If you are a DUI attorney or want to be a DUI attorney, you should be aware of some of the ways a bad DUI can be turned into a good DUI, or some other “better” criminal charge (often first degree negligent driving ). or reckless driving), as well as ways you can get these criminal charges dismissed. Why do you have to know this? Simple: You won’t be able to beat every DUI that comes to your desk. In some cases, your job will be to minimize harm to your client, which means getting the best possible deal.

For example, let’s say you’re a guy hanging out in Seattle. It’s Saturday and you’re hanging out with your friends. There are plenty of big college games, including the biggest game of the day, a nightly brawl between your alma mater and its archrival (maybe the Apple Cup, which is the University of Washington vs. Washington State University), so you and your friends decide to go to the bar now, to have a good seat and everything. The thing is, your favorite bar is a couple of miles from your house. No problem, just drive.

The thing is, your friends still want to try and have fun like they’re in college. They have drinks, have drinking contests, and just drink a lot throughout the day. And to top it off, your team wins the big game! Now, you’re not a fool. You know you are too drunk to drive and you do not want a drunk driving charge on your record. You’ve seen how expensive and slow they can be. But where your car is parked won’t be legal for long, and you don’t want to get it towed. So you think you’ll just move it around the block to a legal spot.

And that’s when the accident happens. Nothing major, just a fender ding. But it was enough for them to call the police, and when they showed up they immediately suspected he was driving under the influence (DUI). Now, you have a friend who is a DUI attorney in Seattle, so you knew what to do when the police asked you questions and you did it. But in the end you decided to take the breathalyzer test instead of facing the harsher penalties of a refusal. And you still face a big problem. A reading of .190 for your blood alcohol level is not good.

Now, in this example, there are a couple of things that are good, and there are a couple of things that are bad. The good news is that no one was injured in the accident. The other good news is that he acted correctly when he interacted with the police, so they have little to no evidence that he was too drunk to drive: they don’t know if he was drinking, they don’t know where you came from or where you were going, and they don’t have any information. field sobriety test to use against. But the bad news is that they have the breath test. And the breath test is a high number.

The problem with the high number is that while it is possible to discredit breathalyzer tests, it generally tends to get more and more difficult the higher the number. And that makes a bit of sense if you think about it. It is much easier for a jury to believe that a breath test is .02 off, which makes a .08, the cutoff where a DUI test is taken, and a .06, which is not a DUI under the statute. breath test. But when you go much higher, it’s much harder to convince a jury that the test went wrong.

Therefore, you should look to minimize the damage, which can be considerable with a DUI conviction when your test is greater than .15. At least in Seattle (and I note this, because in other states the rules may be different), a breath test between .08 and .14 is considered a low DUI test, so the punishment is less. But if you’re .15 or older, the punishment gets significantly harsher (including an extra day in jail and a year’s driver’s license suspension). That is why the DUI plea without proof is an option here.

As it seems, the DUI without proof simply pleads guilty to DUI but without the test results. That means you are not subject to the harsher penalties of a DUI with a test over .15, while the prosecutor still has the satisfaction of charging you with DUI. It’s not the best option or the ideal option, but sometimes it’s the best option out there.

So the next time you hear someone talking about a DUI without proof, particularly in the Seattle area, this is what they are talking about. A plea to this lowers the mandatory minimum penalties, keeping your client (or you) from having at least one small problem.