In past years it was common procedure for Washington State DUI arrests to be recorded on police video. Jurors have come to expect this, based upon TV shows such as “Cops.” Video recording a DUI arrest is good public policy because the video const… Read More

Most people are familiar with the “usual” balancing and coordination field sobriety tests that are given to a driver who has been detained on suspicion of DUI. These tests include “walking the line,” balancing on one leg, and sometimes the fi… Read More

In February of this year, the long anticipated decision in State v. Baity, 140 Wn.2d 1 (2000) was published and the battle over the admissibility of Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) was thrust to the forefront. HGN is the side to side jerking of the e… Read More

A constitutional battle now in the hands of the Washington Supreme Court erupted across the state in the courts of limited jurisdiction over the use of breath-test results in DUI trials. In 2004, the Legislature directed the courts to assume the trut… Read More

There are those who call it nitpicking when DUI defense attorneys ask judges to throw a breath test out of court for what looks like a trivial error in approved scientific protocol and procedure. Preventing injustice is not nitpicking. When scientifi… Read More

It seems that drug based DUI cases are on the rise and every year I see more and more of these types of cases. In a drug based DUI, Vehicular Assault or Vehicular Homicide case the blood test is critical evidence, yet it is subject to a motion to sup… Read More

Washington State has done a good job of publicizing that if you drive at .08 or higher, you will be prosecuted. What the average driver does not know is that Washington has in fact abandoned the concept of a “legal limit” in favor of prosecuting… Read More

I. DRE BACKGROUND: Separate from the “per se” prong, RCW 46.61.502 also criminalizes driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug, or under the combined influence of alcohol and a drug. [1]. Although Washington law… Read More