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By: William C. Head, DUI Attorney Atlanta
Once cuffs are attached to a person’s wrists, a DUI investigation becomes VERY REAL. Up until then, the detained citizen is thinking that he or she MAY be released. That is because they know nothing about DUI Less Safe in GA and Georgia DUI laws in today’s police world.
No businesses, colleges or high schools train people to know and exercise their legal rights. Once the cuffs are applied, you are under arrest for DUI less safe, and this “impaired driving” case can be for alcohol, drugs, or both, depending on the evidence.
After being arrested for DUI alcohol less safe, refusing to take the Georgia implied consent law test of your breath, as requested by the officer, can suspend your Georgia driver’s license for a FULL YEAR. This implied consent violation leads to being cited for being an implied consent “DUI refusal” under the GA implied consent law, which triggers an administrative license suspension that can BLOCK ALL DRIVING for a full year.
Plus, by refusing Georgia’s implied consent law test (usually a breath alcohol test), you cannot demand and receive your own independent test of your blood.
A new ignition interlock device option exists for most Georgia drivers facing drunk driving charges, but this is far from having normal driving privileges. This law first took effect on July 1, 2017 and after.
So, by not knowing and exercising your legal right, very harsh consequences to a person’s driving privileges can occur. Missing the 30-day filing deadline, for either taking an appeal of the Georgia DDS suspension action or opting for the 12-month IIDLP (ignition interlock device limited permit), you may be totally without the right to drive for a year.
Even if you do not take ANY roadside tests, and refused the GA implied consent breathalyzer, you will still be charged with DUI less safe, on such things as smelling like alcohol, having red, bloodshot eyes, having difficulty pulling your driver’s license out of a wallet or purse and some minor traffic violation, like failure to maintain lane.
Police in GA can AND will charge you with DUI alcohol less safe EVEN if you refuse to be tested on an Intoxilyzer 9000 alcohol breath tester after you are arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
So, while the prosecutor in your case will not have a breathalyzer test for alcohol level or blood alcohol test results that are over “over the legal limit” to support a possible criminal charge of DUI alcohol per se, you can be convicted of driving while intoxicated or DUI. This is when you need a DUI lawyer in Georgia who is the best Atlanta DUI Lawyer in the business, call Bubba Head.
In this 2010 appeal of a DUI less safe Georgia conviction, the court of appeals cites many nebulous and conclusory points that do NOT mean a person is DUI. Example: speeding. 90% of all drivers on our Georgia Interstate Highways and Ga Highway 400 are speeding. Are 90% of all drivers drunk? NO. Speeding is NOT proof of drunk driving!
Even the federal government indicates that there is virtually NO correlation between a driver speeding and being too drunk to drive. But, here is the opinion rejecting the appeal on marginal “evidence.”
“The evidence presented by the State was sufficient for any rational trier of fact to find Jaffray guilty of DUI less safe beyond a reasonable doubt. Jaffray’s consumption of alcohol was established by his own testimony, the positive result from the alco-sensor test [hand-held, portable breathalyzer], evidence that his BAC was between 0.073 and 0.085 an hour after the incident, the smell of alcohol emanating from Jaffray, and his watery and bloodshot eyes.
The evidence that Jaffray was speeding constituted evidence that his driving was impaired. Finally, Lewis (the cop) testified that in his opinion, Jaffray was under the influence of alcohol to the extent that it was less safe for him to drive. A police officer may give opinion testimony as to the state of sobriety of a DUI suspect and whether he was under the influence to the extent it made him less safe to drive.”
Jaffray v. State, 306 Ga.App. 469, 702 S.E.2d 742 (Ga. Ct. of App. 2010)
Who is the Georgia DUI lawyer who wrote the book on Georgia DUI laws to educate other lawyers on how to beat a DUI Georgia conviction? Call Atlanta DUI lawyer Bubba Head or his law partners and get more helpful FREE information than from ANY other law firm.
Which DUI lawyer in Atlanta can tell me how to get out of a DUI in court? Read further to learn how to beat a DUI involving alcohol – if you know your legal rights. Although Georgia DUI laws are among the harshest in America for loss of license for an implied consent “refusal” to be tested (one-year loss of ALL driving privileges), your DUI lawyer has a better chance of winning your DUI case at trial, when no “over the limit” DUI alcohol charge is part of the case.
Our job is to help you find a way to avoid a DUI Georgia conviction on your permanent criminal record that remains there for life! Call him at 1-888-DUI-HEAD [1-888-384-4323] or email bubba@bubbahead.com to start a thorough review of ways to beat a DUI charge. For 40 years, he has been able to deliver excellent results to more clients than any other attorney in Georgia.
More About Our Atlanta DUI lawyers – DUI Lawyer Reviews
For more about our Atlanta DUI lawyer reviews and ratings for all of the Georgia DUI lawyers at our law firm, we give you more details below:
William C. “Bubba” Head, Board Certified in DUI defense (one of only 4 attorneys in the State of Georgia) – A veteran DUI attorney with 41 years of aggressive criminal defense experience, and over 200 appellate cases to his credit, has been a nationally-known DUI book author for the last 25 years.
As mentioned above, Mr. Head also originally wrote, and still is co-author of the #1 legal treatise on Georgia DUI law for over 20 years. As far as lawyer reviews, William C. Head has held the highest ethical rating, and highest practice competence rating (5.0 of 5.0) from America’s oldest attorney reviews service, Martindale-Hubbell for over two decades. This company has been publishing lawyer reviews for almost 150 years.
DUI LAWYER REVIEWS: A year ago, I was pulled over by an officer who claimed we almost had a collision. I admitted to having a couple beers earlier in the night, and did field sobriety tests where I apparently displayed 17 of 18 clues (never do these tests). I was arrested and charged with DUI, reckless driving and failure to maintain lane. (Georgia Tech Graduate) [Mr. Head won this Cobb County State Court trial on all counts.]
Even rarer, this veteran DUI lawyer is one of only 4 Board Certified DUI attorneys and has been named for expertise for his DUI law specialty in the ultra-exclusive Best Lawyers in America directory longer than any other Georgia criminal defense lawyer.
Mr. Head also has been honored TWICE with the BestLawyers.com DUI attorney of the year recognition in Georgia for 2012 and 2017. This DUI lawyer in Atlanta has been consistently named to the list of Georgia Super Lawyers EACH year (2004 to 2017) since these lawyer ratings were started, a top distinction that only one other Georgia attorney (out of nearly 40,000 GA attorneys) has achieved.
Call Atlanta DUI lawyer Bubba Head or one of his top-rated law partners today at 404-567-5515 or 1-888-384-4323 (1-888-DUI-HEAD) and put 41 years of successful DUI defense on your side. Mr. Head is a 24-hour lawyer for your Atlanta case. His criminal defense law office provides you with a FREE DUI case evaluation whatever time of day or night you call – weekends and all holidays, too.
Another totally unique attorney rating qualification, for the entire United States, is that in July of 2003, Mr. Head was voted to be the best DUI-DWI attorney in America, by the members of the largest drunk driving defense lawyer group in the country, NCDD.com.
Lawrence A. (Larry) Kohn, Georgia DUI attorney, in his 18th year of DUI defense in Georgia, and named to 2017 Super Lawyers. Mr. Kohn began working for Bubba Head after his first year in law school. He has over 350 FIVE-star (highest) attorney ratings displayed on AVVO.com. In 2016, Mr. Kohn was asked to write a chapter of a Georgia DUI book, dealing with trial strategy in DUI defense. (Aspatore Publishing, a division of Thomson-West)
Cory E. Yager, Georgia DUI lawyer, in his 9th year as a criminal justice attorney, after 9 ½ years as a Georgia police officer. Mr. Yager began his career as a Cobb County police officer, patrolling all of Atlanta and Cobb County, before transferring to the Roswell Police Department, so that he could get a regular duty schedule and continue going to law school.
Mr. Yager has been named as a “Super Lawyers Rising Star” for the past 5 years straight. Mr. Yager has won two GA statewide quality awards from a private “think tank” DUI defense group of nearly 100 DUI lawyers, for being the “Best DUI Defense Attorney Negotiator” in the State. This prestigious award is only given to lawyers whose primary law practice is for DUI alcohol and DUI drugs cases in Georgia.
Mr. Yager also has been rated at 5.0 out of 5.0 by Martindale-Hubbell, for the highest competence level and ethical standards. In 2016, Mr. Yager was asked to author a chapter of a DUI book for Georgia attorneys, addressing trial strategies in drunk driving defense cases. (Aspatore Publishing, a division of Thomson-West)
Click any of the links below to learn more about Georgia’s implied consent law and how it may affect your DUI case: