipes and rolling papers routinely used to smoke marijuana and other controlled substances.

However, our Palm Beach criminal defense lawyers recognize that the measure is likely to be largely lackluster in terms of immediate impact. Still, it’s a mistake for store owners and marijuana users to brush this off by thinking it will have no impact whatsoever. Charges are still possible – in fact, probable, if you aren’t careful.

The new law, introduced as House Bill 49, makes it a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail, for any retailer to willfully or knowingly sell drug paraphernalia. Second and subsequent violations are boosted to a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, a $5,000 fine, loss of a driver’s license, their business and the right to vote.

The way the law was originally penned, it was supposed to ban smoking devices made of ceramic, metal, acrylic, glass, plastic, wood or stone, with or without screens. It would have included all water pipes, bongs, ice pipes, electric pipes etc. Technically, the law only allows pipes made of corn cob, clay, meerschaum or briar.

But the law, as it is detailed in Florida Statute 893.147, is incredibly vague. The first version of the law did not have the “knowingly or willfully” provision. Adding this clause makes a huge difference in terms of enforcement. Unless law enforcement can prove that a shop intentionally sold a pipe to someone for the explicit purposes of drug use, they don’t have a case.

So what this means is that the items listed are only illegal if they are sold, used or intended/designed for use in a specific manner consistent with consumption of controlled substances.

For the most part, shops that sell these devices were already very careful about refusing sale or service to individuals who made references to illegal drug use. In some cases, stores have written policies posted on the doors saying that if a customer states or even infers that the product is going to be used to consume illegal drugs, he or she will be turned away.

Mostly, what the law does is give store owners a very strong incentive to follow this rule.

As far as those purchasing the materials, it’s not illegal unless you are using it for the purposes of consuming illegal drugs. So the pipe, bong, rolling papers, etc. are not considered drug paraphernalia unless they are either found with drugs or drug residue.

While marijuana is legal for medicinal purposes in 18 states plus the District of Columbia, Florida is not among those. Florida Statute 893.147 holds that it is illegal to use, possess, manufacture, deliver, transport or advertise drug paraphernalia. This is a first-degree misdemeanor.
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