The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the rights of the people to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.  The Fourth Amendment protects against arbitrary arrests and is the basis of the law on search warrants, wiretaps, and other privacy law. It  is a central concern of criminal prosecution and defense. For a DWI case, the Fourth Amendment's protection from arbitrary arrests applies to the reason why a police officer stopped a vehicle. An officer will stop a vehicle for some suspected violation of the Vehicle and Traffic Law, for example...

Skilled trial counsel is essential at every stage of a DWI case to preserve your rights. Many people believe that an appeal can cure any mistake that may have occurred in the lower court. This is not how New York appellate courts operate. An appellate court will only consider issues that have been preserved for review. For example, in a recent case, a driver appealed his conviction for aggravated DWI on a number of grounds. The driver’s appellate lawyer argued that the accusatory instrument contained hearsay allegations. The Court held the issue was unpreserved for review and did not...

Having a Hearing Can be Valuable Even When Lost I have had clients, and some attorneys, who ask me, “Should I go forward with a refusal hearing?”—and despite the fact that they are unlikely to win, I tell them that I believe that they should in most cases. Participating in a refusal hearing is an excellent way to get free discovery and to cross-examine the police officer about the underlying conduct in the case—both in terms of how your client was interacting with the officer and the officer’s observations of your client. As a result, I tell my clients...

The Difference Between a Roadside DWI Test Refusal and Police Station DWI Test Refusal  The chemical/breath test that is commonly called the Breathalyzer test is typically performed at a police station. It should be noted that there are two levels of refusal with respect to chemical testing in New York. The first is refusal on the side of the road, which means refusing to take what is commonly called the screening test; the results of this test are inadmissible at court in any case. 

Despite the immense pressures that are being exerted in this area—i.e., peer pressures, societal pressures, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) advertising campaigns—there does not appear to be a slowdown in the number of DWI cases. I am one of two judges in the third busiest justice court in our county, and we have found that since 2012 there have been on average at least five brand new DWI cases on every single court date. I arraign at least twenty new DWI cases a month, as does my fellow judge, year round—again, despite all of the information that is available about the...

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