Yes. Any criminal conviction can have negative consequences for your future life, aside from any jail time or fines imposed due to your sentence. Convictions can impact your employment prospects, apartment rentals, professional certifications, licenses and permits, and more. With a DUI conviction, you will accumulate points on your driving record, impacting insurance availability and costs. You may also be required to enroll in an ignition interlock program, which, at minimum, can be embarrassing if you have children or passengers in the vehicle. So, considering all of the short- and long-term consequences, you should always try to beat DUI charges with the help of an experienced attorney.

Further, not that you expect to have them, but if there are future arrests and convictions, any prior conviction will have a large impact on potential jail time and fines imposed for that conviction. As an example, a prior conviction in the previous 10 years makes a criminal defendant ineligible for any sort of probation before judgment. It also hampers your attorney’s ability to strike a favorable plea agreement with prosecuting attorneys when you have prior convictions.

Maryland DUI/DWI Criminal Defenses

The basic criminal elements of DUI/DWI are:

• Intent or reckless disregard
• Driving a motor vehicle
• Intoxicated or impaired by alcohol use

Most criminal defenses focus on the intoxication or impaired element, but depending on the facts, the other elements can be challenged too. For example, if you are intoxicated but are just sitting in your car, a successful defense might be that the defendant was not driving. If the facts showed that the defendant was sitting on the ground, there might be two defenses: not in a motor vehicle and not driving.

In any event, most DUI/DWI cases turn on the issue of intoxication or impairment. In Maryland, there are three common DUI-type charges. The lowest charge is “driving while intoxicated,” which is generally proven by the prosecutors through lab testing for blood-alcohol content (“BAC”). BAC levels from 0.04% to not more than 0.08% are considered DWI.

There are two higher-level charges: driving under the influence, per se, and simple driving under the influence. The first is “proven” if the lab testing shows BAC levels of 0.08% or greater. In simple terms, if the prosecutors prove to the jury a BAC level of 0.08% or higher, that is sufficient proof for conviction. Often, prosecutors will also charge basic DUI, which relies on other types of evidence like field sobriety tests, evidence of how much alcohol was consumed, etc. Often, prosecutors will charge all three crimes just to ensure that the jury will convict on at least one charge.

With respect to defenses, there are a number of possible challenges. There might be challenges to the police procedures, which create unreliable testing results. Laboratory testing can be challenged on several bases, such as contamination of test materials, invalid calibration of the machines, improper testing procedures, failure of the chain of custody, etc.

There are also challenges that can be made to the arrest itself and the police procedures. These are generally constitutional claims and can be effective at excluding evidence from use at trial depending on the facts.

Need Help Beating a DUI or DWI Charge?

If you have been arrested and charged with a DUI/DWI in Charles County, Maryland, contact the experienced and courtroom-tested Maryland criminal defense attorneys at the Law Office of Robert Castro. Call us at (301) 870-1200 or use our contact page. We are available around the clock, 24/7, and have offices in Waldorf, Maryland.