Category Archives:DWI
Mandatory Blood Draws
I have mentioned before that you are allowed to (and should!) refuse a breath test if you are arrested for suspicion of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI). At point you think, “Great, I followed the no blow rule and now I just need a good Houston DWI Attorney.” I have mentioned before that you are allowed to (and should!) refuse a breath test if you are arrested for suspicion of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI). At point you think, “Great, I followed the no blow rule and now I just need a good Houston DWI Attorney.” Unfortunately, in many counties (including Harris) certain weekends are considered non-refusal weekend. If this happens then law enforcement will get a magistrate to sign a search warrant for your person after you refuse a breath test. They will use this search warrant to draw blood from you and use against you in the prosecution of your case.
Harris county does this much more than surrounding counties as money has been granted to the county to have non-refusal weekend every weekend for a period of three years. This recently started, so this should continue for the foreseeable future.
But don’t worry, a blood test is not an automatic conviction! Get yourself a DWI Lawyer in Houston that can identify the issues and help you work through your DWI. These particular types of cases tend to drag on more than others. The main reason is they usually ship the blood to labs outside of Houston to be evaluated. It is not uncommon to have a case where you are almost near the point of having to set the case for trial simply because the blood results have not come back.
A good Houston DWI Attorney can work with you and the state to fairly evaluate the entire case and come up with an adequate resolution or prepare for trial. Even if you know that there might be blood drawn, it is still in your best interest to refuse a breath test because there have been situations where people either slip through the cracks or the agency is just too lazy to get a search warrant. Again, don’t give the state any free evidence…make them take it.
Should You Take A Breath Test?
A question I get asked all too often as a Houston DWI Attorney is “should I take a breath test if I am stopped and have been drinking”. The simple answer is, no!A question I get asked all too often as a Houston DWI Attorney is “should I take a breath test if I am stopped and have been drinking”. The simple answer is, no!
Giving a breath test in a DWI case is essentially giving the officer, and the district attorney’s office more evidence to use against you if you happen to fail the test. If you do not think you are going to pass, then there is no reason to take the test at all. I am confident that any DWI Lawyer in Houston would give you the same advice.
Many people are asked to do sobriety tests, and even if they do wonderful the officers still “take them down to jail for further evaluation”. So basically, you do everything that the officer asks you to do and all is gets you is arrested! Why would you continue to cooperate with law enforcement when you are only seeing negative results? It does not make any sense.
On top of that, your case is much more likely to get dismissed if you do not take the breath test (assuming you do not get blood drawn). The district attorney’s office is usually very reluctant to dismiss a case if there is a breath test above .08 (but will dismiss cases time to time). If you do not take the test, and do good on the standard field sobriety tests (or refuse those too!), there is much less evidence for a prosecutor to use against you. They feel much better letting cases like this go as opposed to cases where some machine is telling them (and potentially jurors) that you were drunk on the night in question.
So to sum it all up, unless you have had absolutely nothing to drink just do not take a breath test! You put yourself, and your Houston DWI Attorney, in a much better situation if you just refuse!
The first blog post of a DWI Lawyer in Houston
Hello, my name is Eric Benavides, and I am a Houston DWI Attorney. I am one of two attorneys who started the law firm Benavides & Serrano, PLLC. I decided to start a DWI blog because more people get arrested for DWI than anything else. I hope to provide insight and advice to individuals facing (and those who may face) a DWI.Hello, my name is Eric Benavides, and I am a Houston DWI Attorney. I am one of two attorneys who started the law firm Benavides & Serrano, PLLC. I decided to start a DWI blog because more people get arrested for DWI than anything else. I hope to provide insight and advice to individuals facing (and those who may face) a DWI.
I intend to use this blog for many things. I plan to use it to talk about DWI cases, to talk about general info in the news regarding DWI, and about general things that amuse me about these types of cases. Hopefully no one reading this will ever need a DWI lawyer in Houston, but if you are going to be arrested, the chances are it’s going to be for drinking and driving.
The great thing about being a DWI attorney is all the interesting people you run into. The fact of the matter is most people drink socially, and that doesn’t exclude doctors, engineers, and even lawyers. I have represented individuals accused of DWI who are true habitual criminals, all the way to individuals who have post-graduate degrees and a clean record. Being a DWI attorney is a field of work where you get to mingle with every part of society, and personally I enjoy that aspect of the job.
DWI doesn’t discriminate. Anyone could be arrested just for admitting that they had a drink at dinner, even if they aren’t legally intoxicated. It is not illegal to drink and drive in Texas! This is one thing I don’t believe all officers understand, and one of the things I love most about being a Houston DWI Attorney is all of the innocent people that I get to help!
If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate situation of needing a DWI lawyer in Houston feel free to contact me at 713-222-2828. I can’t promise you that you will win your case, but I promise you that I will always be up front with you, and that I will work to get you the best possible outcome.
Eric Benavides