most serious charge most drivers will ever face - driving while impaired. The laws concerning DWI are complex and the consequences of a conviction can be devastating. You cannot afford to face your DWI without an effective lawyer to assist you every step of the way.

A DWI conviction can rob you of your privilege to drive, threaten your chances of getting or keeping a job, damage your chances for a promotion, end a military or other security based career, force you to have costly equipment installed in your car, give your insurance company the opportunity to raise your rates by 300% or drop you altogether, require you to undergo substance abuse treatment and perform community service, and may subject you to a lengthy jail sentence.

We at the Arthur M. Blue Law Office are experienced in both the prosecution and defense of DWI cases and we can help you protect your rights and freedom. My name is Arthur Donadio and as a former Assistant District Attorney, I have prosecuted and defended hundreds of DWI cases. With the help of Arthur M. Blue, an aggressive litigator with fifteen years experience defending clients charged with DWI, I have developed the following information to assist folks before, during and after they are charged with Driving While Impaired.

1.          The Stop. People generally wind up charged with DWI in one of three ways. In the first scenario, an officer notices a driver is speeding, driving left of center, or committing some other violation of the rules of the road. This gives the officer what is called reasonable suspicion to stop the car and issue a ticket while investigating further. Tips that the police receive about erratic driving may also constitute reasonable suspicion to stop a car. The second way that drivers pick up DWI charges is by driving up to road blocks, or "license checks". Our Supreme Court has said that license checks are constitutional in most circumstances as long as law enforcement officers don’t single out people to stop. In a license check, officers do not have a chance to observe "bad driving" and will base a DWI charge on your intoxilyzer 5000 test results and on the results of your physical tests and answers to questioning. So as we advised you before, don’t answer questions and don’t take the field sobriety tests. The third way drivers end up charged with DWI is as a result of a car accident. In these cases, emergency medical technicians are usually first on the scene, and law enforcement may get charging information from the EMTs and may not see the driver until after he has been transported to the hospital. A law enforcement officer may ask a driver being checked out at the hospital to submit to having blood drawn for analysis. If you are in the hospital, being treated for injuries, don’t answer any questions by law enforcement - with wreck cases, especially, your statements may help the officer put you behind the wheel!

2.          Probable Cause to Arrest. If you are stopped by an officer while driving, or come upon a road block or license check, the officer will conduct an investigation by speaking with you and observing your demeanor and physical condition. If the officer detects the odor of alcohol, slurred speech, red and glassy eyes, or any number of other physical signs of impairment, he may decide he has probable cause to place you under arrest for driving while impaired. The officer may also ask you to blow into a handheld alcohol measuring device called an alcosensor. The result shown on this device may not be admitted at a DWI trial against you, but it is authorized by the State for purposes of finding probable cause to arrest you. The officer should ask you to blow twice into the alcosensor, waiting five minutes between the first and second test.  The officer may ask you to perform field sobriety tests on the side of the road.  The North Carolina Highway Patrol will wait to ask you to do field sobriety tests until you are at the jail so that their tests are done on a level, well lighted surface.

3.          Arrest. If the officer determines that he has probable cause to arrest you, he will inform you that he is placing you under arrest for driving while impaired, he will handcuff you behind your back, and he will place you in the back of his patrol car. You will then be transported to that officer’s police department or directly to the county jail for alcohol breath testing and processing.

4.          The Intoxilyzer 5000. Once you have been carried to the local police department or the county jail, the officer will ask you to submit to alcohol breath testing on a device called the intoxilyzer 5000. This device uses spectrographic analysis to measure the amount of alcohol in a person’s breath, and is the only machine authorized by the State for use in DWI cases. The officer will explain to you the rights of a person asked to submit to chemical analysis, including the right to refuse to be tested. But he will tell you that if you refuse to be tested, your privilege to drive will be revoked for one year. Once the machine is ready, and you have been advised of your rights, you will be asked to blow into the mouthpiece of the machine a minimum of two times. Most people find that they have to blow fairly hard to achieve "tone", which is the sound that indicates the machine has registered a sample. Once you have provided two samples and those samples are within .02 of each other, the machine will print a result that is the lower of the two samples. For example, if you blow a .10 and a .08, your reported result would be .08.

5.          Miranda Rights and Questioning. At some point, either before or after you are asked to submit to the intoxilyzer 5000, you will probably be advised of your Miranda rights (i.e. right to remain silent, right to the assistance of counsel, etc.) and then the officer will ask you a number of questions from a preprinted DWI Report Form. These questions are designed to find out how much you had to drink and when, where you were coming from and going to, and to defeat many of the defenses that attorneys have come up with over the years. For example, the officer will ask you if you are taking any medications, or if you are sick, or if you have received a bump on the head, or if you wear false teeth. The officer asks these questions to try to eliminate any explanation for the appearance of unusual behavior other than alcohol! He will also ask you about any injuries you may have that would affect your performance on field sobriety tests. This is why it is usually better to not answer the officer’s questions.

6.          The Magistrate. After the officer has completed his investigation, and you have either taken or refused to take his tests and answer his questions, he will take you before the magistrate. The magistrate is a "neutral and detached" judicial official who will review the charge and any evidence the officer wants to present to him and then set your conditions of release. The magistrate may set one of four (but only one) conditions of release: secured bond, unsecured bond, written promise to appear, or custody release. Each is fairly self explanatory, but let’s take a minute to go over them. A secured bond means that you will either have to post property that has sufficient equity to cover the amount of the bond or you will need to have a bondsman post the bond, or deposit cash with the clerk of court in an amount equal to the bond. Most people use a bondsman because they only have to pay the bondsman 15% of the amount of the bond to secure their release. Unsecured bond means that the magistrate sets an amount and if you fail to appear for court, the clerk will enter a judgment against you (and go after any property you own) in the amount of the bond. Custody release means that the jail will release you into the custody of a sober person over 18 years old. And written promise to appear is simply that, your signature on a promise that you have been informed of your court date and that you will appear for it.  The magistrate will assign you one of the conditions of release based on your condition at the time he sees you, your prior record, the likelihood that you will harm yourself or others if released, and other factors relevant to determining how likely you are to show up in court if released. Always be polite to the magistrate.

7.          Civil Revocation. One thing the magistrate will do is take your license if you have one issued by the State of North Carolina. If you are from out of state, he will not take your license. If you have lost or are not carrying your license, the magistrate will ask you to sign an affidavit so stating. In any event, the magistrate will inform you that your license is being revoked for 30 days by the DMV as a result of being charged with driving while impaired. Now if you refused to take the intoxilyzer 5000 test, you will be revoked for one year, but that is a different revocation than the one that all folks charged with DWI must suffer immediately after being charged. But don’t worry, if you are eligible, we can help you get a pre-trial limited driving privilege after 10 days instead of having to go without driving for the whole 30 days.

8.          Release. Once you have spoken to the magistrate, met your conditions of release, and been given copies of your paperwork, you will be released from the jail.

9.          First Appearance in District Court. Different Counties handle the first appearance differently, but North Carolina law requires that for an offense like DWI that carries the potential of a jail sentence, you have an absolute right to assistance of counsel and may be entitled to a court appointed lawyer. So at some point, you will be asked whether you wish to represent yourself, hire your own counsel, or be considered for court appointed counsel. You never want to represent yourself in a DWI case; not even if the trooper was sympathetic and promised to help you out, and the judge and the D.A. seem like nice people. All of those people are forbidden by law from giving you legal advice and explaining to you the consequences of pleading guilty and of other important decisions you must make. You may apply for court appointed counsel, but that requires filling out a form called an "affidavit of indigency" that requires you to list all your monthly income and expenses as well as all your assets. The judge will review this form and question you about it and then decide whether you get a court appointed attorney. If you do, you will have no choice about who that attorney is. He could be fresh out of school or the best defense attorney in the county. It all comes down to who’s turn it is on the list.

10.          Hiring Your Own Attorney. If you have hired, or made arrangements to hire your own attorney, you will probably not have to go to court on your first appearance. Your attorney will do that for you and file paperwork with that court indicating that you have waived your right to court appointed counsel and that your attorney will be representing you. He will speak to the officer and the D.A. about your case and then continue the matter to a new court date. After speaking to the officer and the District Attorney, your lawyer will be in a better position to evaluate your case and discuss your options with you.