Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media
Can you tell me if the DUI laws have changed right along with the drug laws in California? I mean, there’s been a significant change, of course, as we talked about in the drug laws. But have the DUI laws changed any?
Darryl Stallworth – Criminal Defense Attorney – Alameda County, CA
The laws haven’t changed but the thing that has changed the whole DUI environment. It’s two words, two words, Uber and Lyft. And we’ve got more people understanding and appreciating that it’s not worth the risk of driving while impaired, when you’ve got the ability to open up your phone and have somebody come pick you up, and that’s helped an awful lot.
It’s the same thing thirty years ago. It’s relevant right now. If you drink, there’s a good chance you’re going to be impaired. And if you get pulled over for a trap of violation, you’re going to have some alcohol in your system. Having a .08 is typically two beers, or maybe a hard drink or a cocktail.
Most people like to believe that they know when they’re intoxicated and when they’re not, but they don’t. They don’t know what their blood alcohol level is going to be. And if you keep living and believing that, the probability is that eventually, you’re going to have a DUI.
And I tell my DUI clients, when they hire me, I say, “here’s the good news, you’re not dead and you didn’t kill anybody. The bad news is that you’re going to have to pay a fine, you’re going to have to go to DUI school, you going to have to do some sheriff’s work program. It’s going to be embarrassing. But this is a huge wakeup call that we’re going to navigate through it.”
Sometimes there’s constitutional issues. Sometimes the breathalyzer machine hasn’t been properly maintained, or there’s a bad blood draw, or they took too long to do something. So there’s some ways of challenging, but nothing has really changed. If you drink and you drive, you’re putting yourself at risk.
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