Driving home late last Saturday night, I was stopped for DWI by a police officer here in Anchorage, Alaska. He asked me to step out of the car and was requested to take a breathalyzer test and some field sobriety tests. I was then taken to the police station and charged with DWI. My breathalyzer result was just a little over the legal limit of .08. Is there a way for me to escape conviction?

Courtney

Anchorage, Alaska

We all know the seriousness of a DWI case and how it affects not only your insurance but you as an individual. It’s not surprising that many people feel helpless when facing a DWI charge because a majority of DWI-related arrests do lead to a subsequent conviction in court.

However, with so many laws requiring DWI suspects to submit to test after test, and wide use of breathalyzer devices despite fierce ongoing controversy over its reliability, impossible as it may seem, you’re not that helpless after all.

Every state, with the exception of Massachusetts, considers a DWI offense as a crime. DWI is usually defined as having a blood/alcohol level that is either above or at a predetermined level, normally 0.10. Some states set the legal limit lower; most of these are at 0.08 percent.

If a solid justification to pull you over is not presented by the police officer to the courts, your DWI case in Anchorage, Alaska will most likely be dismissed. If the initial arrest was made without probable cause, prosecutors cannot obtain a conviction. The standard probable cause means that, in order to pull you over, a police officer must have a reasonable belief that you have or are committing a crime (driving while intoxicated). This is a violation of your Constitutional rights and it immediately voids any evidence against you resulting from the arrest. So, it is important that you note the following details during the arrest:
- The place where you’re going
- The level of your own level of intoxication (if any)
- The reason given to you by the police officer why you’re stopped

-The things you’re asked to do by the police officer

• You just won’t get it. Sure, there are websites where you can look up the DUI laws for your state, but without a Kodiak Alaska DUI lawyer you won’t have anyone to explain them to you, nor to know how they apply to your individual case.
• A lawyer can micromanage your case so that you don’t get mixed up and lose over some bureaucratic misstep.
• And the most important thing of all–a DUI lawyer is able to represent you and defend your case, which is pretty much the whole point of all of this.

For some reason, there is a myth that a free public DUI attorney is going to defend you much worse than a private lawyer that you pay for with your on money. While ability varies and there may be some awful public lawyers, most of the time that doesn’t hold true. Public lawyers have a hire rate of working on the same type of case, and so they often have more experience than a private lawyer. As well as that, they know the system more intimately because they see what goes on within the court system.

Actually, not all public lawyers that could be chosen to represent you are entirely public lawyers. Many are primarily private lawyers, or at least have a small practice on the side. So the line is very blurry between the two.