Advancement to Florida’s DUI Laws

There is a proposed amendment which is known as House Bill 299 which holds all the Florida DUI laws in a 96 page planned amendment. There are many laws in this House Bill that have the possibility of advancement which will be addressed in some of my following posts, but the topic of today is how it illegal whether prior to or after driving that it is illegal to have a blood or breath concentration of .08 or higher.

If you are drinking and you decide to get into a vehicle and begin to drive, you can be convicted of a DUI. In order to be convicted of a DUI the officer will need to determine if you are over the limit of breath or alcohol concentration. In order to be over the limit you must have an alcohol concentration of .08 or more grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood per 210 liters of breath. It is important to keep in mind that you have the possibility of being stopped by an office regardless if this is before or after you are driving, according to House Bill 299.

Due to the change of this law, it takes away any defense that was available to an individual that was incriminated with a DUI in the past.

In former times, under the Florida Law it has to be proven by the state that the alcohol concentration at the time of driving matched the alcohol concentration present at the time of testing. The Florida Law was then modified and the Courts gave the State a rebuttable assumption that the results as the time of driving and the results at the time of testing were identical. This deviated the burden to the defense which was able to bring in an expert witness to prove that the blood alcohol concentration level at the time of driving was lower than the legal limit established on the absorption of alcohol in the individual.

The new advancement on this law takes this defense away. It makes the assumption that the alcohol concentration at the time of testing was equivalent to the alcohol concentration while driving indisputable.

This means, if an individual goes to a bar, has a few alcoholic drinks maybe a few shots and then instantly drives the short distance back to their home previous to the liquor being absorbed into their system, which is when the individual is not under the influence, subsequently if they are tested and they are above a .08 they can be convicted of a DUI with no dense based on the facts that at the time of driving they were not under the influence.

This entry was posted in LEGAL.

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