Defending a Drink Driving Charge

People plead guilty to drink driving charges for a number of reasons, even when they are not technically guilty.

These reasons can include:

• A lack of awareness of the common defences for drink driving charges, and their likelihood of success
• In order to save on legal costs
• So that the case is over more quickly, and they can put it behind them

Before you automatically plead guilty to a drink driving charge, be aware that there are a number of possible defences, the most common being:

The two hour rule

To be admissible as evidence in court, the police need to have breath tested a person no more than two hours after they last drove.

If you have reason to believe that the police have not adhered to this rule, Sydney Drink Driving Lawyers will advise them, and request that they withdraw the charges.

If they decide to continue, we can work to get the evidence excluded from court and legal costs awarded in your favour.

Unsafe reading

This is the most common defence to a drink driving charge.

In many drink driving cases there is a very real possibility that the blood alcohol concentration could be lower when the person was driving, than later when tested by the police.

There is scientific evidence to prove that blood alcohol concentration increases for 30 minutes to an hour after they consume an alcoholic drink, so it is possible in some circumstances to argue that your blood alcohol concentration was lower when you were driving than when you were tested later by the police.

Some of the factors that determine whether you will be a likely candidate for this defence include:

• What time the roadside breath test was taken, and how much later the full analysis was done
• How many alcoholic drinks you consumed, and what type of drinks they were
• When and what you ate before the breath test
• Your weight, sex and age
• What time you had your first and last drinks

If it looks likely that your blood alcohol concentration was lower at the time of driving than of testing, Sydney Drink Driving Lawyers can arrange a pharmacological report.

This report can then form the basis of a request to the police to withdraw or reduce the charge, or as a means of defending the charge if the matter goes to court.

Honest and reasonable mistake

If you honestly believed that you were under the limit when you were driving, this can form a basis for your defence.

Proving you honestly believed you were under the limit can be fairly straightforward, but with so much publicity surrounding drinking and driving and encouraging people not to drink at all, it is increasingly difficult to argue that doing so was ‘reasonable’.

The home safely rule

It is against the law for police to breath test someone on their own property – in cases where they do, the evidence may be excluded in court.

To speak to an experienced drink driving lawyer, and find out how we can help you defend your drink driving charge, contact Sydney Drink Driving Lawyers today and take advantage of our free first appointment.