I FIGHT HARD TO WIN FOR YOU!

All of your life, you have been a safe driver. You haven’t been in an accident. In fact, you don’t even have a moving violation on your record. Sure, you have some parking tickets here and there — but in terms of being out on the road, you’re one of the safest drivers around.

One night, you go out to a friend’s party. You know you’re going to end up driving at the end of the night, so you do what you think is the responsible thing: you limit yourself to a drink or two, have a glass of water, and then call it a night. In your mind, there’s just no way you could be driving over the legal limit, given the precautions you have taken.

But sure enough, a police officer pulls you over and requests that you take a breath test. When the results come in, you can’t believe your eyes: 0.09 flashes across the breath test device. The police officer reads you your rights and places you under arrest for driving under the influence.

There are a couple of things to note here. The first is that this type of DUI arrest is far more indicative of DUI arrests in general than the splashy, headline-grabbing stories you usually hear that involve a 5- or 6-time DUI offender. Good, honest, hardworking people who have never broken the law get hit with DUIs all the time, and it can absolutely ruin their lives — even though they have been model citizens up to that point.

The other element here is the “predicting” game many of us may play in our minds when we consume alcoholic beverages. You can’t win this game. You will rarely be right, and that’s because no one really knows exactly what their blood alcohol level is until a breath test — a real, legitimate breath test, not a cellphone app test — is administered.

Given these two elements to DUI arrests, it is imperative that any person who is accused of this offense consults an experienced criminal defense attorney to help them through the case.