Authors Revise the Book "Defending DUIs in Washington State"
The book, Defending DUIs In Washington is published by Lexis/Nexis and is the recognized reference manual that DUI defense attorneys of all levels of experience turn to when they need guidance in a DUI case they are defending. The book covers the law, tactics and science of DUIs. I have co-authored this book with my former law partner, Doug Cowan, for over ten years, and my partners have also made significant contributions. This year's edition, which will be released February, 2009, contains a number of updates that reflect the state of the art in DUI defense. It will certainly prove to be quite helpful to attorneys who want to provide the best representation for clients charged with DUI.
My partner, Francisco Duarte, has written an entirely new chapter on a critical topic: Challenging Blood Tests. Most of the public, and many attorneys, feel that a blood test cannot be challenged in court and that the result must simply be accepted as accurate. As Francisco shows in the Blood Test chapter, the correct approach to a blood test case can reveal a number of areas of challenge.
Most DUI cases involve breath tests, however, and we have expanded the chapter on breath testing in the 2009 edition. I had the pleasure of working with the exceptional attorney/scientist Ted Vosk on this chapter. All of the critical areas of challenging a breath test in court are explained in this chapter, but the chapter has been expanded through Ted's contributions to include textbook-like treatment of the science behind breath testing, giving the practitioner the tools to challenge a breath test no matter what machine may have been used.
A relatively recent phenomenon in law enforcement -- the creation of "drug recognition experts" (DRE for short) is dealt with in the chapter on "Drugged Driving." This is the "new frontier" in DUI defense. The techniques used by a drug recognition expert are largely unknown to the average attorney, or even to the average police officer who lacks such training. This year's edition of Defending DUIs in Washington expands upon the new DRE chapter that I wrote for last year's edition of the book and provide additional references from throughout the United States which may be used in formulating a defense. As a side note, the notable arrests of celebrities Heather Locklear, Nicole Ritchie and Lindsey Lohan were all allegations of "drugged DUI" or DRE cases.
As is appropriately noted in the foreward to Defending DUis in Washington, every partner in Fox Bowman Duarte has contributed to the book in one way or another. The end result is an excellent DUI defense manual and resource for any attorney who wishes to provide the best representation for a client charged with DUI.
