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If you have been charged with driving under the influence, you need all the help you can get – which is where the services of a Maryland DUI attorney can help mitigate the damage.

Are you aware of your rights under the law if charged with driving under the influence?

If This Is Your First Offense . . .

Under new Maryland drunk driving laws that took effect on 1 October 2009, if you are convicted of drunk driving for the first time and your blood alcohol content (BAC) level was over .08, you could be sentenced to a jail term of up to a year and fined as much as $1000. If you were transporting a minor at the time of the offense, these penalties can be doubled. In addition, your driving privileges will be suspended for a minimum of six months.

Subsequent Offenses

Fines and jail sentences increase substantially after the first conviction. After a third conviction, the offender faces a $3000 fine, three years in jail and loss of driving privileges for a minimum of eighteen months. If however, the offender was transporting a minor at the time, jail terms and fines are increased by one-third (so, $4000 and four years). The greater penalties also apply if injury or death is involved – in addition to any criminal or civil penalties.

Stricter Standards

Minors and commercial drivers are held to much stricter standards when it comes to driving and alcohol.

In the state of Maryland, it is illegal for persons under the age of 21 years to possess or consume alcoholic beverages. Therefore, a minor can be charged and convicted for drunk driving if any amount of alcohol is found in the system; a BAC level of .02 carries a $500 fine. In addition, the individual faces minor-in-possession charges.

Because of their responsibility for public safety, commercial drivers are also subject to lower BAC limits; .04 is sufficient to warrant conviction on a drunk driving charge.

Other Things to Know

Although the Constitution states that one is innocent of a crime until proven guilty in a court of law, Maryland’s Implied Consent law provides for what amounts to a legal exception when it comes to drunk driving offenses. If stopped on suspicion of drunk driving, you have the right to refuse to submit to testing (blood, breath or urine); however, your driving privileges are automatically revoked for a period of four months for the first refusal and one year for subsequent refusals.

Contacting a Lawyer

DUI and DWI cases are handled on the county level, and procedures vary from one county to the next. It is therefore important to get counsel from a legal professional who is familiar with the courts of the county in question.

A DUI lawyer may be able to get your driving privileges restored under certain conditions; for example, you may be allowed to drive to and from work if you install an interlock (a device that disables a car’s ignition if alcohol is present in the driver’s system). You may also avoid jail time for a first offense by enrolling in an alcohol treatment program.

If you are guilty of a DUI or DWI offense in Annapolis, you face a period of probation and a term of incarceration. You could face huge fines and stand the risk of having your driving license confiscated. You could also end up paying huge insurance premiums and face a possible loss of employment. All these are dire consequences.

However, the consequences you face depend on the legal expert you choose to defend yourself. A highly skilled and aggressive attorney can help you avoid these undesirable consequences.

Before you choose a DUI/DWI attorney in Annapolis, it is important to make sure that the lawyer has been trained and certified in DUI/DWI detection. They must also have sufficient knowledge and expertise in evaluating the proper conduct of field sobriety tests. Only such kind of extensive and in-depth knowledge can help you enjoy a more desirable outcome.

The government’s lookout is to get you arraigned as soon as possible. That is why you must hurry and find the right DUI/DWI attorney in Annapolis. Instead of retaining a defense attorney, employ a lawyer of your own. You could get help from friends or relatives, search through the Yellow Pages or even use the Internet to find a DUI/DWI attorney in Annapolis. In this way, you can equip yourself with a huge list of lawyers who have the potential to represent you.

However, all attorneys are not equal and if you want to protect your driving license, you need a lawyer who has sufficient experience and expertise in DUI/DWI cases in Annapolis. Only such an attorney knows enough about laws, rules and procedures. Such lawyers will also have some amount of rapport with bailiffs at court and the judges. They also enjoy access to many top experts in the fields of police procedures and field sobriety testing.

A good DUI/DWI attorney from Annapolis will not make any promises regarding the outcome. Doing so is not only unethical and illegal but it also amounts to giving clients false hopes about a situation that the lawyer cannot really predict. Even the best cases cannot be stated as won until the judge gives their sentence. However, good attorneys will have a history of victories and they would have bagged a fair share of positive outcomes.

It is important to choose a DUI/DWI attorney who is a member of prominent legal associations in Annapolis. Attorneys who are actively involved in such groups will be aware of the latest changes in legislation. Such knowledge has great value as it can impact the outcome of the case.

Lastly, before you hire, it is important to talk about the lawyer’s fee. You might want to shop around for competitive rates but the trick is to find someone who offers competitive rates combined with razor sharp skills and a wealth of experience.

About the Author:

Cochran, Cochran & Chhabra, LLC are experienced DUI attorneys with extensive knowledge of DUI law in Annapolis, Maryland.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Tips to choose a DUI/DWI Attorney in Annapolis

Testing saliva, breath, urine or blood are all ways to measure the amount of alcohol in your body. When you are stopped on suspicion of a DUI it is normal for them to give you the test right then. It is true that testing the blood is a sure way to measure the BAC, but the most common test and the one most used, as evidence is the Breathalyzer.

Many people use the terms Breathalyzer and BAC interchangeably, but there is a difference. A Breathalyzer does not read the actual alcohol content but it tries to estimate the level by testing the breath from your lungs to measure the amount of alcohol. What this means is that the Breathalyzer tests are far from 100% certain and may often be challenged. Although some states use urine or breath tests, the blood test gives the most accurate BAC level. There are some substances that will throw the results off when using a Breathalyzer machine. For instance, sometimes Acetone throws off the results of a Breathalyzer test, as it may show up in large amounts in someone on a special diet or if they have diabetes. There have been times that fumes coming from adhesives or paints have also confused them.

A blood test is the accurate way to determine the Blood Alcohol Content. But, there a few general rules that may help you estimate your level based on how much you drank and how much you weigh. In order to reach the .08% a 170 lb. man on an empty stomach would have to drink more than four drinks in one hour. And a woman weighing 135 lb. would need approximately three drinks in an hour to reach that same .08%.

Keep in mind that if you get pulled over for suspicion of DUI by a law enforcement official it is normal for them to give you a Breathalyzer test. If you refuse, in most states that results in an automatic suspension of your license. It may even bring additional criminal or civil sanctions and is normally used as evidence against you.

Impaired driving contributes to a large portion of auto accidents, and, while it is only one of many forms of impairment, drunk driving is involved in nearly 40% of all auto accident fatalities. DUI laws have become much stricter in recent years, and the number of fatalities has gone down, but that drop seems to have hit a plateau. Even with the strict penalties we now have, drunk drivers continue to drive while impaired even after they are caught and punished. Repeat offenders account for about one-third of DUI convictions.

Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is usually the primary piece of evidence relied on in drunk driving cases. All states have adopted a legal limit of .08 or less for adults. Some drivers, such as commercial drivers and minors, must adhere to a much lower legal limit.

Criminal vs. Civil case

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in an accident caused by a drunk driver, you will be pursuing a civil lawsuit. In most cases there will also be criminal charges against the drunk driver. Although restitution payments may be ordered in the event of a criminal conviction, the civil and criminal cases are separate.

Conviction, in a criminal case, requires a much higher standard of proof than what you will need to establish in a civil lawsuit because a civil lawsuit does not put the defendant at risk of serving jail time.

Even though the cases are separate, a criminal conviction can lend credibility to your civil case, and some of the evidence collected for the criminal case may be available for use in your civil suit, such as BAC.

Responsibility

Proving responsibility is the key factor in any civil suit. Many types of impaired driving, such as fatigue, can be very difficult to prove. Drunk driving is the easiest type of impairment to prove. Unfortunately, because drunk drivers are often repeat offenders or minors, they are often uninsured, meaning that even if found responsible, they simply do not have the money to compensate you for your injuries and losses.

However, in certain cases, the drunk driver is not the only responsible party. Under certain circumstances responsible parties may include:

· Bars, restaurants, or liquor stores that sold alcohol to an already intoxicated person

· Adults who provided alcohol to a minor

· Employers who required or allowed an employee to operate a vehicle for company purposes while intoxicated

About the Author:

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in an auto accident caused by a drunk driver, in Maryland, Virginia or Washington DC, please contact a skilled auto accident lawyer at Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. before you settle with an insurance company.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Drunk Driving Accidents

The 2 tiers are:

1. Driving under the influence (DUI)

(BAC ≥.08; called “A” offenses)

Maryland has administrative per se with license suspension for BAC ≥.08. Offenders have the right to a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). The ALJ can dismiss the suspension or can modify the suspension to allow driving to work, school, alcohol treatment, or other purposes.

2. Driving while impaired (DWI)

(BAC <.08; called “B” offenses).

Maryland allows Probation Before Judgment (PBJ), under which offenders may be given one year of probation with alcohol education; upon successful completion the driver’s record is cleared so there is no record of a prior alcohol offense.

Test refusal results in administrative license suspension for 120 days for first-time offenders and 1 year for repeat offenders, which again can be appealed to an ALJ. Driving to work or other purposes may be allowed under the condition that the driver uses an alcohol interlock. Test refusal suspensions are in addition to any criminal penalties that may be applied.

Penalties increase for repeat offenders (defined as a second or subsequent offense within 5 years) and for drivers transporting a minor. Penalties are not increased for drivers with high BAC levels — Maryland does not have a high-BAC aggravated DWI law.

The tables below summarize the  penalties involved. The only “mandatory” minimum penalty is 5 days in jail or 30 days community service for a second “A” offense within 5 years.

Maryland Administrative Driver’s License Sanctions

Maryland Criminal Penalties

Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration