In the unfortunate event that you are stopped by law enforcement for a suspected DUI, it’s crucial to know how to handle the situation appropriately. Remember the following best practices:

Stay Calm and Respectful

Remain composed and cooperative during the interaction with law enforcement officers. Avoid arguing or exhibiting aggressive behavior, as it may escalate the situation.

Invoke Your Rights

You have the right to remain silent and the right to legal representation from a leading DUI defense law firm in Clearwater, like The Law Office of Timothy Sullivan. Politely exercise these rights by respectfully declining to answer any potentially self-incriminating questions until you have a lawyer present to advise you.

Refrain From Performing Field Sobriety Tests

Field sobriety tests are voluntary, and you have the right to refuse them. These tests can be subjective and potentially used against you in court. You should know that these tests are very hard to perform, even if you have not been drinking. When you add in the stress of a potential arrest, your chances of performing in a way that the officer finds satisfactory are low. If you refuse the tests, you will likely be arrested. However, you will also be depriving the State Attorney of this important, pivotal evidence.

Know Your Rights with Respect to the Breath Test

If you are arrested for a DUI, law enforcement is going to try and convince you to provide a breath sample. Law enforcement will go to great lengths to tell you the consequences of refusing a breath test. What they often will not tell you are the consequences of providing a breath test. Here are a few things you should keep in mind:

• If it is your first offense, you are eligible to apply for a hardship license whether you blow or refuse a breath test if you had a valid license at the time of the arrest;
• If you provide a breath sample and it is above .150, you may not be eligible for a diversion program that you would have qualified for if you had refused; and
• If you provide a breath sample and the result is above .150, the penalties are greater than if you had refused.

Pinellas County diversion programs, such as the D.R.O.P. program, are programs designed to “divert” minor offenders from the court system, and allow them to perform certain tasks (usually focused on rehabilitation) while the court proceedings are “stayed,” “continued,” or “put on hold.” In exchange, the State Attorney agrees to provide some form of relief to the accused. If accepted, a diversion program may help you entirely avoid a conviction for DUI and the charge is amended to “Reckless Driving.”

There are several requirements and pre-conditions that must be met by defendants in order to qualify for the D.R.O.P. program. Each case and application for the D.R.O.P. program is evaluated on an individual basis. There are a few conditions that may render you ineligible for the program: if your blood or breath alcohol levels were above 0.150, if your case involves bodily injury, significant property damage, or minor children, as well as other disqualifying events such as driving without a license.  If you have been charged with a DUI offense in Pinellas County, our top-rated DUI defense lawyers will evaluate your possible eligibility for participation in the DUI diversion program. We will guide you every step of the way and instruct you on which tasks to accomplish to give you the best chances of securing a reduction in charge from DUI to Reckless Driving.

It’s essential to consult one of our Clearwater DUI attorneys as soon as possible following a DUI charge to determine if you’re eligible for the D.R.O.P. program. If you do not qualify for D.R.O.P., we may still be able to reduce your DUI charge to reckless driving.

In an effort to combat DUIs and keep the roads safe, Pinellas County law enforcement agencies employ DUI Wolf Packs. During holidays and weekends when alcohol consumption is high, these wolf packs consist of specially trained officers who patrol the county with the objective of identifying and apprehending impaired drivers. Over Memorial Day Weekend 2022, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office county-wide DUI wolf pack reported 28 DUIs and over 150 citations.

The wolf packs are typically set up to have saturated patrols in areas of the county where drinking and driving are most common. These areas often include:

• 4th Street in St. Petersburg leaving downtown
• Gulf Boulevard from St. Pete Beach up to Indian Rocks Beach
• The Memorial Causeway leaving Clearwater Beach
• US 19 North
• The Ulmerton Road/US19 interchange

The general strategy is to pull over as many people as possible to cast a wider net for catching impaired drivers. Common traffic stops during these wolf pack saturation patrols include speeding, expired registration, failure to maintain a single lane, inoperative head or tail lights, stopping past a stop bar, and driving while license suspended or revoked. 

Follow our Facebook page for updates regarding DUI wolf packs in Pinellas County.

Just because you blew over the legal limit, that does not mean that you will be convicted of a DUI offense. Our top-rated Pinellas DUI defense lawyers can analyze the unique factors of your case to determine if a reduction to Reckless Driving is a reasonable possibility in your case. Here are some common ways that our highly ranked DUI defense attorneys can help secure a reduction to Reckless Driving even where our client has blown over the legal limit:

• In some cases, our client may qualify for a diversion program that would result in a reduction to Reckless even if you provided a breath or blood result above .08;
• In some cases, our office can use a mathematical formula called “Widmark’s Equation” to demonstrate that although our client was above the legal limit at the time the breath sample was collected, he would have been below the legal limit at the time of driving;
• Our office regularly conducts an analysis of the records associated with the breath testing instruments used to test our client’s breath alcohol levels. If we find problems with the maintenance and calibration of the machine, we may be able to secure a reduction in the charge by demonstrating that the evidence is not scientifically reliable; 
• We have found that some police officers will misstate the benefits of providing a breath sample or the consequences of refusing to submit to breath testing. In these cases, we can often use the “misinformation” to convince the prosecutor that a reduction to Reckless Driving is appropriate.

A Continuous Alcohol Monitoring (CAM) device monitors someone’s alcohol intake regularly. Often a bracelet or anklet form, this device measures the alcohol content in a person’s sweat. It is programmed to measure every 30 minutes and transmits the data to a monitoring center. 

If alcohol is detected in your system, an alert will be triggered, and you could face consequences such as additional fines for violating probation or pretrial release. If the CAM monitor was ordered as a condition of pretrial release, it is not uncommon that a positive alcohol consumption event will result in the Court issuing a warrant for your arrest.

Interstate compacts are defined as, “a contractual arrangement made between two or more states in which the assigned parties agree on a specific policy issue and either adopt a set of standards or cooperate on a particular regional or national matter.” Florida is a part of two different interstate compacts for traffic violations: the Driver License Compact (DLC) and the Non-Resident Violators Compact (NRVC).

If your home state is also a part of one of these interstate compacts, the details regarding your arrest and any DUI charges brought against you may be provided to governing authorities, and any penalties (such as driver’s license suspension) resulting from the traffic violation and charges may be enforced. Think your home state might be one of the lucky states excluded from this arrangement? Think again! You likely live in one of these states–only two states (Michigan and Wisconsin) are not a part of one of these interstate compacts.

If you’re facing a DUI charge, the first thing you should do is seek the help of a DUI defense attorney in Clearwater, FL with The Law Office of Timothy Sullivan. In our decades of practicing DUI defense, we have helped thousands of clients successfully get their licenses back after a DUI. 

Time is of the essence, as you only have ten calendar days from the time of your arrest to apply for a hardship license or request a hearing to challenge your license suspension. Therefore, it’s essential to act fast and contact a top DUI attorney in Clearwater at our firm immediately after the fact to help you navigate the process.

Our team at Law Office of Timothy Sullivan are among a select few DUI attorneys in Clearwater who are certified to operate an Intoxilyzer. This places their top DUI attorneys in a strong position to scrutinize your results and ensure the Intoxilyzer test was administered in the correct way during your DUI stop. 

The results of our examination can change the outlook of your case entirely. If the test was improperly administered, there is no way to guarantee the validity of the test; and without test validity, there is no way that the prosecutor can prove beyond reasonable doubt that you were over the legal limit.

The option of a friend or relative picking up your car and driving it home for you is the most ideal scenario, but it is completely dependent on the arresting officer. This is a courtesy and is not guaranteed; however, the officer may agree to allow it if your friend or family member can get to your vehicle within about 20 minutes. 

Where the car is taken is up to the person who picks it up. If it is not taken back to your residence (or whatever location you prefer for it to stay), in most cases, you will have 10 days to drive under a temporary permit; within that period, you will be able to pick up and drive your car to your preferred location.

When an individual has been charged with a DUI or another similar crime, they want to know that they have the best possible defense in their case. At The Law Office of Timothy Sullivan, we work as a team on every case, meaning no attorney works in isolation. 

Each of our attorneys has a different area of focus, with diverse backgrounds and unique experiences. This allows us to provide the most creative and effective strategies for each of our  clients, which many other firms just simply cannot offer. 

We also prioritize showing up in court ourselves, meaning we never use coverage attorneys. When our client’s life and wellbeing is on the line, they can count on us to show up for them every time. The Pinellas County Courthouse is essentially our second home, as each of our attorneys is in court nearly every day, serving our clients’ best interest.

When you hire Attorney Tim Sullivan or any of the attorneys with The Law Office of Timothy Sullivan in Clearwater, you can have the confidence that our holistic team approach yields the best results and allows for multiple professional perspectives on every issue.