By Patrick Adams

Learn your rights. The actions a person takes and the statements a person makes prior to and following an arrest can have a huge impact on your case!

Most importantly: Remain Silent! If you are being questioned chances are good you are a suspect and they are gathering evidence against you. Law enforcement will offer you encouragement to cooperate and tell you things will go easier on you if you talk to them, however, doing this may put your rights at risk and jeopardize your case! DO NOT ANSWER QUESTIONS WITHOUT AN ATTORNEY!

2. If they read or tell you your Miranda rights, they suspect you have committed a crime. Just as when an officer merely approaches and questions you, you have the right, if you are stopped, to refuse to answer any questions if the answer would tend to incriminate you. Also, if you are only being stopped, you can refuse to allow an officer to search your person. Further, anything you say can be used as evidence against you. Sometimes people think that what they are saying won’t incriminate them, when in fact, what they say provides a link in a chain of information that could incriminate them.

3. You may be arrested by a police officer who personally saw you violate any state statute, city ordinance or federal law. The law may be a serious crime (a felony) or a lesser offense (a misdemeanor) or when there is a warrant for your arrest, whether or not you are aware of the warrant.

4. If you are arrested, do not argue with or resist the police. Arguing or resisting the police will not help you; it may increase your chances that the police will arrest you and bring criminal charges against you. It probably also will give them grounds to bring even more criminal charges against you, and it may make it harder for you to get out of jail on bail if you are charged. Once officers no longer have grounds to detain you, they should tell you that you are free to go.

5. If you are arrested you have rights that you should be aware of:

The right to remain silent and not answer any questions at all

The right to know that if you waive (give up) your right to remain silent and do answer questions, the police can use your answers against you in a court to get you convicted. Even if you begin to answer questions, you have the right to stop answering questions at any time and to speak with an attorney;

You have the right to speak privately with an attorney before you answer any questions or sign anything If you cannot afford an attorney and if the crime for which you have been arrested has jail time as a possible penalty, you have a right to have an attorney appointed for you to represent you at no cost to you before being questioned, and to have that attorney present with you during any questioning to which you may later agree to submit. Remember, you cannot be penalized for refusing to answer an officer’s questions. If you try to cooperate by answering questions while you are being held in police custody, you may create difficulties for your lawyer in defending you later on. ALWAYS ASK TO SPEAK TO A LAWYER.

If you find yourself questioned or arrested it is important for you to be aware of your rights. Guilty or innocent, it is important for you to adhere to them in order for your attorney to provide you with the best defense possible.

For more information concerning your rights please visit our website at www.padamslawok.com. Adams Law office is located at 2 W. 6th St. Suite 500 Tulsa, Oklahoma 74119 or we can be reached at 918-587-8700. Our firm specializes in the defense of serious criminal offenses throughout Oklahoma.

About The Author Patrick Adams Adams Law Office PLLC 2 W. 6th St. Suite 500 Tulsa, Ok. 74119 patrick@padamslaw.com http://www.padamslawok.com

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The GL Law Group, PLC provides free information on Michigan DUI law and guide to choosing a good Michigan DUI attorney. If you have recently been arrested for a DUI, it’s important to contact a good DUI lawyer soon. A guilty DUI conviction can ruin your life. Contact us to set up a free DUI case review.

As a drinking driver, you must be aware that as the number of accidents and fatalities due to drunk driving increases, so will your chances of being pulled over. Police officers are cracking down on drinking and driving and will use any lawful justification to pull you over in order to probe further whether you are driving while impaired. For those of you who are over the age of 21 years, this includes operating while intoxicated or driving under the influence, which is a criminal violation for driving while having a blood alcohol level above the state-mandated level. In Michigan, for example, this is 0.08. For those of you under the age of 21 years, you face the zero tolerance laws of your state, meaning it is a criminal violation for you to drive with a much smaller amount of alcohol in your blood.

Now when most people are pulled over, their first inclination is to cooperate as much as possible with the police officer. This is good. Every DUI attorney will advise you to be polite and cooperate with the officer, such as by tendering your driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance. However, the second inclination for those pulled over is to try and convince the officer they should not be arrested, or convince the officer they are not impaired over the legal limit. Good drunk driving lawyers will tell you that is absolutely the worst thing they can try to do because of the evidence they will end up giving the police officer. Police officers love asking questions such as, “Where have you been tonight?”, “How many drinks have you had?”, “Where are you coming from?”

A good DUI attorney will always advise you NOT to answer these questions, but rather let the police officer know that you are happy to cooperate with him or her, but that you wish to maintain your right to remain silent and not self-incriminate yourself as protected by the Fifth Amendment.

Police officers ask those kinds of questions in effort build their case against you. They want you to incriminate yourself and justify why they should arrest you for drinking and driving. Police officers do not care where you came from or where you are going. They just want to see if your speech is slurred or whether you will admit to having had “5 beers” that night, because this is evidence that can be used against you at trial.

Under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, “No person … shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.” You have the right to tell the officer that you do not wish to answer any questions as an exercise of your Fifth Amendment right to not self-incriminate.

In the end, if you are arrested for operating while intoxicated or another DUI-related charge, the prosecution will still have to prove you were guilty of the crime. You are innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, the less evidence the prosecution has to show you were guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the better your defense will be.

Please note that none of the above constitutes legal advice. You should consult with a licensed attorney in your state for legal advice.

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The GL Law Group, PLC provides free information on Michigan DUI law and guide to choosing a good Michigan DUI attorney. If you have recently been arrested for a DUI, it’s important to contact a good DUI lawyer soon. A guilty DUI conviction can ruin your life. Contact us to set up a free DUI case review.

The next time you’re driving on the road in Michigan after having consumed alcoholic beverages, make sure you signal each time you change lanes. The Michigan Court of Appeals recently ruled that the Michigan statute, MCL 257.648, requires drivers to use a turn signal when changing lanes on a highway and is not unconstitutionally vague.

In People v. Hrlic, the defendant was stopped after a police officer observed her change lanes without using her turn signal. She was subsequently arrested for operating while intoxicated. She tried to supress the evidence gathered against her on the basis that the police stop was invalid. The defendant argued that the statute was unconsitutionaly vague and that she was not required to use her turn signal when changing lanes, but the court of appeals disagreed, noting the following in its opinion published on November 29, 2007:

MCL 257.648 states that, “before stopping or turning from a direct line, [the driver] shall first see that the stopping or turning can be made in safety and shall give a signal as required [.] Therefore, the purpose of the statute is to provide notice of movements along the route that could impact other motorists. We see no reason to make a distinction between movement off the roadway and movement between lanes when the legislative aim is the same for both situations. Accordingly, a reasonable person of ordinary intelligence is not required to speculate about the phrase’s meaning, and MCL 257.648 provides fair notice of what conduct is proscribed. We hold that MCL 257.648 requires drivers to use a turn signal when changing lanes on a highway and is not unconstitutionally vague.

Based on this ruling, the police may stop you for failure to signal when changing lanes in Michigan. That said, the next time you drive after consuming alcoholic beverages (which we do not condone, but happens), if you want to avoid being arrested for operating while intoxicated, then you will not want to give the police a valid reason to stop you, and this now includes signaling each time you change lanes.

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The GL Law Group, PLC provides free information on Michigan DUI law and guide to choosing a good Michigan DUI attorney. If you have recently been arrested for a DUI, it’s important to contact a good DUI lawyer soon. A guilty DUI conviction can ruin your life. Contact us to set up a free DUI case review.

By: Colleen Gray

In most states, if you are suspected of drunk driving, you must take a blood alcohol content test such as a breathalyzer when asked to do so by police or face very harsh penalties. But police must have reasonable suspicion that you have been drinking before they can ask you to take a BAC test.

To establish reasonable suspicion police use a range of questions and DUI pre-screening or field sobriety tests. You are not required to answer the questions or to participate in any of the tests. If you do go along with these tests you are only giving the officer the reasonable suspicion he or she needs to require you to take a BAC test.

Refuse to Have a Nice Chat and Avoid a DUI Test
One of the simplest ways for police to get the reasonable suspicion they need to administer a BAC test is to just ask you if you have had anything to drink. Do not admit to having had even one drink. If you do, that’s reasonable suspicion.

The officer may also ask you where you have been and what you’ve been doing. This may seem very innocent but if you admit to having been out with friends or attending a sports event or being anywhere where alcohol is commonly served you have given the officer reasonable suspicion. You are not required to answer these questions or to have a friendly chat with police.

Refuse the DUI Field Sobriety Tests
If you are stopped by police the officer may ask you to take a field sobriety test such as the one-leg-stand, finger-to-nose or the nystagmus test which involves the officer shining a flash light in your eyes and looking for erratic eye motion.

These tests have just one purpose, to give the officer the reasonable suspicion he or she needs to require you to take a BAC test. You have almost no chance of passing these tests. Some of them, like the one-leg-stand, could be difficult for a trained athlete to perform perfectly and your pass or fail grade rests not with a panel of judges but entirely with the police officer. You are not required to perform these tests and you should politely refuse to do so without getting drawn into a conversation with the officer. Don’t make excuses for not taking the test, just refuse.

The most important point to remember is that if you are charged with a DUI offence and the case ends up in court the officer must be able to justify requiring you to take the BAC test. Don’t give the police extra ammunition by talking too much or taking a field sobriety test that is all but impossible to pass.

A DUI charge is serious and should be handled by a qualified DUI attorney. Get detailed information on specialized drunk driving lawyers in your area. http://dui-lawyer-la.com/

Article Source: http://www.ArticleBiz.com

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The GL Law Group, PLC provides free information on Michigan DUI law and guide to choosing a good Michigan DUI attorney. If you have recently been arrested for a DUI, it’s important to contact a good DUI lawyer soon. A guilty DUI conviction can ruin your life. Contact us to set up a free DUI case review.

If you choose to drive after having consumed alcoholic beverages, which you should think twice before doing, then one way to minimize your chances of being arrested for a DUI-related violation is to simply follow the traffic laws.

First, follow the given speed-limit, going no more than 5mph over the speed limit and going no under than 5-10mph below the speed limit. Speeding will get you pulled over and give the police an opportunity to evaluate whether you have been driving under the influence, whereas going too slow may raise police suspicion, causing the police to follow you until they have sufficient cause to pull you over.

Make sure you come to a complete stop at every stop sign, and do not proceed forward until you have the right of way. Do not pull one of those lazy rolling stops, where you simply pump the brake a little without actually coming to a dead stop.

Watch those u-turns, also and make sure you maintain a safe distance from the car ahead of you at all times. Don’t change lanes or turn without first signaling. When approaching a blinking yellow light, make sure you slow down before proceeding forward and/or signaling before turning.

Remember, the police look for any justification to have sufficient cause to pull you over, so don’t give them any reason to do so.

The GL Law Group, PLC provides free information on Michigan DUI law and guide to choosing a good Michigan DUI attorney. If you have recently been arrested for a DUI, it’s important to contact a good DUI lawyer soon. A guilty DUI conviction can ruin your life. Contact us to set up a free DUI case review.

Drinking and driving is definitely not condoned, but it happens and probably is going to continue happening. If you are someone that plans on going out, drinking alcohol and then driving afterwards, then you are at risk of being arrested for a DUI.

One way to reduce this risk is to keep your car in good shape. The police will use any lawful justification they can to pull you over. This includes a broken tail light, a cracked windshield, loose parts on your vehicle that poses a danger, missing outside mirrors, window tinting in violation of Michigan law, missing or improperly placed tags, poor tire tread, etc. The true reason to pull you over for these reasons may ver well be to determine whether you are driving while intoxicated or visibily impaired.

If you go out and you plan on driving, do yourself a favor and take 15 minutes to make sure your car is properly maintained. While the best preventative measure to a DUI arrest is simply not driving after drinking alcohol or taking illegal controlled substances, you can minimize your chances of being arrested for a DUI arrest if you don’t give the police an easy reason to pull you over.

The GL Law Group, PLC provides free information on Michigan DUI law and guide to choosing a good Michigan DUI attorney. If you have recently been arrested for a DUI, it’s important to contact a good DUI lawyer soon. A guilty DUI conviction can ruin your life. Contact us to set up a free DUI case review.

The most simplest advice that can be given to anyone who wants to avoid being arrested for a DUI or operating while intoxicated or visibly impaired, is to simply don’t drink and drive. If you’re going out and planning on drinking an alcoholic beverage, make sure you have a designated driver or that you drive with someone else who will not be drinking. It’s as easy as that. If you drive, don’t drink. If you drink, don’t drive. This is by far the safest method you can employ to avoid a DUI arrest, not mention maintaining the safety of yourself, your passengers and other drivers or pedestrians on the road.

The penalties for hitting a construction worker have gone up dramatically in Michigan, and a lot contruction road work often takes place at night and during the weekends. Not to mention that if you kill someone or seriously injure someone as a result of operating while intoxicated or visibly impaired, you will be charged with a felony in Michigan - a serious crime - and face a stiff punishment under Michigan DUI law.

And in Michigan, there were over 40,000 DUI arrests in 2006, and this number could easily grow each year. This number suggests that the odds of being arrested for a DUI violation in Michigan is pretty good. Why give the police an opportunity to arrest you for a DUI violation? A guilty conviction can ruin your life. Just don’t drink and drive. It’s the safest strategy for everyone.

If you have been arrested for a DUI violation, contact an expert Michigan DUI attorney as soon as possible to understand your chances of avoiding a guilty conviction and to start your DUI defense immediately.