The way many police officers enforce the South Carolina DUI laws leave little room for the exercising of discretion. Some officers feel that if you have had anything at all to drink, you should not be driving. Often, just the smell of alcohol will cause an officer to assume that a driver is impaired. The law, however, does not support such a proposition.

It is not illegal to consume alcohol then drive. The law allows drivers to have alcohol in their system and still drive as long as they are not “materially and appreciably impaired”.

Officers often testify that they noticed “the strong odor of alcohol” on the driver. Without adequate explanation, jurors could be left to think that a “strong odor” equates to a violation of the law. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I’ve heard prosecutors tell juries that the driver does not need to be “drunk” to be in violation of the law. These terms do nothing to educate juries. Confusion will rule the jury room if time and care are not taken to clarify these junk-science terms that the police and prosecutors use.

Juries seldom fully understand the elements of the DUI law. The attorneys at the Grammer Law Firm work tirelessly to present your case in such a manner that jurors get all the facts of the law and a clear picture of what really happened in your case.

With many police agencies focusing on aggressive “DUI enforcement”, officers are under more pressure than ever to make DUI arrests. With this pressure comes mistakes. Don’t let an officer’s mistake taint your driver’s license or your permanent criminal record.
Call us for a fair and honest assessment of your case.

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