[VIDEO] Does a .06 or .07 Mean You Are Not Guilty of DUI?
This is a common misconception that I encounter almost daily from folks, is that people think that if you blow below a .08 you’re automatically not guilty of DUI, that you’re in the safe zone as long as you’re below a .08 on the breathalyzer. Unfortunately, that is wrong. If you have been charged with VA DUI, contact me about your case to see what options you have.
Video Transcription
Does a .07 or .06 on the Breathalyzer mean you’re not guilty? Let’s talk about that. Hi, I’m Andrew Flusche. I’m your Virginia DUI attorney. This is a common misconception that I encounter almost daily from folks, is that people think that if you blow below a .08 you’re automatically not guilty of DUI, that you’re in the safe zone as long as you’re below a .08 on the Breathalyzer. Unfortunately, that is wrong. A .08 or higher gives the Commonwealth a presumption that you are impaired. There’s different legal terms for it, but basically it puts them on the high ground and it means that the Commonwealth, all they need to do is present that certificate, get that into evidence, and that means the judge can find easily that you are impaired by alcohol.
If you blow a .06 or a .07, they do not get that presumption. There’s no assumption or presumption that you are impaired by alcohol. However, they can still use that number against you to try to argue that you were impaired based on the number, a .07 plus some bad driving behavior maybe, plus stumbling or slurred speech or not doing well on a field test. All of those things together, then, the judge could say that you were indeed impaired by alcohol.
The flip end of this is that if you blow a .05 or lower, that is sort of a safe zone. That’s where the defense gets the presumption, you get the presumption, that you were not impaired. Now it’s not a safe zone completely because the Commonwealth can still argue based on all of the evidence that they have that you in fact were impaired even at a .05 or .04 in your unique situation. However, it’s a much harder battle for them to fight. I refer to a .05 as us having the high ground and they’ve got to come fight our direction to try to prove that you are impaired.
You’ll see that there’s no safe number. This is one reason why it’s difficult and I think it’s dangerous for people to have these little keychain Breathalyzers and things, which we’re going to hopefully analyze later on, where if you blow a .07 you think I’m safe and I’ll just drive home. That’s not true. Never assume that a .07 or even a .06 is safe. My recommendation is if you have more than one drink, period, do not be driving. It’s just not the safe choice. The better choice is to have a designated driver from the get-go. You should remember that if you’re charged below .08, we certainly have defenses, at any level we can certainly talk about defenses, but a .08, below that, we have some stronger defenses and we definitely want to analyze those together. Contact my office to analyze your case together about how I can help you.
