When someone is accused of driving under the influence, there are serious repercussions that could follow that will stay on the person’s record for many years.  However, as bad as these might be, hiring a New York DWI attorney could lessen the burden that the person has to suffer.  Driving under the influence is no small matter to deal with, which is why hiring a specialized New York DWI attorney, could help in the future.

 

Having a DWI on a driving record has serious repercussions both at the time of the DWI offenses, and in the future.  Having a DWI on someone’s record will mean that they have the potential for enhanced sentencing in the future.  A plea or conviction to a driving while intoxicated related offense will create a situation that could enhance the potential problems someone faces if they were to be arrested for driving while intoxicated again.  Hopefully this will not ever happen, but in the event it does, there might not be much that a New York DWI attorney will be able to help with. 

 

Believe it or not, there are different versions of driving while intoxicated that a person could be convicted of.  In New York, driving under the influence could be categorized as “common law” or statutory.  In the New York Common-Law driving while intoxicated cases the offender is accused of driving while intoxicated even though there is no scientific evidence (a blood or breath test) which shows the actual BAC.  According to New York laws (as well as other states), whether or not a person is intoxicated is an opinion that comes second nature to just about every person. An opinion is something that the law says anyone can be an “expert” in.  Basically, this means that someone can be convicted of driving while intoxicated by an officer, and their New York DWI attorney is fighting against the police officer’s opinion that the person was intoxicated.

 

On the other hand, there is statutory driving while intoxicated in New York.  The difference between the common-law and statutory DWI offenses is that statutory DWI cases are those in which someone is accused of driving while intoxicated with scientific proof of intoxication based on the level of alcohol present in their blood.  Under current New York State law, the point at which someone is intoxicated is when the person’s blood alcohol level is .08 percent or above.  This happens to be the same level in many other states. Proof of this blood alcohol level can be accomplished by evidence of any one of a variety of tests a person accused of driving while intoxicated can be asked to take after arrest.  The most common test in New York is a Breath Testing that, according to its proponents, analyzes your breath and converts the results to blood alcohol level. 

 

As far as the court is concerned, they would much rather deal with the statutory form of DWI case because they like being able to produce scientific evidence of the intoxication as opposed to relying on police statements that the accused had "bloodshot watery eyes, slurred speech and was unsteady on his feet."  From the New York DWI defense perspective, a common law case is probably a better case to take to trial because it is easier to challenge the assumptions of a police officer than it is to challenge the printout of a machine.