How Field Sobriety Tests Come Into Play during an Attorney’s Evaluation of Your Case – By a Orange County DUI Defense Specialist

When making an assessment of your DUI case, your Orange County DUI defense specialist will undoubtedly take an in-depth look and evaluate the results of any field sobriety tests that you may have undergone while at the scene or in custody. He or she will do so because field sobriety tests that are improperly performed or conducted have minimal to no value in proving one’s intoxication.

For instance, with respect to coordination tests, it is important that the conditions under which the tests were given be closely scrutinized. Your attorney will want to know whether or not the police officer gave you a field sobriety test that required you to walk and balance (like in the cases of walk-and-turn or one-leg stand tests) in a well-lit room at the police precinct, or if it was it given by the side of sloped, gravely road at night.  Furthermore, your own physical coordination will need to be studied because it is often quite hard for a sober person to do a lot of those coordination-based field tests satisfactorily.

Additionally, your Orange County DUI defense specialist will need to carefully consider whether it will be possible to have you show your ability to do the field sobriety tests that were previously given to you in the courtroom.  Doing so may show that it is, in fact, very difficult to perform those field sobriety tests while under pressure at your trial, and that will work to contradict the state’s conjecture that any difficulty you had with doing the test was because of your intoxication.

If a horizontal gaze nystagmus test was given, then you will need to be evaluated for naturally-occurring nystagmus. Your attorney can check this during your initial interview. With proper administration of this test at your attorney’s office, the results obtained will provide a baseline for figuring out whether the arresting officer administered your test accurately. So often, this type of test is improperly administered, and as long as that improper administration can be confirmed via a review of the video or an evidentiary hearing, your attorney may be able to have the test excluded by submitting a motion prior to the start of the trial. If you need an Orange County DUI defense specialist, please do not hesitate to call Mike Coffey for a free consultation.