Charged With DUI? When You Get Out Of Jail Do Two Things First

Once out of jail, several critical things need to be done as soon as possible.

Most important is writing down all the details of your arrest, detention, testing and jailing.

Waiting even an extra day will cause loss of details.

Besides contacting a lawyer to help you, you need to record your side of the story as completely as possible and take pictures of your vehicle, both inside and out, whenever any relevant evidence (e.g., open container inside the vehicle; body damage from a collision; deployed air bags) is in danger of being altered or lost.

1) Immediately write down all details of your events of the entire day of your arrest and the exact conversations between you and any law enforcement officer after the stop and detainment of your DUI.

Some of the most critical details that could help in your eventual defense happened not at the scene of your arrest, but in the minutes and hours before your arrest.

Critical facts about your food or medication intake or possible exposure to interfering substances (e.g., paint fumes; glue) can be extremely important information.

Do not omit any details in your account of what happened. When did you get up? How long had it been since you had slept?

Write down everything you ate, everything you drank, everywhere you went and everyone with whom you talked.

Writing down all the details such as the use of perfume, aftershave lotion or cologne prior to your arrest might be significant.

For example, if you finished dinner with a friend at a restaurant a half hour before your arrest, such information could provide a critical factor in your defense.

Write these details down as soon as you can, before you forget a detail that may provide a good defense in your case, or at least offer facts that can create “reasonable doubt” about the accuracy of a breath test result or field sobriety evidence.

Next, write down everything any law enforcement officer said to you and anything you might have said back to them.

Try to replay the conversations back in your mind and document the exact words.

Was there anyone else who might have been there for any of these conversations?

Write their names and contact information down for your attorney, but also have them write down every detail they can recall.

2) Photographing your car (inside and out) and any containers from which evidence was seized when you pick it up, these will all help your DWI attorneys

As soon as you are released from your DUI-DWI arrest, you will want to retrieve your car. Valuable information can be derived from the condition and “contents” of your vehicle after it has been towed away after the police officers made their inventory search of your car.

Your car may have been left alongside a road, in a parking lot or near the location of your arrest. It may or may not have been parked in a safe area.

In most DUI-DWI arrests, your vehicle has been towed away and impounded.

The sooner you get your vehicle back under your control, the sooner you know that your property is safe.

If your license is suspended when you are released from custody, do not risk driving away from the impound yard or location where it was parked.

Have someone else drive it home for you. Police officers are prone to asking the owner of the impound lot to notify them if YOU drive away after retrieving your vehicle.

A new arrest for driving while suspended only makes the initial DUI-DWI case more difficult to handle.

No legal concerns arise from taking pictures of your vehicle and the inside of the vehicle as soon as you get it back into your possession.

It does not matter if the pictures are made with a digital or traditional camera.

Be sure to include pictures of any alcoholic containers (bottles, glasses, etc.) or containers that held any alcohol (like cups, glasses, six pack cardboard containers or paper bags), that were left in your vehicle by the police. Take photos of where the containers are found inside the vehicle, including any liquids that remain in them.

You should get a friend to videotape or photograph the scene of your arrest, with your car in its position where you were stopped.

This person may need to be a witness later, so choose someone who will be available if your case goes to trial and who would make a credible witness.

If any roadway construction or hazardous conditions (e.g., potholes, dangerous driving grades, etc.) exist along the path your vehicle traveled, get good images of these.

Be aware that some highway locations are extremely dangerous to film or photograph.

When it comes to taping any conversations with anyone else, including any law enforcement officers, either before, during or after your arrest, federal law (which generally applies to interstate communication devices like cell phones and regular phones) allows recording of phone calls and other electronic communications with the consent of at least one party to the call.

Florida requires the consent of all parties to a conversation, with some situational exceptions. Although sometimes called “two-party consent” laws, if more than two people are involved in the conversation, all persons must consent to the taping.

However, the POLICE can record you in situations such as traffic stops, without advising you of this recording. In fact, it is highly likely that the police recorded at least some, if not, all or part of your actual arrest.

Often, the driving behavior that lead to your stop and field sobriety evaluations that you took, plus all conversations between you and the officer, are made without notification to you or a request for permission from you.