By Dale Gribow
With July 4th on a Monday this year many of you may have joined your neighbors and partied all weekend. If you or a friend were drinking beers before and after the PS and PD fireworks, you may have already been stopped and offered a breath or blood test. IF you chose a breath test and BLEW into a breathalyzer, and did not follow my suggestion of a Blood test, you may have BLOWN it.
A breath test could arguably present a more challenging DUI case because your blood level was not going down with time. Many attorneys believe that choosing a blood test affords a driver an edge because of the time it might take to get a blood draw.
I have written about DUI’s and the need for education in many of my weekly legal columns. Readers of this legal column know it is not the number of drinks consumed but rather the amount of alcohol in the drinks. When stopped after consuming more than two alcoholic drinks, you should be courteous and explain to the officer what is set forth on my card or the info below that you should cut out.
Courteously explain “that upon the advice of my attorney, Dale Gribow, I exercise my right to remain silent until you call him at (760) 837-7500 and he ok’s my talking to you (Of course they will not call me). My attorney has advised me that the VOLUNTARY FIELD SOBRIETY TESTS AND BREATH TESTS at the scene are OPTIONAL (unless I am on probation). Thus I elect not to take them. I want to cooperate and am happy to take a BLOOD TEST.”
I look upon my job as protecting the Constitutional rights of every American who drinks and drives and thereafter gets arrested for Drunk Driving. I change “hats” when as a lawyer I SUE Drunk Drivers for injuries caused to my clients after a drunk driving accident.
If you drink and drive you are not making an intelligent decision. If you then don’t know what you should do when stopped for a possible DUI, you screwed up again. By hiring a non-local attorney you have hit the Trifecta and done everything wrong. Non local attorneys do not know the local DMV Hearing Officers, the DA’s and the Judges.
The issues presented by a DUI are confusing to the uninitiated. An arrest kicks in two separate proceedings- The Court and DMV. One does not affect the other. DMV suspends your license for 4 months. However, after a 30 day suspension, you can get a Restricted License by having you insurance company file an SR22, paying a reissuance fee and showing proof of enrollment in a DUI class. If you do not do this then your license is suspended for 4 – 5 months.
In order to save the suspension of your Driver’s License you must request a DMV hearing within 10 days. I suggest to my clients that they go to DMV and request a DMV Identification Card since their CDL was taken during the STOP and SNATCH arrest. While at DMV get a record printout for $6 that you show the Riverside County Drinking Driving Program if/when you are ordered to attend a DUI class.
The 10 days starts from the date of the stop and includes weekends. The issuance date is on the Pink Order of Suspension/Temporary Driver’s License Endorsement which is the Administrative Per Se form. The DMV hearing is an administrative per se hearing where you are technically presumed guilty unless you can prove the contrary.
If you have a few drinks and are stopped, remember that Cops and DA’s are not your friends. No matter what they tell you, they are just trying to make a case and doing their job. If you are stopped and arrested do yourself a favor and do not talk to anyone and call a lawyer.
Since my legal radio show, I have preached that People Don’t Plan to Fail, They Fail to Plan. Hopefully this article will allow you to intelligently plan for the worst and NOT BLOW IT!
If you have any questions regarding this column or ideas for future columns please contact Dale Gribow
760-837-7500 or dale@dalegribowlaw.com.
DALE GRIBOW
TOP LAWYER – Palm Springs Life-(DUI)-2011-17
PERFECT 10.0 AVVO Peer Rating
“PREEMINENT” Rating – Martindale Hubbell Legal Directory
“BEST Attorneys of America” Selected by “Rue” (Limited to Top 100 Attorneys per state)
Legal Eagle “Best and Brightest Legal Minds” by Palm Springs Life- June 2016
DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE, CALL A TAXI OR UBER…….IT IS A LOT CHEAPER THAN CALLING ME ……SO DRIVE SOBER OR GET PULLED OVER THIS SUMMER
