Many people are under the misconception that when the police arrest someone for Driving Under the Influence (DUI), there is no hope to ever successfully defend against that charge in court. “Why should I get a lawyer” is a common question that I have heard in my 20 years of practicing criminal law, both as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney. My most common reaction to this is “if you are sick and it is really affecting your life, do you go see a doctor?” Trust me: a DUI arrest will really affect your life.

Yes, there are ways to fight a DUI arrest in Pennsylvania. Sometimes there are issues to fight, and sometimes when there is nothing to fight, there are 50 cracks in the “routine” DUI in which a person can fall which make a “routine” DUI not so easy and routine. On both of these, the assistance of a good lawyer is a must.

The most common area to fight a DUI in Pennsylvania is to challenge the basis for the stop by the police. The law allows the police to stop a vehicle when they have a reasonable suspicion that a motor vehicle violation has occurred. That standard is not overly high. The fact is that most police officers know the low standard which is required, and use that as a basis for making an “investigatory stop” for the smallest violations. Therefore, a failure to use a turn signal when changing lanes at 3.am. on a Saturday evening becomes a legal justification to investigate, while that same act on a Wednesday morning would not warrant the slightest concern. Nonetheless, caselaw supports that there still must be “some” basis for the stop. Often times, the credibility of the police officer comes into question when challenging the basis for the stop, and a skilled attorney can be a valuable tool in pointing out to the Court what appears to be a legitimate stop is actually nothing more than a pretext to allow an otherwise illegal inquiry by the police.

Once a vehicle is stopped, the standard to place a person under arrest for DUI is higher than “reasonable suspicion”. The law requires “probable cause” for an officer to conduct an arrest for DUI. Challenging the presence of this heightened standard for the arrest is often an effective defense, even before litigating the merits of whether a person was driving under the influence of alcohol.

The above methods are ways to attack a DUI regardless of whether the driver was intoxicated. A high blood alcohol level should have no impact on these potential defenses. The law states that each of these are challengeable despite the intoxication level of a driver.

Ultimately, the Commonwealth of PA must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that either a driver’s blood alcohol level was over the legal limit, the driver had certain drugs in their system or was under the influence of other drugs, or was merely incapable of safe driving because of alcohol or drug intoxication. These are generally challengeable only at trial, while the other defenses are raised before trial. At this point, a blood or breath test becomes very important to any prosecution or defense of a DUI charge, but a damaging blood test is not always fatal to a defense.

Additionally, recent changes in Pennsylvania law have made what may appear to be a fatal decision to provide a blood sample not nearly as damning to a defense. The law has begun to question the voluntariness of providing such a sample, depending on the actions of the arresting officer. If consenting to a blood sample is ruled to be involuntary, the most often result is for the court to rule the results of that blood sample inadmissible, thereby leveling what appeared to be an uneven playing field.

Finally, there are often DUIs which are essentially indefensible. On those cases, minimizing the impact of the results of that DUI to the driver is often as important as successfully defending against the case in court. What appears to be a “routine” DUI can have long a lasting impact on a person’s ability to drive, their current and future employment and their lives in general. Navigating successfully through these type of cases often provides a more important service than actually fighting the case. Making the “routine” DUI actually be “routine” can be the challenge of a skilled attorney, but one which is incredibly rewarding for a client. These are the times when the best advice to a driver can be “Don’t be penny wise, pound foolish. Get yourself a good lawyer.”

Dan Bush is a criminal defense attorney at Lamb McErlane’s West Chester, PA location. Dan is a former prosecutor in the Chester County District Attorney’s office who has twenty years of experience prosecuting and defending individuals charged with a crime. He chairs Lamb McErlane’s criminal litigation department and is a partner in the firm.

Contact criminal defense attorney Dan Bush at dbush@lambmcerlane.com /
610-701-3266