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Yes, you can challenge a Breathalyzer and win in court

On Behalf of | Nov 30, 2017 | Drunk Driving

If you’ve been accused of driving while intoxicated, one of the first things that you’ll be asked to do is to submit to a breath test. Using a Breathalyzer, the officer will take a sample of your breath to determine your current level of intoxication. The breath test reports a percentage. Under law, any level that is .08 percent or higher makes it illegal for you to be behind the wheel of a vehicle.

While the results of this test do make a significant difference to a case, the results aren’t necessarily foolproof. If something went wrong during the breath test, like if you burped, it could throw off the reading. There are a few ways to challenge the breath test. If you’re successful, it may not be admissible in court.

One of the first things your attorney will do is to look into the quality of the Breathalyzer and the training of the officer. If a particular brand isn’t reliable or if you can show that it is reading inaccurately, that gives you the opportunity to have the evidence removed from the case. In some situations, that could help you eliminate the charges completely.

Another thing your attorney can do is to have the officer’s training reviewed. If the officer isn’t trained to use a Breathalyzer, he or she could have taken the test incorrectly. If that’s the case, it would be hard to prove that the results were reliable, and that could potentially be thrown out. Our site has more on what you can do if you question the validity of a breath test.

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