DWI/DUI arrests often start out as a minor traffic violation in the evening or early morning hours—you forgot to put on your seat belt, or you failed to signal before you changed lanes. These small violations give the officer who stopped you the opportunity to stop you and talk to you. If the officer smells alcohol on your breath, you will probably be asked to step out of the car and perform what are called “Field Sobriety Tests.” You will probably be on camera when you do these tests. Each test involves many small components, but if you do only two of these things in each test wrong, the officer will say you failed that test. Theses tests must be administered correctly to be valid. Wade Russell is certified to administer Field Sobriety Tests, just as are the officers who perform these tests. He will review the recording of you doing the tests, and will able to tell you whether the tests were demonstrated properly to you before you started. He will also be able to tell you how well you did on the tests, aside from what the officer said in his report about how well you did. Most of the time, what the officer writes in his or her report does not match what is on the recording—you may have done much better than what is written in the report. If you come very close to performing the tests correctly, and if there are other signs that you don’t appear to be impaired, you have a good chance of having your case reduced, or in some case, dismissed. DWI cases have many issues for your attorney to look at—did you really do something wrong while driving for the officer to legally stop you? Did you really have alcohol on your breath? Did you really fail the tests? Were the tests administered properly? … read more