Law Blog
Reminder: you can be charged with DUID based on marijuana use
Back in late January, the Colorado State Patrol released statewide new data on driving while intoxicated and driving under the influence from 2014. Among the interesting statistics were that, out of a total of 5,500 tickets related to drugs and alcohol—354 of them...
Bill would impose penalties on repeat DUI offenders
Most people assume that multiple drunk-driving convictions results in progressively more serious charges. In most states, that is indeed the case, but in Colorado and a handful of other states, it is possible for an individual to not face felony DUI charges even after...
How does field sobriety testing factor into DUI defense? P.2
In our last post, we began discussing the issue of field sobriety testing. As we noted, the Standard Field Sobriety Test consists of several discrete tests. It is important for readers to understand that they do not have to submit to field sobriety testing, and it...
How does field sobriety testing factor into DUI defense?
In our last post, we raised the question of the evidentiary value of field sobriety testing. This is an important issue for a couple of reasons. Firstly, field sobriety testing is typically used by police officers as a means of gathering enough evidence to support...
What does it take to convict a defendant for drunk driving in Colorado? P.2
In our last post, we began speaking on the issue of what exactly it takes to be convicted of drunk-driving charges in Colorado. As we noted last time, it is not the case that prosecutors always need to have evidence that the defendant was at or above the legal limit...
What does it take to convict a defendant for drunk driving in Colorado?
All of our readers have heard the term "legal limit" in connection with drunk-driving charges, and know that it refers to a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent. Many states besides Colorado have the same legal limit for drunk-driving, so this is fairly common...
More clarity now on warrantless blood draws? P.2
In our last post, we briefly discussed a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to not hear an appeal out of Colorado which sought clarity on a previous Supreme Court ruling which refused to recognize an automatic exception to the general warrant requirement where...
More clarity now on warrantless blood draws? P.1
The Supreme Court will apparently not be hearing an appeal in a case involving a Colorado man who was arrested in 2012 and forced to submit to a warrantless blood draw after he caused an intersection crash. At trial, the man was able to have the blood test excluded...
Don’t make a bad situation worse
Persons arrested for DUI are often charged with other criminal offenses such as vehicular eluding and leaving the scene of the accident. Where an accident results in death or serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of the accident is aggravated from a misdemeanor to...
No one is immune…
DUI/DWAI can happen to anyone, even judges as this article explains. In Colorado the criminal offense of "hit/skip" is called hit-and-run: a misdemeanor, unless the driver causes serious bodily injury or death in the accident, in which case it is...
Summer DUI crackdowns
The heat is still on here in Colorado. Every summer law enforcement agencies around the country step up their efforts to investigate and charge DUI. These efforts range from sobriety check-points, mobile chemical labs for quickly analyzing blood samples,...
DUI Fatality
This article is about an unlicensed drunk driver in Minnesota who killed a teenaged boy. This is a tragic story. No accident should be viewed as funny. Bad taste: An unlicensed drunk driver who killed a 16-year-old boy in a horror crash last week posted a...