Will Tennessee and Mississippi be putting more bite into liquor laws?
November 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment
USA Today had an interesting post today that looks at how new liquor laws that are in effect in TX and NJ could effect everyone from bar owners to restauranteurs here in Memphis and surrounding ares.
The article discusses how states such as Texas, New Jersey and Washington have began compiling lists of “top drinking establishments” by asking people who have been pulled over for DUI where they had there last drink.
This new rule to me seems invasive of privacy. It also opens up all types of problems for restaurants and bars. Yes, these establishments need to serve their patrons drinks in a responsible manor. But where does the liability for what someone does on their own cut off?
Here is the link with the full article, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-11-27-last-drink_N.htm, let me know what you guys think in the comment section.
P.S. always remember if you’ve found yourself in a tough situation with a DUI and need help call us at the Ferrell Law Firm. That’s what we are here for.
Illegal Roadblocks and Checkpoints
November 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment
HOLIDAY SEASON UPDATE During the holiday season, many local police departments and the Tennessee Highway Patrol will utilize roadblocks and checkpoints in order to reduce alcohol-related accidents and increase safety for all drivers on the roads. Many arrests and seizures will be made courtesy of these roadblock and checkpoints, but many of these setups will be found unconstitutional under both Federal and Tennessee case law. Moreover, because most government offices and public works are closed during the holiday season, it will be months before charges will be dismissed. Know your rights and avoid the holiday headache of an unfair and unlawful DUI charge. Always remember though, driving while intoxicated or under the influence of drugs greatly endangers you and other drivers on the road. Always drink responsibly and designate a driver.
SEARCHES AND SEIZURES Federal case law and the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protect citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures. Case law decided under Article I, Section 7 of the Tennessee Constitution go even further to protect individual liberties. Under Tennessee case law, you have been seized by a law enforcement agent as soon as the blue lights are turned on. The officer must have probable cause and reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing before they walk up to your car. There must be individualized suspicion not generalized profiling. Always drive carefully and with your seatbelt on.
ROADBLOCKS AND CHECKPOINTS The officers involved cannot make the decision to have a roadblock or checkpoint nor can they decide for themselves the operating procedures. Valid roadblocks and checkpoints must have clear operational guidelines, be conducted under supervisory authority and for a compelling state interest. The purpose of the roadblock or checkpoint must be the actual stated purpose and not a blanket disguise to detect any criminal wrongdoing. Tennessee Department of Safety General Order 410-1 lays out the appropriate guidelines for the Tennessee Highway Patrol and serves as a guideline for local law enforcement.
- - Clear notice. This means not only notice on the road for advancing traffic but also notice to the local community at large. Watch your local news and listen to the local radio stations for advertisements and warnings.
- - Uniformed officers. Patrol cars with flashing lights must be present. Look for clear markings of which law enforcement agencies are present. Don’t open your windows or doors without being sure that you are in the custody of real law enforcement officers.
- - Safe and visible area. The goal of law enforcement is public safety. Hidden or concealed stopping points are unnecessarily dangerous to everyone involved, regardless of the precautions taken by the officer. Make sure your vehicle is clear of and clearly visible to the continuing traffic.
- - Stop all cars. Both directions of travel should be subject to the same traffic congestion. There must be no discretion left to the conducting officers.
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS All public laws are created to protect and serve society as a whole as well as maintaining individual liberties. Conduct yourself as a good citizen and obey the rules of the roads. Good citizens do not deserve unnecessary intimidation by law enforcement trying to weed out the bad apples and increase revenues by writing expensive citations. Know the laws and your rights under the laws.
Have a safe and happy holiday season, and a happy new year!
Should I blow into the Breathalzyer?
November 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment
As DUI Lawyers in Mississippi and Memphis we hear this question all the time. In fact, it’s probably the most asked question that we hear. Unfortunately there isn’t a cut and dry answer. What I can say is that every year we represent people who tell us that they had only drank one or two beers before they were pulled over by the police, and even though they had only had one or two drinks they still insisted on not blowing. When we ask them why the usual answer we get is because they “had a friend tell them to blow” or “I heard a lawyer say not to blow one time”. What almost always occurs next is that these people end up losing there drivers license for at least three months and many times up to a year. If the person would have simply taken the breath test they probably would have blown below .08% and would have never have received a ticket for DUI or for refusing to blow.
Those charged with refusing to submit to a DUI breath test in Mississippi almost always lose their driving privileges. Count on it if you refuse to blow.
If your blood alcohol reading is over the legal limit of .08%, Tennessee law says that you are guilty of DUI “per se”. This means that if you operate a vehicle and exceed the legal limit of .08%, you are guilty of DUI. In other words, there does not need to be a finding of impairment in order for a judge or jury to find you guilty. Take the test, fail it, and so long as the stop and test are found to be valid, the law does not require that any further evidence be provided as to your intoxication, Mississippi DUI laws are similar.
Our DUI lawyers in Mississippi and Memphis have found that people who take the breath test and register close to the legal limit often have their case reduced to Reckless Driving. However, If you take the test and register in the higher percentage ranges, odds are that you aren’t going to have your case reduced and you will be found guilty of DUI.
Your blood alcohol level is dependant on several factors, such as how much you have had to drink, how much you have had to eat, your own metabolism, how much you weigh and how long it has been since your last drink. For the average person, 3 beers is enough to exceed the legal limit. Two five-ounce glasses of wine is enough for a 100-pound woman to exceed the limit. The breathalyzer doesn’t use any of your specific information though to determine whether or not you are intoxicated. Instead the computer uses a compilation of “averages” to make this determination. The problem is that most Americans aren’t average and because of this it is likely that the breathalyzer could indicate you are intoxicated when you actually are not.
And when the breathalyzer comes back with a result that shows you are intoxicated this is a difficult hurdle to clear (although we do have many ways to fight this) in defending you. If you believe that there is a high probability that you are intoxicated it is generally in your best interest not to blow. By not blowing we are often times able to prepare a better defense to your DUI. But you should be aware that by not blowing you are almost guaranteeing yourself that you will lose your driving privileges for some length of time.
So here’s the final answer. You should blow if you are not intoxicated, and you should not blow if you are. A better question if you are considering this should be, “Should I drive?” Even a small amount of alcohol combined with driving opens yourself up to possible bad situations. Don’t take a chance with your life or someone else’s, take a cab.
The Truth about your Memphis and Shelby County DUI Case
November 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Here is the truth of the situation if you are facing a DUI charge in Memphis:
- Your fate lies in the facts of your case, not in some magical power of your lawyer.
- It’s very possible that the police officer who arrested you is a specialist. In Shelby County the Sheriff’s department has a group called the Shelby County Metro D.U.I. units who’s sole purpose on the police force is to arrest and convict drunk drivers.
- Anything and everything that occured and every word you said was probably recorded for viewing by a judge and jury in the event of a trial.
- If you took a breathalyzer test like roughly 50% of those arrested, and you blew over .08% the officer doesn’t even have to testify in order for you to be convicted of DUI due to Tennessee’s DUI per se law.
- 98% of the people charged and ticketed with a DUI offense in Memphis plead guilty to something.
- It is extremely uncommon to take a DUI case to trial. Of the over 2,800 arrests for DUI in Memphis and Shelby County last year less than 20 went to trial.
- Over 1/2 of those arrested for DUI in Memphis refused to take the breath test. Nearly everyone of them lost their license for at least a limited amount of time.
Olive Branch DUI Statistics for November
November 19, 2007 | 1 Comment
As a DUI Lawyer with offices in Mississippi and Tennessee I try to keep you informed of local statistics concerning DUI’s. Here is the last weeks information for Olive Branch, courtesy of the Desoto County Tribune.
For the week of November 11-17 there were nine DUI arrests in Olive Branch.
DUI Field Sobriety Tests Are Not Fair
November 15, 2007 | 1 Comment
Here is some information that all Memphis and Mississippi DUI lawyers should know. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) the most reliable test to determine whether or not a person is guilty of driving under the influence outside of a blood or breathalyzer test is the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) test.
The HGN test is basically the “watch my finger” test. It consists of the dui arrest officer conducting a very specific technique where he asks you to follow his finger as he crosses it back and forth. The test sounds simple but it really isn’t. To conduct the test properly the officer must go through a specific protocol of using correct timing, angles, positioning, and passes. The test is so exacting that the NHTSA manual prints the instructions to giving it on over four pages. Because the test is so difficult to administer properly most dui arresting officers can’t conduct the test to the specific protocols that it requires. Hower, even when they do it correctly the test is a reliable indicator of intoxication 77% of the time. That means that almost 25% of the people who police believe are intoxicated when they give this test are not actually intoxicated. This is according to the NHTSA’s own statistics
Think about that. Of the people who are arrested for DUI following a HGN test it is likely that 25% of them were not intoxicated. If you were arrested for DUI because you failed the HGN there is a good chance that there was no probable cause for your arrest. And without probable cause you should have never received a ticket.
Contact a Memphis DUI Lawyer or Mississippi DUI Lawyer to help you in your DUI case.
Gary Collins DUI
November 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Actor Gary Collins has again been arrested for DUI. Collins was arrested back in 2002 for a Mississippi DUI but was exonerated when he went to trial in the magnolia state.
This time Collins was arrested on DUI charges in Sherman Oaks, California. Apparently he was driving around 5:30 p.m. when an 89 year-old man ran through a stop signal and rammed into his Ford Explorer causing him to hit two parked cars.
What’s the lesson here? A DUI can happen at any time and it doesn’t have to be your fault. Be careful when you drive and don’t drive drunk. But if you do find yourself needing the representation of a Memphis DUI lawyer or a Mississippi DUI lawyer make sure to do your research and call someone you can count on.
Tamara Mitchell-Ford, Collierville DUI and Memphis DUI
November 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment
It Seems that Memphis’ favorite drunk driver has been at it again here in Shelby County. Tamara Mitchell-Ford has received her third DUI (second in less than a year) and it looks like she’ll probably be serving some serious jail time for this offense if found guilty. More than likely she’ll be going to jail immediately due to violating her parole from her previous DUI arrest.
The penalty for third offense drinking and driving is a fine of between $1,100 and $10,000, between three months to one year in jail and three to ten years of suspension of drivers license.
I’m also going to go out on a limb here and say that Mitchell-Ford will probably also be looking at an ignition lockout device being installed on her car. The good news for Mitchell-Ford here is that noone was injured in the accident that occured prior to her arrest on the third DUI Charge.
Here at the Ferrell Law Firm we understand that people sometimes make mistakes, as Memphis area lawyers we’re here to help, but when events such as the DUI arrests of Mitchell-Ford continue to occur it’s time to evaluate if you have a problem. We hope that she seeks both a good dui lawyer and a alcohol counselor.
