Texas has strict penalties for a person who is convicted of a DUI. If a person is arrested and charged with their first DUI, they’re facing up to 180 days in jail, up to $2,000 in fines, and a license suspension of at least 90 days and up to 365 days. Texas doesn’t have a lookback period, so any previous conviction can be used when determining the penalties and the second or further convictions will result in more severe penalties.
Anyone who has been arrested and charged with a DUI will need to contact one of the local DUI defense attorneys as soon as possible. While there are cases where a conviction is going to be impossible to avoid, there are many others where the lawyer can show that the charges should be dismissed. Most of the time, this will be due to a lack of evidence. Even if there was sufficient evidence to arrest a person, the lawyer may be able to have the evidence suppressed so it cannot be used in court. This leads to a lack of sufficient evidence to convict a person because there may not be proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the person was driving under the influence.
Just about any evidence can be suppressed in the right circumstances. If a person is not pulled over for a legal reason, anything that occurs after they were pulled over might be able to be suppressed. If they were legally pulled over and their BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) test reads higher than the legal limit, the lawyer may have the equipment tested. If the equipment is faulty, wasn’t calibrated correctly, or there was another issue with it, the evidence that resulted from the faulty reading may be suppressed and not able to be used as evidence.
Although this won’t work in all cases, many times the local DUI defense attorneys will be able to help a person have the charges dismissed. If you’ve been arrested and charged with a DUI, you need to see if this is possible in your case so you can avoid a conviction and the severe legal penalties that will follow.
