DWI Information

In a roadside DUI case the type of test you take sometimes is critical. In your case it would not have mattered. Assume you had 4 quick drinks in a chug-a-lug. It could take a half hour for sufficient alcohol to enter your blood stream or urine and register at the 1.0 or the .08 level. But the breath test would show a higher level almost as soon as you drank the last drop.

You are lucky, as some states don't give much of a choice. Next time don't drink and drive, or if you do, call a DUI lawyer before playing lawyer yourself.

DWI Answers

The traditional offense is "driving under the influence of alcohol" (DUI) or, in some states, "driving while intoxicated" (DWI). In recent years, however, 43 states have also enacted a second, so-called "per se" offense: driving with an excessive blood-alcohol concentration (either .08% or .10%). In those states, BOTH offenses are charged. The defendant can even be convicted of both, but can be punished for only one.

If the case involves a refusal to submit to chemical testing, of course, only the traditional offense will be charged.