After being pulled over for DWI, you will be asked to submit to questioning and then you will be asked to complete a series of coordination tests. It is important that you catch on to the fact that you are a DWI suspect as soon as possible!

Once they start asking you questions, you should immediately assume that you are a DWI suspect! The questioning is done before they arrest you so that you will be induced into giving them more incriminating information. If they wait until you are handcuffed to ask you questions, you are less likely to talk. Many people think they can talk their way out of it, but they are wrong! Simply give them your name and then ask for a lawyer. You should understand that answers to preliminary questions are usually admissible because you are not yet in custody! It is not until you are in custody that the Miranda protections kick in!

Especially do not answer questions about the following matters:

• When you had your first drink
• When you had your last drink
• When you had your last meal
• What type of drinks you consumed
• How many drinks you consumed
• What your normal drinking pattern is
• Where you are coming from
• If you are sick or injured

Remember that you are being videotaped! This means that you should always be polite and courteous. Try not to say or do anything that could be used against you later. Be quiet when you are in the back of the car on the way to the police station, this part of the arrest is being recorded too!

After the initial questioning, they will go into the field sobriety testing phase of the arrest. At this point, some people still haven’t caught on to the fact that they are going to be arrested for DWI. Understand that the officer is not going to let you go!  Your performance on the tests will be videotaped and will be used at your prosecution.

The 3 standard field sobriety tests (SFST) are the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test (“Eye” test), the Walk and Turn and the One Leg Stand. Although they are called “tests,” you are not told what you are being graded on and you are not allowed to practice. To make things worse, you get no credit for good performance. Instead, you only lose points for improper performance. These “tests” are thus not fairly designed, especially considering the police are supposedly looking for “normal” use.

It is always best to politely refuse the “Eye” test and the breath test. As to whether or not you attempt the other two tests, some would say you should never comply. Others would say that if you are not too impaired to do the tests, you should give it your best shot and hope that if you screw up a little, your lawyer can argue that you were simply nervous or uncoordinated. Moderate to good performance on the tests is sometimes easier to defend at trial than a complete refusal. If you think you are at all impaired, politely refuse everything and ask to speak to a lawyer. Do not speak again after that except to refuse the breath test. That requires one word, “No.” See our section on field sobriety testing for additional information.

The most important thing to understand is that if the officer is giving you the tests, you are going to jail! We have never seen an officer go past the “eye” test and then release somebody. Similarly, don’t think that if you get taken in and blow under they will release you. They will not release you even if you blow under! They will simply say that you must be intoxicated on something besides alcohol. Keep this “big picture” in mind and behave accordingly. If you do blow, you have a statutory right to a independent blood test within 2 hours to verify the accuracy of the test. They will not tell you about this right.

After being arrested, you will need to get out of jail. Since our firm practices primarily DWI defense, we have attorneys on call 24 hours a day to assist DWI arrestees with their release from jail. This can usually be accomplished with a minimal fee, which can be applied as a down payment toward our total fees on the DWI case.

When a magistrate is unavailable to set your DWI bond, and if you meet certain other requirements, an attorney may be able to secure your release from jail without a bond. You and the attorney must then appear the next day to have a bond set and complete the appropriate paperwork. If a bond has been set, we can also refer you to Bail Bond businesses that are on call around the clock. Although a Bail Bond fee does not apply toward our fees, as a Hobby fee does, a Bail Bond can avoid some onerous conditions that can be associated with Personal Recognizance bonds.

Next, you need to contact a lawyer that is a certified criminal specialist. The formal terminology you look for is “Board Certified--Criminal Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization.” Under Texas law a lawyer cannot call him or herself a “specialist” unless that lawyer is actually Board Certified. If you are reading this website, you are in the right place because all of our lawyers are Board Certified in Criminal Law.

Third, hire our DWI lawyers to represent you before the expiration of 15 days so that we can contest the suspension of your driver’s license. By filing a notice of hearing, the suspension is stopped and cannot proceed until we have a revocation hearing in front of an administrative law judge. The suspension hearing is also a great opportunity to question the testifying officer and lock in mistakes in their performance as well as mistakes in their testimony.