Evidence You Should Expect in Your DUI Case—and How It Can Help

It’s natural to feel helpless and hopeless after getting a DUI.  That’s the primary reason to enlist a defense attorney you trust: we can help and give you hope.

Hope can spring from a surprising source—the evidence in your case.  In the right professional hands, it can even turn a case that seems like a loser into a winner. We get the evidence by filing a discovery motion. Here’s the most important evidence to expect in most cases.

1. The videos. South Carolina law requires videos from both the scene of your arrest and the breath test room. With few exceptions, the law contains specific requirements for the content of those videos. I can’t tell you how vital these are to your defense. They are such a potential goldmine for suspects I wrote a separate article on how video evidence can help.

But, I’ll sum it up:  If the police fail to get legally-required items recorded, YOUR CASE CAN BE DISMISSED, even if you’re completely guilty. Even if the police video everything they’re supposed to, the videos can provide your key trial defense by showing you weren’t impaired and providing reasonable doubt that can be highlighted by your attorney at trial.

2. Officer report. These summarize the investigation and can reveal holes in the officer’s case. For example, say the report contains observations you were uncontrollably intoxicated, but those notes don’t match your appearance on the video. An experienced DUI defense attorney can skillfully use that to question the integrity of the investigation and whether the officer really gave you a chance before declaring you too impaired to drive. Done right, that can result in an acquittal at trial.

Reports also list witnesses—and they might actually help you. At worst, you know to expect them, so you can prepare for them at trial.

3. Breath, blood, or urine test results. The breath test ticket contains required information that can reveal an improperly given test or a breath test machine malfunction. Those problems can get your breath test result thrown out or even cause a dismissal or acquittal.

Blood and urine test results, if your case involves them, also require a report showing specific information. For example, the report can reveal whether blood or urine should’ve been taken in the first place. If not, the result can be thrown out.

Blood or urine tests also provide another potential line of defense that discovery reveals: whether officers can prove a chain of custody for it. If not, the evidence can be thrown out.

Get Help. Get Hope.

DUIs involve defenses folks don’t know about and serious consequences way beyond a fine. That’s why I wrote a book about it, to help folks like you.

If you’re wondering how you’ll ever have a hope of winning your DUI case or maybe getting a plea deal you can live with, call toll free  888-230-1841 for a free strategy session to start taking some control back in your case.