Missouri Criminal Lawyers Blog

Guest Author Marina Salsbury, not affiliated with the St Louis law firm of Sansone / Lauber . Marina Salsbury planned on becoming a teacher since high school, but found her way instead into online writing after college. She writes for Online College Classes and other sites about everything from education to exercise.

Each fall parents send their children off to college with a combination of pride and worry. Aside from meeting new people, registering for classes online, and getting to know a new place, parents know their children will probably have their first experiences with alcohol at college if they haven't already, it's not something they like to focus on. Unfortunately, DWIs and college students are a very real combination.

Approximately 900,000 people are arrested for DWI each year. Of these, close to 100,000 are college students. This means 11 percent of DWI arrests across the nation are college students and approximately 12 percent of these college students will be critically injured or killed.

Aside from traffic collisions, DWI charges can have serious ramifications for students, especially those under 21 years of age:

• Students under the age of 21 can face additional charges as well as DWI if they are caught driving intoxicated.
• When given a breathalyzer test, in many states those under 21 are considered intoxicated at much lower blood alcohol levels than those of legal drinking age.
• Students under the age of 21 can face stricter penalties and stiffer fines compared to those people over 21 when charged with DWI.
• Being charged with any crime, including DWI, may be in violation of a college's code of student conduct, and penalties from the school can range from probation to expulsion.
• Aside from DWIs, alcohol-related incidents on college campuses are on the rise. Statistics for college students between the ages of 18 and 24 indicate:
• Sex: 100,000 students have reported being too intoxicated to recall whether or not they had consented to sexual intercourse. 97,000 students reported being the victims of sexual assault or rape.
• Criminal Activity: intoxicated students are frequently involved in assaults, vandalism, criminal damage, or have been involved with campus security in some manner.
• Death: 1,825 students are killed in alcohol-related incidents (not including suicide).
• Dependence: 31 percent of students can be considered abusers of alcohol while 6 percent can be considered dependent.

Students on college campuses are often away from home for the first time in their lives. Meeting new friends, partying, and other college social activities often revolve around alcohol. While many young people experiment with alcohol without any short- or long-term ill effects, there are those who do face serious consequences. DWI charges are just one of the many things that can go wrong. Students who think they can drive safely after drinking not only endanger others' lives and their own, but often find themselves on a short track to academic probation or worse.

For parents, teaching children to be responsible about alcohol and its consumption will benefit them most. Be sure to sit down with your children before they leave for college and talk about alcohol, partying, and their possible ramifications, especially when it comes to driving. By having an open and honest conversation with your children you may very well lessen their risk of becoming an alcohol-related statistic and, more importantly, you may be saving their lives.

This post is by Guest Author, Carol Montrose, who is not affiliated with our law firm and this article does not necessarily reflect the legal opinions or views of Sansone / Lauber.

Whether or not you feel you deserve a DUI, if you get pulled over and you've been drinking (even if it's only a couple of beers) there's a good chance you're going to get one. This can cause a major headache in your life (although a lot less major than if you have an accident while under the influence of alcohol) because you can lose money, your license, and even your freedom in the process, depending on the state you live in, the severity of the charges, and the judge assigned to your case. But just because you are picked up for a DUI and then convicted and sentenced in court doesn't mean you don't still have legal recourse to fight the charges. Here's how to appeal the ruling and try to get it overturned or at least aim for a lighter sentence.

1. Ask for a new trial. Did you know that you can make an immediate appeal to the judge responsible for presiding over your trial? If you feel that your case was mishandled (the evidence, in particular), leading to an unfair conviction, or if you feel that the sentencing was too harsh for your infraction (especially if you are a first-time offender) then you can ask immediately for another trial. Unfortunately, judges rarely grant such requests, so you'll probably have to take it to the next level.

2. Hire an attorney. Once you have ascertained that an appeal to a higher court is your only course of action, it's time to lawyer up. Your goal is to find an attorney who has a good track record with cases similar to yours. He or she should know the state laws backwards and forwards, including how evidence could be mishandled (providing for the crux of your case, since you won't be tried a second time, but rather your first trial will be reviewed for inconsistencies or mistakes). An experienced lawyer will also be well aware of procedures such as what paperwork to file and what deadlines to observe.

3. File immediately for appeal. You may not have much time to file for an appeal after sentencing so you need to shake a leg. In some states, you are required to file within as little as ten days, while other states may offer up to thirty days to file. The point is, you don't have much time if you want a second chance to fight your DUI charge.

4. Ask for a stay of sentencing. One thing that most people would neglect to do if not for the advice of a good lawyer is to ask for the sentence to be stayed pending appeal. This basically means that you will not have to begin carrying out your sentence until after a decision has been made regarding your appeal.

5. Seek out substance abuse education. Regardless of whether it is required by your sentence, you should enter into substance abuse education before the hearing for your appeal. In some cases, showing that you are committed to making amends for your infraction could go a long way toward getting a reduced sentence, if not winning your appeal. And frankly, if you were caught on DUI charges once, it's almost certainly not the first time you were drinking and driving. Maybe some education on the dangers of your behavior will save you from more serious charges down the road.

Carol Montrose writes for New Jersey DUI Attorney, a New Jersey DWI defense law firm.

Guest Author: Allison Gamble, Student of Psychology

Arrests and convictions for charges of driving under the influence are often made based on evidence from field sobriety tests. While law enforcement officers often contend these tests are foolproof, forensic psychology and the statistics show otherwise. In a substantial number of cases field sobriety tests tend to indicate individuals are intoxicated when their blood alcohol levels are still below legal limits. A revision of the way this testing is performed may be necessary to prevent wrongful DUI charges.

There are several types of field sobriety tests used, and none has proven infallible in peer-reviewed research. On the contrary, studies often reveal significant problems with these tests. The horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) test looks for involuntary eye movements as an individual is told to look at a certain point in space. Even the US Department of Transportation states this test only accurately detects intoxicated people 88 percent of the time. A separate study performed by Maryland law enforcement officers found it was only accurate 79 percent of the time, and about one third of subjects below the legal blood alcohol limit were wrongly identified as intoxicated using this test.

Another common way to detect drunk drivers is with the walk and turn test, or a test involving standing on one foot. The Department of Transportation states these tests are about 79 percent and 83 percent accurate, respectively. However, critics of these methods point out the studies from which these statistics are derived were conducted by highly motivated officers specially trained to administer these tests, and who were being observed by civilian analysts. They point out that in actual roadside situations the detection rate could be much higher, and officers may be simply looking to make arrests, and so will tend to interpret cues in such a way that they will believe people are intoxicated, even if they legally aren't.

Some peer-reviewed studies have been even more critical of these tests. They state these tests are only accurate around two thirds of the time in detecting inebriated individuals, and often lead to false positives in assessing sober subjects. These studies found that only rarely were people who hadn't had anything to drink actually judged to be completely sober, even if officers didn't deem them "too drunk to drive."

Even field sobriety tests using breathalyzers aren't always accurate. The Department of Transportation has stated these devices accurately detect blood alcohol content about 91 percent of the time. Accordingly, all else being equal breathalyzer detections will be incorrect almost one time in ten. Moreover, depending on the skill of officers in administering other field sobriety tests and properly gauging subjects' responses, individuals could still easily be wrongly arrested for DUIs. When the only completely reliable determination of blood alcohol content is a blood test, being exonerated after the fact is impossible.

The tests currently used to evaluate sobriety in the field have unacceptably high false positive rates, and don't always detect intoxicated individuals consistently enough to be considered reliable. Often officers' own motivations, experiences, and beliefs regarding the people they're testing will lead to arrests more than testing does. Until more accurate field tests of blood alcohol levels are available, the results of these tests should always be supplemented by actual blood testing in order to absolutely prove someone has been drinking and driving.

Continue reading "Are Field Sobriety Tests Reliable in DWI Arrests? Several Studies Question FST Reliability " »

GUEST AUTHOR ARTICLE: not affiliated with St Louis law firm of Sansone / Lauber:

If you have been unfortunate enough to be caught and arrested for drunk driving, you must be weighing the pros and cons of hiring a DUI lawyer. Some people think that they do not need to hire a lawyer and they can represent themselves in court. Others think it is not a good idea to spend thousands of dollars on hiring a lawyer when they will eventually have to pay court fee and other DUI fines if they are proven guilty. However, as a first time DUI convict, you must understand that hiring a DUI lawyer to represent you in court should be your first priority. This is because as a layman, you will be unaware of how to deal with the situation in court and you will also not be aware of the local DUI laws, and what actions you must take to defend yourself. If you do not get professional consult, then you must prepare yourself to face the consequences of a DUI conviction, which can be severe in most states and will haunt you for the rest of your life, not to mention, leaving a permanent criminal mark on your record. So before you make the decision of whether or not to hire a DUI lawyer, you must ask some questions to yourself:

Are you aware of your Rights?

As a citizen of the state, you must be aware of your rights and the officer on duty who arrested you should tell you about your rights at the time of arrest. You may also not be sure whether you can refuse a breath test and other field sobriety tests, if the police officer asks you to take them. If you are not aware of your rights, and in the case you are arrested, you may be taken advantage of.

Are you aware of the local DUI laws?

You may also not be aware of the local laws and what you need to do in order to get your driving license back if it is suspended. The local laws include penalties and fines which will be imposed on you if you are proven guilty and the consequences also include spending time in jail, probation or serving community service hours, installation of an ignition interlock device and so on.

An experienced lawyer at you side can make a big difference by fighting for you at every step of the way. Your lawyer will take every possible measure to make sure that the charges against you are reduced as much as possible if not removed completely. They will also make sure that the fines are reduced and if the court orders any punishment, it is also minimized.

However, if you do not have a lawyer at your side, you will not be sure how to go about handling your case. You will not be aware of the deadlines which you have to meet in order to save your driving privileges. Similarly, you will not know what actions of the police officer on duty can be questioned in court and used in your favour.

Author Bio

Richard Jacobs is a chief editor since early 2007, and he currently works for MyDUIattorney. A website that helps you to find the right DUI lawyer, you can search for a Maryland DUI Attorney, and Arizona DUI Lawyer online, anytime! Top St Louis Missouri DWI Lawyer

If you have been unfortunate enough to be caught and arrested for St Louis drunk driving , you must be weighing the pros and cons of hiring a DUI lawyer. Some people think that they do not need to hire a lawyer and they can represent themselves in court. Others think it is not a good idea to spend thousands of dollars on hiring a lawyer when they will eventually have to pay court fee and other DUI fines if they are proven guilty. However, as a first time DUI offender, you must understand that hiring a DUI lawyer to represent you in court should be your first priority. This is because as a layman, you will be unaware of how to deal with the situation in court and you will also not be aware of the local DUI laws, and what actions you must take to defend yourself. If you do not get professional consult, then you must prepare yourself to face the consequences of a DUI conviction, which can be severe in most states and will haunt you for the rest of your life, not to mention, leaving a permanent criminal mark on your record. So before you make the decision of whether or not to hire a DUI lawyer, you must ask some questions to yourself:

Are you aware of your Rights?

As a citizen of the state, you must be aware of your rights and the officer on duty who arrested you should tell you about your rights at the time of arrest. You may also not be sure whether you can refuse a breath test and other field sobriety tests, if the police officer asks you to take them. If you are not aware of your rights, and in the case you are arrested, you may be taken advantage of.

Are you aware of the local DUI laws?

You may also not be aware of the local laws and what you need to do in order to get your driving license back if it is suspended. The local laws include penalties and fines which will be imposed on you if you are proven guilty and the consequences also include spending time in jail, probation or serving community service hours, installation of an ignition interlock device and so on.

An experienced lawyer at you side can make a big difference by fighting for you at every step of the way. Your Missouri DWI lawyer will take every possible measure to make sure that the charges against you are reduced as much as possible if not removed completely. They will also make sure that the fines are reduced and if the court orders any punishment, it is also minimized.

However, if you do not have a lawyer at your side, you will not be sure how to go about handling your case. You will not be aware of the deadlines which you have to meet in order to save your driving privileges. Similarly, you will not know what actions of the police officer on duty can be questioned in court and used in your favor.

Author Bio

Richard Jacobs is a chief editor since early 2007, and he currently works for MyDUIattorney. A website that helps you to find the right DUI lawyer, you can search for a Maryland DUI Attorney or for Arizona DUI Lawyer online, anytime!