A DUI conviction is very expensive. You will begin incurring costs as soon as you are arrested on a driving under the influence charge. If you were driving alone, your car will likely be towed. You’ll have to pay towing and daily storage costs for your automobile. If you spend the night in jail, you may miss one or more days of work and if your employer is not sympathetic, you may lose your job. These are just the costs of being arrested. Those who are convicted face fines, driver’s license suspension and possibly fees for an ignition interlocking device. After you get your license back, your car insurance rates will be much higher than before your conviction.
To avoid the costs associated with a DUI conviction, it is important to hire an experienced Criminal Attorney in Chicago. Your attorney will fight for your rights. Criminal lawyers will examine the state’s evidence, including the arrest report, any photos taken from the scene and the lab results from your blood alcohol test. If your blood alcohol level was taken with a breathalyzer machine, the maintenance records of the machine may be reviewed.
In order to convict you for driving under the influence, the state must prove that you were driving and that you were under the influence of a controlled substance that impaired your ability to drive safely. Your attorney will attempt to discredit one or both of the requirements for a conviction. If you were behind the wheel of an idle car and the arresting officer did not observe you driving, you have a chance of being acquitted even if you failed a blood alcohol test.
Another defense your Criminal Attorney in Chicago may use in your DUI case is that the police officer did not have probable cause to stop your vehicle. If the camera in the officer’s car did not record you driving erratically, your lawyer may be able to have the blood alcohol test results removed as evidence against you. Without evidence of you being under the influence, your charges may be dropped.
For more information about how a criminal attorney can help you if you are charged with DUI or to hire a criminal attorney, click here.
