Only your attorney can evaluate your individual situation to provide a recommendation about OUI defense strategies.
What follows are some of the most commonly-used tactics to fight back when you’ve been accused of an OUI in Massachusetts.
The first of these is to argue that the police improperly stopped you to begin with. The Constitution protects you from being stopped for any purpose not based on a “reasonable suspicion.” The police, therefore, must have more than just a gut feeling or a hunch that you might have done something illegal.
A second reason that is commonly used to challenge your OUI is to claim that the sobriety test protocol was not followed exactly. Often, this will be the key factor in your case if your OUI defense lawyer in Massachusetts can show that the officer didn’t follow the right steps in calibrating any breathalyzer machine or in carrying out the test at all.
If you did have a blood alcohol sample taken at the scene of the stop, make sure that your OUI lawyer looks into whether or not this sample was stored properly. If the police were not able to capture this or keep it under the right protocol, your claims related to improper testing and storage could end up leading you to a dismissed case.
If you have certain medical conditions that would have made it difficult for you to complete the sobriety test even under the best of conditions, you need to be prepared to get copies of your relevant medical records to share these with your lawyer.
Any other violations that occurred from the time that the officer stopped you all the way through the case should be handled only by an experienced lawyer. This is because your attorney can use this information to argue that your rights were violated, but only a talented lawyer can provide you with the necessary tools to figure out the right strategy for your defense.