I am a San Diego DUI lawyer and I must hear this question every other day! My clients ask me if I can get their case dismissed because the officer did not read them their rights when they were arrested for DUI. The fact of the matter is simply “No, not unless you were under arrest, they asked you a question likely to give them incriminating evidence, AND they need that evidence to convict you.
Most DUI cases begin with a traffic violation to justify the stop. The officer will ask you questions before you are under arrest, and most people answer them. “Did you have something to drink?” Now, you do not have to answer that question, nor are you required to take the “Field Sobriety Tests” even though the office tells you that if you pass they will let you go about your way. Fat chance. But think about it. The officer will say you drove poorly in violation of the law (that is why he stopped you). The officer will say that you admitted drinking and did poorly on Field Sobriety Tests that you did not have to take. Now through in the officers claims that you were slurring in your speech and your eyes were bloodshot and watery.
That is why you need a good affordable DUI lawyer. If you let the officer have his way with you, so will the prosecutor and chances are, so will the judge. As time goes by, the lobbyist become more and more powerful. And although you may have made a one-time mistake, you may be treated as though you are a constant danger to society and must be an alcoholic taken off the road as soon as possible.
A good DUI lawyer will look to see if there is a driving issue, for instance, that will require your admission of driving. That is one of the elements of the charge of DUI that must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution may need your statements AFTER you were under arrest. In THAT case, Miranda rights will be super important.
Those lawyers that are licensed in Arizona as well as California, as I am, will tell you a funny side note. If you are arrested for DUI in Arizona, it is called a DWI. But the funny part is that if you are arrested in Arizona, where the Miranda case originated, you will learn that Arizona follows the voluntariness approach to determining whether your constitutional rights were violated! It is a different analysis. There are many reasons for hiring good DUI lawyer and they can be affordable with a payment plan. There is a lot more to these DUI cases than all your friends that tell you to just go in an plead guilty, than you think …. (you can read the full text cited in the Cornell Law website See Miranda v. Arizona, 384 US 436 (1966).
