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DUII Lawyers – 5 Tips on How to Avoid a False DUI Breathalyzer Result – free article courtesy of ArticleCity.com
5 Tips on How to Avoid a False DUI Breathalyzer Result
by: Lawrence Taylor
Let's say you had a drink or two but don't feel you are under the influence of alcohol. However, you are arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and offered the choice of taking a breath or blood test (or, in some states, urine). Most DUI suspects choose the breath test -- a choice which could doom your chances to prove your innocence. Consider the following advice when deciding which test to take:
1. If you smoke cigarettes, you may want to pass on that Breathalyzer mouthpiece the officer is handing you. Scientific research has shown that smoking can raise the test result considerably -- enough to get you charged and convicted of drunk driving. This is because most breath analyzing devices will falsely report acetaldehyde as alcohol. Acetaldehyde is a compound produced in the liver in small amounts as a by-product in the metabolism of alcohol. However, scientists have found acetaldehyde concentrations in the lungs of smokers are far greater than for non-smokers. ("Origin of Breath Acetaldehyde During Ethanol Oxidation: Effect of Long-Term Cigarette Smoking", 100 Journal of Laboratory Clinical Medicine 908). Translated: because breathalyzers can’t tell the difference between alcohol and acetaldehyde, cigarette smokers will have a higher blood-alcohol reading.
2. If you are a diabetic with possible low blood sugar, you should also avoid the breath test. A well-documented by-product of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is a state called ketoacidosis, which causes the production of acetone -- and acetone, like acetaldehyde, will be reported by the Brethalyzer as alcohol. In other words, the Breathalyzer will read significant levels of alcohol on a diabetic’s breath where there may be little or none. See "Diabetes, Breath Acetone and Breathalyzer Accuracy: A Case Study", 9(1) Alcohol, Drugs and Driving (1993). To make matters worse, the reactions of a person in the early stages of a diabetic attack include dizziness, blurred vision, slurred speech, weakness, loss of coordination and confusion -- the same symptoms which the patrol officer is looking for: the clear signs of a person under the influence of alcohol. And the officer's observations are quickly followed by a failing performance on DUI field sobriety tests.
3. Are you on a low-carb diet? Or had nothing to eat in quite awhile? Avoid the Breathalyzer in a DUI investigation -- for the same reasons stated in number 2. Perfectly normal, healthy individuals can experience temporary conditions of low blood sugar after consuming small amounts of alcohol, resulting in exaggerated but false symptoms of intoxication. Fasting glycemia can exist where a person has not eaten in 24 hours or has been on a low-carbohydrate diet. Production of glucose in the liver is stopped while the alcohol is broken down. Result: the blood sugar level will drop, affecting the central nervous system -- and producing symptoms of a person under the influence of alcohol and a higher breath test result.
4. If you have acid reflux or have burped or belched before taking the Breathalyzer, offer to provide a blood sample instead. The reason is that you will be breathing alcohol from your stomach into your throat and oral cavity, where it will stay for 20 minutes or so -- to be breathed directly into the breath machine. This is not a good thing. The machine's computer is multiplying the amount of alcohol in the breath sample by 2100 times to provide a reading of the alcohol in the blood. This is because it assumes the sample came from the lungs, not the stomach, and the average person has 2100 units of alcohol in his blood for every unit of alcohol in his breath (called the partition ratio). The Breathalyzer does not "know" that your breath sample is not from your lungs and that it should not multiply the alcohol level by anything. Result: false high readings -- and a DUI conviction.
5. When you see that officer in the rear-view mirror, don't reach for the mouthwash or breath spray to disguise the drink or two you've had. Most of them contain significant levels of alcohol (Listerine, for example is 27% alcohol) and create a mouth alcohol effect: they remain in the oral cavity for 20 minutes or so -- just long enough to be breathed into the Breathalyzer, with the same results mentioned in number 4. Some breath machines have a mouth alcohol detector, but these are highly unreliable.
About The Author
Lawrence Taylor is the senior member of an AV-rated law firm of Las Vegas DUI lawyers practicing drunk driving defense exclusively. See http://www.duilasvegas.com/ for more information.
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California Dui Attorneys – The Difference Between Great And Mediocre Dui Attorneys
How your case may go with a mediocre or bad attorney
In your typical case your California DUI attorney will receive the police reports and schedule a time for you to come in to discuss the case. He will sit down with you for about an hour and go through the case with you. He will ask any questions he feels are necessary, take notes, and then send you on your way reminding you of the next court appearance.
After your first court appearance, your attorney will go to the prosecutor’s office where he will have a few minutes to discuss your case along with three or more other cases. Your case may only get a couple minutes of discussion. Your attorney will get an offer from the prosecutor and move on. Your case will blend in with all the other cases. You will be just another name on a complaint in the eyes of the prosecutor.
The defense attorney will then tell you what the offer is and let you know what he thinks your chances are of winning the case. You end up accepting the offer, and you enter a plea in the case. The judge sentences you, and you believe that your attorney did a fine job in defending you. He listened to you, read the reports, met with the prosecuting attorney, counseled you, and showed up at every court hearing. Heck, he even made a nice little thirty second argument on your behalf just before the judge went along with the plea agreement and sentenced you. Not a bad job you say. In your mind there is nothing different he could have done. And besides, that is how most cases are handled. But that’s the mistake.
How your case may go with a great attorney
You somehow find enough money to hire a great DUI Attorney or by some miracle you are appointed an attorney who only takes a very small handful of public defender appointments every year. You are invited to his office to discuss your case. His office is immaculate. His secretary greets you, and the attorney comes out and escorts you into his office. He goes over some preliminary rules with you and then has you explain what happened. He then goes through the events with you again and begins to ask questions. He continues to ask questions until he gets all the answers you
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can give. You may even schedule several meetings with him to discuss your case.
The attorney is on the phone after your meeting talking with any witnesses that may require immediate questioning. Or he quickly gets a private investigator to speak with any relevant witnesses. He will schedule time to go out to the place where you were actually stopped by the police, to see what the conditions were at the time you performed the field sobriety tests.
Before you ever get to court your attorney may request an administrative review to see if you should lose your drivers license. He questions witnesses at this hearing and gets more valuable evidence before he ever meets with prosecutors
Just before the first court appearance he waits out in the hallway by the prosecutor’s office. When the prosecutor comes out the defense attorney begins to tell the prosecutor your good points and also tells the prosecutor why he has a weak case. He may even mention some of the evidence he has gotten in the interviews with witnesses that helps your case. The prosecutor does not want to hear how bad the case is before he even gets to the first court appearance. He listens to your defense attorney but is too busy to get into any lengthy discussion.
He appears with you at your first hearing and then prepares for the pretrial conference. He goes to the pretrial conference and once again takes time to get into the details of your case. He also mentions what motions he can file that will hurt the prosecutor’s case. This is at least the second time the prosecutor has heard these arguments.
Somehow your attorney has helped the prosecutor to see you as an actual person and not just another statistic. The prosecutor knows your attorney. He knows that your attorney is very talented when it comes to winning motions and winning at trial. The prosecutor might actually give you a better offer than you would have received with most other attorneys. If your attorney thinks that he can win some pretrial motions, then he may advise you to reject that very good offer.
You have the pretrial motion hearings before the judge, and some key evidence is kicked out of the case. The prosecutor now has a very difficult time proving his case. Now you get an incredible offer or even a dismissal. If you get no dismissal then you may want to press it and go to a jury trial.
You go to jury trial and watch as your attorney shreds the testimony of the police officers and other witnesses. The prosecutor is wondering how he ever thought this case was a slam dunk when he first charged it. It takes the jury an hour to eat lunch and another fifteen minutes to find you not guilty.
This very typical of how many cases unfold for defendants with great California DUI Attorneys. Yes, sometimes they lose. But even when the evidence is overwhelmingly against you, the great DUI Lawyer will still have a much better chance of getting a better deal or winning on a technical point of law.
By: Pierce Langdon
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You can click this site California DUI Attorneys that can give you the best chance to win your case. AUTHOR: Pierce Langdon of DUIAttorneyAces.com
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