Field Sobriety Defense Lawyer in Fresno, CA

Information about Field Sobriety Tests

Field Sobriety Tests (FSTs) are the roadside examinations (coordination exercises) administered by the police officer in investigating a possible DUI related incident. Some field sobriety tests are standardized tests and were developed and sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).  There are several others that are not standardized.  The standardized field sobriety tests, if given in a prescribed manner, under a standardized setting, supposedly demonstrate validated indicators or clues of a person's impairment. When the tests are administered in the manner detailed by the NHTSA and an officer observes these clues, it allows him to establish probable cause to believe an operator is impaired and arrest that person for DUI.

Many times the FSTs are administered incorrectly, in an inappropriate setting or to an inappropriate candidate.  Additionally, many officers will often use prior arrest reports and write the same observations over and over for persons arrested for DUI.  Officers are rarely called on the carpet by inexperienced attorneys for these issues, however, a trained Fresno DUI attorney can make an officer look foolish if they administer these tests wrong or use the same language to describe them.

The three standardized field sobriety tests are:

1. Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus
2. Nine-Step Walk and Turn
3. One Leg Stand

Some non-standardized tests include:

1. Touching finger-to-nose
2. Romberg (modified position of attention)
3. Hand pat
4. Finger count
5. ABC's

It is important to note that with all of these FST's, the officer observing does not know how you would do completely sober, without any alcohol in your system whatsoever.  The lack of baseline makes the interpretation of these tests as it relates to impairment questionable.

Terry Wapner has the experience necessary to evaluate your performance and dissect what the officer wrote in the arrest report.  He is a NHTSA qualified instructor of the standardized FST's which means he has taken the same course that the best trained police officers have taken and, in addition, taken a more intensive instructor course.  It is vitally important that your DUI attorney have this knowledge.

CAN I REFUSE THE TESTS?

A driver does NOT have to perform any field sobriety tests. By performing field sobriety tests, you are only providing evidence to the officer in forming his DUI case against you. Many officers don't understand the FST's criteria or remember them from the police academy. Oftentimes it appears that the subject was already going to be arrested before the tests, and they were administered so the officer could record some observations for his report. A DUI suspect is advised to exercise their right to refuse the performance of field sobriety tests. In the typical administration of field sobriety tests, a police officer will not describe to the subject the criteria he is looking for in the performance of this test. The officer typically will not describe to the subject the various clues he is looking for.

The officer typically will not describe the number of clues necessary to formulate the failure of the test by the operator. In a typical stop, the officer will ask the operator to perform several field sobriety tests. At the conclusion of those tests, the officer will inform the operator that he is placing the subject under arrest. Prior to advising the operator they are under arrest, the officer will have virtually no discussion with the subject about the performance of the tests or simply say that the subject did complete them. It is not uncommon to have persons arrested for DUI to state that they did well on the FST's only to see a completely different description of their performance as described by the officer in his arrest report.

Remember, everything you say and everything you do can and will be used against you in a court of law. Be smart and protect yourself.  Contact us today!