Read about: I'm Not Drunk, Just Clumsy | Gwinnett County DUI Defense Attorney

I'm Not Drunk, Just Clumsy

Posted By Richard Lawson on Feb 24, 2011 7:45pm PST

I was arrested for DUI in Gwinnett County, GA. The officer asked me to do some field sobriety testing like standing on one leg, walking heel to toe, and following the his finger with my eyes. Now as clumsy as I am, I fell over during one of the tests and was charged with DUI even though I wasn't drunk. What is one to do?

Do NOT perform field sobriety tests. Here's why:

1)Field sobriety tests are voluntary in the great State of Georgia and there is no negative effect or legal penalty for refusing to do them.

2) They are designed for you to fail. If you are clumsy or just uncoordinated, you might not do well with these tests.   Are you asked to stand on one foot often? Probably not. Also the pressure of being accused of DUI coupled with unnatural acts could be factors in failing.

3) DUI agility tests are not scientifically valid.  In fact, Georgia courts regularly preclude the results of the horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) because there is not enough evidence to substantiate that it is widely accepted in the scientific community. The claims behind the design of these tests have not been peer reviewed. In fact there is a great number of scholarly research that points to the invalidity of these tests and the extremely high rate of false positives when in these cases, they assume that everyone can preform these tests to the officer’s satisfaction and the only reason that someone cannot is because they are drunk. We all know that is not so.

So....why perform tests that aren't accurate and produce false positives?  Call the Law Offices of Richard S Lawson right away.

I'm Not Drunk, Just Clumsy

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