What You Need To Know About DUI In Sacramento, California

The long and hard day is finally over, so you are driving your car home dreaming about how you are going to fall asleep in your bed. You take a quick look in the rear view window. A police car is appearing from some distance. Of course, the very first thing that you are going to do is checking your speed. Well, nothing wrong here – you are not surpassing the allowed speed limit. Still, you do not want to leave the things to chance, so you put both hands on the wheel. You were not texting while driving, you have a hands free phone in the car. Everything seems to be fine, so there is absolutely no reason to worry about anything.

Yet, you have forgotten to fix the broken taillight and you only realize it when the police car start signaling you with flickering lights. While you are pulling over to the side of the road, you are trying to remember if everything is in order. Now where did you put your driver’s license again? Is the registration fresh? And what about the insurance? Then your heart starts pounding – you were drinking with your friends tonight. Of course, it was only a couple of beers, but you do not remember what is the legal alcohol limit in Sacramento, CA. You try to explain the situation to the law enforcement officers, but the only thing that they really trust is the breathalyzer. And it already indicates that you were actually drinking and your BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) surpasses the established .08% limit. Hence, the officers are acting in line with the law and arrest you for driving while impaired.

With that said, a lot of people believe that they are only going to be stopped for a DUI check in case they will be frantically driving their vehicles. Other individuals get goosebumps only if they hear about an approaching Sacramento DUI checkpoint. Truth be told – it is the little things that may well get you in trouble. Speeding, ignoring the stop signs and even broken taillights may well have you being pulled over by the law enforcement officers, who are consequently going to establish that you were drinking and will have you arrested for DUI.

No doubt, if you are arrested for DUI, you are going to panic. After all, even if it is your first DUI arrest, chances are, you already heard about the possible consequences as well as legal penalties that may well be waiting for you. We are, of course, talking about losing your driving privileges, having to pay expensive fees and fines, community service, alcohol awareness classes, installation of an ignition interlock device in your vehicle as well as even possible jail time in county jail.

One way or the other, the very first thing that you will want to do in case you were charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, is getting in touch with a qualified as well as genuinely experienced attorney. The matter is very serious and you will require expert advice on this one.

There are some things that really matter in cases like this. First of all, you will need to understand whether or not you were legally pulled over. Did the law enforcement officers have the right to stop you? Did they have a reason to? In case there was no reason to pull you over and the law enforcement officers did so nonetheless, any evidence accumulated during this arrest will not be viable in court.

Once you are pulled over and if the officer has reasons to believe that you were drinking, he or she will ask you to step out of the vehicle. This is when the officer is going to be looking for any signs of alcohol intoxication. We are talking about things like unfocused eye contact, slurred speech and so on. The officer may also ask you to submit yourself to the sobriety tests.

It is very important to know that in California, unlike in many other states, in case the law enforcement officer would like you to take the breathalyzer test, it is obligatory for you to submit it or you will have to go to the police station. This is due to the fact that in California you are automatically agreeing to submitting to such tests when you are getting your driver’s license. Hence, in case you will refuse, you may lose your license for up to seven months. Furthermore, if it is your second DUI offense and you refused to take the test, your license will be suspended for up to a year.

First time DUI offenders risk having to pay up to $1000 in fines, losing their license for up to 3 months and even having to spend up to 30 days in jail. In addition, there are certain additional fees as well and you may end up paying a lot more.

One way or the other, if you were charged with DUI, you will need to find an experienced lawyer, who had to deal with cases like this one before and who will know how to handle the judge and the prosecutor. Hence, it will be your number one priority to find a great attorney to represent you in court of law.

If you were arrested and charged with drunk driving in Sacramento, Sacramento DUI Specialists will help. Contact Sacramento Drunk Driving Attorney for your free case evaluation.