Our team have an incredible track record in defending and mitigating drink driving cases. Our work has helped clients successfully challenge accusations of wrong doing based on procedural error, bad science, and poor application of drink driving law.

Police, laboratory staff and prosecutors have to follow procedure without deviation in their dealings with you and their handling of the evidence. If they do not, the validity of the evidence can be called into question. We examine procedural issues in great detail, from your interaction with police when you were stopped, to the documentation filled in by officers at the police station, to the process of transporting and storing samples at independent laboratories. An minor error at any stage of the process could provide a possible defence strategy.

Common procedural issues include paperwork not being filled in correctly. Police are required to go through a series of documents with you at the police station when taking samples of breath, blood or urine, or when explaining charges to you. If they do not do this, or fail to complete the documentation properly, this could provide a successful defence.

Another key issue we can look at is disclosure. The police must disclose its evidence against you within a legal time limit so you have the opportunity to prepare your defence. If they do not the prosecution will have a difficult time in using its evidence, or successfully prosecuting the case.

Your prosecution will likely be based on results from a breathalyser, or possibly a blood or urine test. It is important to know that the roadside breathalyser test cannot be used as evidence. Police must complete a second breath test, or blood or urine tests, when you get to the police station. Police must also obtain legal consent for tests to be undertaken but can charge you with failing to provide a specimen if you decline to give your consent.

There are a number of ways to challenge blood test results. For example, we can consider how blood samples are stored, in what kind of conditions and for how long.

It is not unusual for samples to become contaminated because of mistakes in busy labs. If your sample was not properly stored, or was not tested in good time, it is possible that the sample may have disintegrated. If, for example, your sample was kept at the police station for some time, it might degrade as it has not been kept in proper, stable laboratory conditions.

We can also explore whether the lab instructed with testing your sample has the proper credentials to undertake the work, or whether they have a documented history for making mistakes.

Another possible defence we can consider for drink driving cases based on blood sample analysis involves the chain of evidence. It is crucial that a consistent chain of evidence is maintained. Police should be able to provide documentation that shows where your sample was and what conditions it was under from the moment it was taken from you. If there any gaps in this chain, it can raise questions about the evidence against you.

Finally, police procedure in taking blood samples is crucial. Police must complete a range of procedural tasks to comply with the law on taking and testing blood samples. For example, officers must:

• seek your consent to take a sample
• have the sample taken by a registered medical practitioner
• provide you with part of the sample for your own records
• go through a range of questions with you and complete a number of key legal documents

This list is not exhaustive and any failure by the police to stick to proper procedure can provide grounds for a robust defence.

It is not uncommon for breathalysers to provide inaccurate readings. This can be for a variety of reasons, such as the device being poorly maintained or incorrectly calibrated, or because the device has been fitted with replacement parts that are not officially approved. It is also possible that the breathalyser simply takes an incorrect reading because it mistakes another substance, such as medication, as an indication of excess alcohol in your breath.

Our solicitors are experts in the science surrounding breathalysers. We also regularly work with leading scientific experts and laboratories involved with analysing these types of technologies and scientific processes.

If your charge is based on a breath test, we will check every detail to determine if the breathalyser results can be trusted.

Having a urine sample taken is very rare. A sample should only be taken in specific circumstances, for example if there is no breathalyser at the police station, or you cannot take a breath or blood test for medical reasons.

If you are being prosecuted based on a urine sample, we will work tirelessly to test the validity of that sample following the same steps as we would for blood tests. If samples do not have a complete chain of evidence, were not tested in a timely fashion, or were stored in unstable conditions, this could render the evidence against you invalid. Similarly, if the laboratory has a reputation for making mistakes, or does not have proper accreditation, your test results may not be admissible.

Like blood and breath tests, police are required to go through a range of formal documents with you if taking a urine sample. If they do not, it is unlikely the evidence will ultimately be admissible in court.

You cannot be charged with driving or attempting to drive whilst drunk, or being drunk in charge of a vehicle, if you can prove you had no intention to drive during the time period where you were still likely to be over the legal limit. For example, if you have a confirmed taxi booking, or a message from a family member stating they were coming to collect you, this can provide strong evidence that you are not guilty of any wrong doing.

Concepts like being ‘in-charge’ of a vehicle and ‘attempting to drive’ are vague and open to interpretation. It is possible that police do not have the necessary evidence to successfully prosecute you with the offence which they have charged. If you are being charged with a more serious crime than the evidence permits, we will use this to secure lower penalties for you.

You may also be able to have the charges dropped if you can prove that you were only over the drink drive limit due to alcohol consumed after you finished driving. This is often referred to as the ‘Hip Flask’ or ‘post-drive consumption’ defence.

There are a range of factors that we can use to secure a lower sentence if you plead guilty or are convicted of an offence. These include:

• Highlighting lack of previous convictions
• Demonstrating remorse and general good character
• Showing you only drove or intended to drive a very short distance
• Explaining that you were driving because of an emergency, because you had a severe medical issue which required you to drive to seek immediate assistance, or because you are the sole carer for a dependent relative
• If you are accused of being drunk whilst in charge, we can argue there was a very low likelihood of you driving