If you’re a Texas motorist, and you operate your vehicle on public roadways in the state of Texas, you’ve already given Houston area police officers consent to perform breath, blood, and chemical testing on you if they suspect you of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) or Driving under the Influence (DUI).
Implied Consent
There’s a legal standard in the state of Texas known as “implied consent” which means that, by operating a vehicle on public roads in the state of Texas, permission is given via “implied consent” to law enforcement to perform sobriety testing on you if they suspect you of being impaired.
Related: Implied Consent Ruled Unconstitutional?
Refusing Blood & Breath Tests
Refusing to take part in testing will automatically put you in a situation where you may face surcharges when you attempt to renew your Texas Drivers License and/or an outright Texas drivers license suspension.
It’s important to note that the implied consent law only applies to evidentiary tests performed in a controlled environment like a police station and excludes a legal requirement for field sobriety tests, portable breath tests, and DRE (drug recognition expert) tests.
Don’t hesitate to contact The Law Offices of Tad Nelson & Associates if you want to fight a DWI charge, a DWI-alcohol related offense, you want to fight the validity of tests conducted by the state, or you want to challenge the state because your rights were violated.
Failing DWI Sobriety Tests
Even if you failed the tests, we might still be able to defend you on the grounds of your Constitutional Rights being violated as a result of an unlawful search or an unlawful traffic stop by police. Tests conducted at police stations are not always accurate, and the personnel are not always trained to the highest suggested standards of competency.
In other cases, specimen contamination and other simple mistakes are made during the collection and storage of evidence that would be used against the defendant in a Houston criminal trial setting.
DWI Sobriety Test Refusal Defense
Houston DWI Lawyer Tad A. Nelson does not advocate an outright refusal of breath testing while in police custody at the police station.
What may happen is that the police officer might feel compelled to seek a warrant from a judge to perform a blood test, breath test, or even worse, a forced blood draw.
This is only possible if the police can show probable cause for such measures to be executed.
If the police officer can get a judge or magistrate to grant them a blood warrant, we’ll still have a few options at our disposal that may prevent blood evidence from being admissible in court.
Evidence could be blocked from court due to reasons involving an overstatement of the evidence by the arresting agency, bad science when it comes to the blood test, the omission of important information from warrant requests, and dishonesty by police.
Other Penalties For Blood & Sobriety Test Refusal
If the officer decides to take the extra step of getting a warrant for a forced blood draw or breath test, you’ll face additional penalties such as an immediate Texas Drivers License suspension and/or an assessment of surcharges when you eventually renew your Texas Drivers License.
However, it should be noted; there’s no penalty for refusing to take part in a DRE evaluation.
Our DWI Defense Team Challenges Blood/Breath Tests
Attorney Tad Nelson is a staunch advocate for clients of ours who were arrested for drunk driving related offenses in Houston. If you need experienced DWI attorneys that can make the problem go away, call our law office at 281-502-2122.
When defending our clients against prosecution, we challenge the validity and reliability of the breath tests, the training/credentials of the person charged with conducting the test, the science behind the testing, the maintenance of the machine used in your particular case, certifications and credentials of all parties involved during the administration of the breath testing. We also review the qualifications and experience of the technician who serviced the equipment used to conduct the testing, and whether or not the officer considered your personal circumstances from a position concerning potential interference(s) with the final test results.
There are a number of DWI defense strategies at our disposal that may be available to us depending on your history, the details of your situation, and other factors.
Talk with Attorney Tad Nelson About Your Case
We have proven techniques that we’ve used routinely to beat Houston’s prosecuting attorneys in court. Our strategies help to secure not guilty verdicts from jurors and to influence case dismissals by DWI courts.
If you submitted to a blood or breath test as a result being stopped, and were arrested under the pretense of “Suspicion of DWI” in Houston, contact attorney Tad Nelson for help.
