Field Sobriety Tests

Miami Field Sobriety Test Attorney

Florida DUI Defense Lawyer

The Role of Field Sobriety Tests in a DUI Case

When you’re out at a bar with friends, it can be fun to joke about touching your nose with your finger or reciting the alphabet backwards. However, the joke isn’t funny when a police officer is demanding that you perform similar activities after pulling you over on suspicion of drunk driving.
Evidence from a field sobriety test can play an important role in the prosecution of a DUI case. At the same time, the test can also play an important part in your defense.
A knowledgeable criminal defense lawyer will examine every aspect of the circumstances that led to your DUI citation — including the field sobriety test, if one was administered. If your attorney can find irregularities in the test, then the field sobriety test results may be ruled inadmissible in court as evidence of intoxication.

The Law Office of Ramon de la Cabada in Miami, Florida:
Complete and Aggressive DUI Defense

What Is a Field Sobriety Test?
Field sobriety tests are not designed to determine whether you are intoxicated. They were created by law enforcement to build evidence of impairment in order to make a stronger case that you were under the influence. In other words, field sobriety tests are designed to make you fail in order to make the case stronger against you.

Common field sobriety tests include: the horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN), the “walk and turn,” the “one-leg stand,” and the Rhomberg balance test.

Our law office is led by experienced DUI defense lawyer Ramon de la Cabada, who has handled DUI cases for over 29 years — first as a prosecutor and now in private practice as a defense attorney.
Due in large part to his experience as a prosecutor, Mr. de la Cabada has enjoyed a long track record of success defending clients against DUI charges — often by successfully challenging the field sobriety tests used to gather evidence of intoxication or impairment. Mr. de la Cabada is also certified by the National Highway Transit Safety Association (NHTSA) through its standardized field sobriety testing course. He has the same training that law enforcement officers have. He uses this knowledge to view the situation through the eyes of the arresting officer, and to be a better advocate in impaired driving cases.
As part of building your defense, we will investigate the circumstances surrounding any field sobriety test:

  • Were you asked to perform a field sobriety test or portable breath test? If so, how? If not, why not?
  • Did the police officer have proper training in how to administer a field sobriety test?
  • What are the measurements of your normal balance and coordination? Do you have any physical or mental disabilities, and could any such disabilities have affected your performance on the field sobriety test?
  • When and where was the test administered? Was it dark? Could you see? Was the surface even or was the test administered on an uneven gravel shoulder?

Get More Information About Fighting DUIs

If you have been arrested on a DUI or if you refused to take a BAC test, you should contact a lawyer immediately to secure legal representation. In the meantime, the following pages may provide answers to some of your general questions about defense of DUI charges:

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At the Law Office of Ramon de la Cabada, P.A., we believe in early intervention. The sooner you get an attorney involved in your DUI defense, the better we can assist you.
Call our law office today, at 305-443-7100.