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Jacksonville DUI Lawyers

• Jonathan Rowe: If you fail to satisfactorily resolve your speeding ticket or any other traffic citation, more legal and insurance-related troubles may follow.
• Amy Newby: If you have been cited for DUI/DWI in Florida, you should know that the law gives serious consequences upon conviction. And these punishments drunk driving are even more severe for repeat offenders. A DUI sentence may require you to pay a substantial fine, serve some time in jail, or both. In addition to any fines or jail time, your driverıs license may be suspended, even if it is your first offense. You will have to find alternate transportation and go through considerable effort to regain your driving privileges after a drunk driving conviction. To add insult to injury, many insurance companies will drop your motor vehicle coverage if you get a DUI. The companies that will insure you will only do so at a greatly increased premium. It is easy to see how important it is to protect your rights ­ and to do that, you need a lawyer who will work to stop these consequences from becoming reality.
• Charles Lembcke: While some states have ruled that DUI checkpoints are illegal under their state constitutions, the majority of states and the U.S. Supreme Court have ruled that brief seizures at DUI sobriety checkpoints are legal when conducted in a particular manner. In 1990, the Court upheld a state's use of highway sobriety checkpoints as consistent with the Fourth Amendment in Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz, where: 1. The checkpoints are selected pursuant to guidelines; and 2. Uniformed officers briefly stop every vehicle. Analogizing highway sobriety checkpoint programs to the checkpoints used at fixed borders to intercept illegal aliens (which have also been upheld as constitutional), the Court reasoned that the level of intrusion from sobriety spot checks is minimal when compared to the magnitude of the public interest in eradicating drunk driving.
• Connie Clay: Legally, a person does not have to be falling down drunk to be convicted of driving under the influence. According to the law in Florida, a person is guilty of DUI if the person is driving or in actual physical control of a vehicle and is under the influence of alcoholic beverages or certain chemical or controlled substances to the extent that the personıs normal faculties are impaired. Additionally, a person is guilty of DUI if the person is driving or in actual physical control of a vehicle and has a breath or blood alcohol level of .08 or more grams of alcohol. A person can be found guilty of DUI even if the person is not driving the vehicle. If the person has the ability and power to direct or regulate the vehicle in question at the time of the offense, whether the person is actually using that ability and power or not, the person can be found guilty of DUI. For instance, if a person is behind the wheel of a car with the keys in the ignition, the person is in actual physical control of the car even if the car has not been started. There are certainly six jurors somewhere who would not convict the person of DUI, but a police officer would have the authority to make an arrest under these circumstances if the person were under the influence of alcohol, chemical or controlled substances and the personıs normal faculties were impaired.
• Judy Groover: Even a traffic ticket can be more serious than many people realize. What a driver thinks is ³just a traffic ticket² can turn into a nightmare. Some traffic offenses can bring jail time, in addition to substantial fines. The nightmare does not stop there: conviction of a traffic offense may result in a substantial increase in your motor vehicle insurance premium. The increased premium will stay with you for several years. In some cases, your coverage may be cancelled completely.
• Teresa Sop: It is important for the lawyer to carefully investigate the charge and determine if the state can prove the charges. An attorney will determine whether probable cause existed for law enforcement officers to stop your vehicle, whether the officers followed standard protocol and legal requirements in questioning you, and whether probable cause existed to request you submit to a blood or breath test.
• Epstein & Roberts: To preserve your right to drive in Florida, you must request a hearing within 7 days after your license has been taken from you by an officer. An administrative hearing must be initially scheduled within 60 days.
• Hardesty & Tyde: In Florida, driving under the influence can be proved against an individual by proving that the person drove while their normal faculties were impaired or that they had an unlawful blood or breath alcohol level of .08 or above.
• Kevin S. Sanders: Keep in mind that the charge is driving under the "influence". The term "influence" is not restricted to the designation of alcohol. One could be driving under the influence and arrested for the same if they improperly or properly take medications. Additionally, one could be driving under the influence if they have been using an illegal substance such as a narcotic or marijuana. The police have tests which will determine what is "influencing" your driving and you are required, by law, to submit to such tests or forfeit your driving privilege.