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What Happens After I am Arrested for DUI in Atlanta?
Most DUI arrests in the City of Atlanta are performed by either a Georgia State Patrol officer or an Atlanta Police officer. Occasionally we see an Emory, Georgia Tech, Georgia State, or Capitol police officer perform a DUI arrest, but they are very rare. After you are arrested for DUI in the City of Atlanta, the officer will read you the Georgia implied consent notice. It will begin with them pulling a green card out of their pocket and then reading a long statement to you. The Georgia implied consent notice for suspects age 21 and over is as follows:
The State of Georgia has conditioned your privilege to drive upon the highways of this state upon your submission to state administered chemical tests of your blood, breath, urine, or other bodily substances for the purpose of determining if you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. If you refuse this testing, your Georgia driver's license or privilege to drive on the highways of this state will be suspended for a minimum period of one year. Your refusal to submit to blood or urine testing may be offered into evidence against you at trial. If you submit to testing and the results indicate an alcohol concentration of 0.08 grams or more, your Georgia driver's license or privilege to drive on the highways of this state may be suspended for a minimum period of one year. After first submitting to the requested state tests, you are entitled to additional chemical tests of your blood, breath, urine, or other bodily substances at your own expense and from qualified personnel of your own choosing. Will you submit to the state administered chemical tests of your (designate which test)?'
It is the officer’s choice whether to request a blood, breath, or urine test or any combination of the three. You are entitled to your own independent test as well, but you first have to take the tests the officer requests. If you refuse to take the state’s chemical test the officer can seize your license and issue you a DS-1205 form which acts as a temporary driving permit, a notice of suspension, and usually but not always informs you of how you can request an appeal or acquire an ignition interlock device limited permit. The officer can also seize your license if you provide a chemical test above the legal limit. For more information on Georgia’s implied consent laws and what happens to your drivers license after an Atlanta DUI arrest, check out this blog here. Remember, you have 30 days from the date your are arrested to make a decision on how to move forward regarding any pending drivers license suspension if you are issued a DS-1205 form from the officer that arrested you. If you would like a courtesy copy of the form to request an administrative hearing, a courtesy copy can be found here or you can reach out to my office and I will e-mail you a copy as well. An experienced Atlanta DUI attorney can walk you through the next steps of protecting your drivers license after a Atlanta DUI arrest and I am always available for a free consultation.
Unless there is a sober passenger in your vehicle or the officer allows you to call and have someone pick your car up, your car will most likely be towed. Two of the big towing companies that handle a majority of DUI tows in Atlanta are Futo’s towing and A-Tow. You will then be taken to the Atlanta Pre-Trial Detention Center located at 254 Peachtree Street SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 where you will go in front of a Judge for bond. Judges are present to hear in custody cases six days a week. Sometimes if you are arrested on Friday or Saturday evening, you may not see a Judge the next day and will have to wait over 24 hours for your first appearance hearing. At that hearing a bond will be set for you and you will be given your next court appearance date in the City of Atlanta Municipal Court, 150 Garnett Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. After release, you can go pick up your vehicle at the tow yard. If you are unsure of which towing company took your vehicle, you can always call the police department and ask them. You will need a copy of your drivers license, registration, and possibly title for the vehicle if they are not in the car. Only the registered owner of the vehicle can retrieve the car.
The City of Atlanta Municipal Court handles all Atlanta DUI arrests made by the Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol within the Atlanta City limits.
What is Going to Happen at My First Court Date?
Your first court date in the City of Atlanta Municipal Court will usually happen between 2 weeks and 2 months from the date of your arrest. Your court date will be at 11am in the City of Atlanta Municipal Court in Courtroom 5D. Only one judge currently hears DUI cases in the City of Atlanta Municipal Court and that is Judge Terrinee L. Gundy. She holds first our of custody appearance court dates at 11am, so if you receive a notice that has a different time for your court appearance, I would verify your court date and time with the court clerk’s office. You can also try and see if it is online at the City of Atlanta Municipal Court’s online docketing system here.
At that first appearance, the Judge will ask you if you have retained an attorney. If you haven’t they will give you the option to apply for the city’s public defender. The fee is a non-refundable $50 processing fee and if you qualify based on their income requirements you will be appointed a City of Atlanta public defender. Your case will then be continued to either hire an attorney, apply for a public defender, or if you already have an attorney to gather all the evidence in your case. If you have retained an attorney prior to court, your attorney will appear with you or on your behalf.
It is not likely your case will be closed at this first court date. In fact, you will probably not even be entering a preliminary not guilty plea. It is used primarily to determine whether you have an attorney on your case. Your case will be set down for 2-3 months in the future, so you, your attorney, and the City of Atlanta Solicitor can gather and review all available evidence as well as discuss potential resolutions on your case.
Gathering Evidence and Discussing Resolution
After your first court date it is going to take time to get all the evidence in on your case. That evidence primarily includes everything you remember regarding the arrest and any witnesses you have that can help us present your side of the case. It also involves the officer’s testimony, most often memorialized in their incident report and any dash camera or body camera video that exists. And finally, depending on whether you provided a sample or refused, the results of any chemical test. If you provided a breath test, it will be a report from the Intoxilyzer 9000 device. And if you provided a blood sample it will be a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Once all the evidence has been acquired, it needs to be reviewed. The first piece of evidence I like to look at is the video.
What am I looking for when I Review a DUI Video
When I am reviewing a DUI video I am looking at the video in different stages. Every stage is not always part of every video review as some videos begin and end in different places, but in the perfect world I will look for all of the following:
Whether the officer witnessed a clear violation of Georgia law before pulling you over and initiating the traffic stop.
Did you pull over safely after the blue lights went on?
Did the officer follow their training in their initial interactions with you?
Did you have any issues getting out of your car?
Were the field sobriety evaluations performed in accordance with the officer’s training?
The results of the field sobriety evaluations.
Was the Georgia implied consent notice read correctly.
Were any statements made by either you or the officer after arrest that violated your rights against self-incrimination.
If video exists of the breath testing room or the blood draw, whether those were performed in accordance with state guidelines.
After reviewing the video, I will discuss with you what I see on the video, what’s good, what’s not so good and what our game plan is from here. We will then talk again about your day and night surrounding the DUI arrest and see if the video and your recollection adds any context to what I have reviewed.
What am I looking for when I review a DUI Incident Report
When I review a DUI incident report I am mainly looking for discrepancies between the video and the incident report. In the incident reports I review from the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol Nighthawks, I usually see a report that is used to validate their arrest decision. Many of the reports read the exact same way. All I can do is look for places where the report and video are not the same and save those arguments to work on negotiating your case, or arguing in front of a jury at trial.
What a I looking for when I review Scientific Reports
Looking at a breath testing report I am looking for things that are out of the ordinary. Does it look like there was some sort of error when the test was performed? Has the Intoxilyzer received all required maintenance? Have there been other issues with other tests surrounding your breath test? The blood draw is a different fight. I normally only know the type of test performed and the blood alcohol result, but I can attack things like chain of custody, and the nurse and phlebotomist that performed the draw and test can be questioned to determine whether they did everything correctly.
In DUI cases, the video is most often going to be the most important piece of evidence. I am going to go over every aspect of the video and note any issues to discuss when I begin negotiations with the City of Atlanta Solicitor’s office regarding your case.
Negotiation and Potential Outcomes of Your Case
There are many possible outcomes of an Atlanta Driving under the Influence case. When your case begins, we will talk about all possible outcomes from dismissal of the DUI for lack of evidence or ability to prove the charge to taking your case all the way to a jury trial. In between those two outcomes are other possibilities including the reduction of your case to a non-DUI resolution or a possible plea to the DUI charge. How a case is resolved is your decision. My job as attorney is to get the best possible outcomes on your case short of going to trial and then give you all the information to make an informed decision on how you resolve your case. If we cannot resolve your case in the City of Atlanta Municipal Court in a satisfactory manner, we can send your case from the City of Atlanta to the State Courts of Fulton, DeKalb, or Clayton County depending on where the incident happened. The City of Atlanta does not allow for jury trials in their courtroom. In the State Court we will get a second chance at negotiating your case and ultimately have the option for a jury trial.
Possible resolutions will depend on many things, your criminal history or lack thereof including prior DUI arrests, the seriousness of the incident surrounding the DUI investigation, the officer’s training and experience, and most importantly the evidence.
A DUI charge in the City of Atlanta can be an incredibly stressful experience with the possibility of jail time and significant fines, community service, and classes as possible outcomes. In order to give yourself the peace of mind in moving forward from this unfortunate incident, it is important to consult with an attorney who can explain to you your rights and give you a roadmap towards the resolution of your case. I’ve outline more of the DUI process here. If you would like to scheduled a free consultation with an Atlanta DUI lawyer, please call me today at 678-753-6431.