October 1, 2011

Protect Your Car Insurance Policy: Protect Yourself From DUI

A drunk driving charge can be a complete disaster on many levels. First of all you face losing the most valuable thing in your life, and that’s your freedom. Don’t kid yourself either because you can land in state prison doing a multi-year sentence for your third drunk driving conviction. Then secondly a DUI can bleed you out financially. Fines, court costs, driving school, and then even after all those have been paid off; you’re stuck with higher insurance rates for years to come.

Even in spite of all this, real information on the topic is just too darn difficult to come by. What you find in its place, is generally myths and falsehoods, and chances are you’ve already heard your fair share of them. As example you’re probably completely uninformed about the actual process of being investigated charged, convicted and sentenced for a DUI. And it all begins the moment a cop gets behind you, flicks on his red light, and pulls you over.

Now the very first thing that all attorneys who specialize in DUIs advise their clients, is to “never ever” agree to take a roadside sobriety test. Now a cop is going to give you the impression that if you pass this test that you’ll be allowed to leave, but it’s a lie. He has asked to take the test because he smelled alcohol on your breath, and if he smelled alcohol on your breath you’re going to jail. What now he needs is videotape evidence of you struggling with his tricky questions and physical tasks, and some of them are difficult to complete even if you are sober.

So perhaps you’re telling yourself that because you’ve had so little to drink, that even if you’re arrested and taken in for booking you won’t be charged with anything. So why not take the test just to make things easier for all parties involved? The answer here is simple, and that is that after you get to the police station and blow in the alcohol breath test machine, even if it shows that you’re well under the legal limit, you’re still going to be charged.

Either way you can be convicted of driving while impaired with just one drink in your system or by the way you’re going to be facing two charges. Drunk driving or DUI and driving while impaired and I know this doesn’t sound fair but it’s the law in all states. It’s called stacking charges its way of forcing you to plead guilty in exchange for dropping one of them. It’s also a way of running your attorney fees up making it difficult for you to defend yourself.

Now as far is a driving while legally impaired charges concerned the requirements for conviction are surprisingly loose. They don’t need to show that you were over the legal limit to get a conviction, and this is where that roadside sobriety test comes in handy. Just you on the side of the road walking through something like this have a way of making you look guilty to a jury. Also chances are you’re going to make a mistake on something. So if you’re pulled over and accused of being under the influence, be smart to avoid higher insurance rates.

Learn more about car insurance quotes. Stop by Johnny Hovey’s site where you can find out all about auto insurance quotes.

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