Have You Been Drinking? What To Do If The Answer To That Question Is Yes
October 17, 2024If you’ve ever been on the road late at night and gotten pulled over you may have been presented with the question “have you been drinking?” by the officer that pulled you over. If you haven’t been drinking, there is no harm in letting the officer know that. If you have been drinking, you may wonder what the best way to answer that is. After all, you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you may wind up needing a New Haven DUI Defense Attorney to sort through an arrest for you.
First, it is important to be clear that just because you’ve been drinking doesn’t mean you would be over the legal limit. It most certainly doesn’t mean you’ve done anything against the law. It is not against the law to have ANY alcohol in your blood stream when you are driving, but of course if you have been drinking you may be nervous as you may not be sure what your blood alcohol level would be. You may “feel” alright to be driving, but that is not how the law works of course.
When you are pulled over you may become nervous, especially if you know you have been drinking. The most important thing you can do is to remain calm. Staying calm will not only help you in interacting with the officer, but it will also allow you to communicate effectively so you don’t seem like you’re trying to hide something. This is especially important if you are going to follow all of the other steps to answering this challenging question when asked it with a flashlight pointed in your direction.
Back to the question at hand, “Have you been drinking?” How should you answer this question?
Rule #1: Be Honest. The old adage, honesty is the best policy applies here. While you may be considering lying to the officer, it will be counterproductive to your overall well-being in this situation. You do not need to provide any detail about how much you’ve been drinking, you can simply just answer in the affirmative and continue on with the conversation with the officer. If you try to hide something you may be setting yourself up for additional allegations down the road.
Rule #2: Exercise Your Rights. One of the most important rights you have in any legal situation and especially when you’ve been pulled over for suspicion of drinking while under the influence of alcohol is your right to remain silent. You do not need to answer any questions that you feel uncomfortable about answering. You can simply decline to answer these questions. Make sure you are doing this in a calm and respectful way.
Rule #3: Request An Attorney. Another one of your rights is the right to engage with an attorney at any point in the situation. You can politely inform that officer that you would like to consult with an attorney before proceeding. You have this legal right and you can exercise it at any time during the process.
Rule #4: Take The Field Sobriety Test. While you are under no legal obligation to participate in one of these tests your situation will be greatly improved if you cooperate with taking one of these tests. If the officer asks you to perform a field sobriety test it may be in your best interest to do so. On this rule, you may want to seek the advice of your attorney from rule #3 above.
If you are pulled over and are being suspected of driving while under the influence of alcohol you should remain calm and polite with your interactions with the officer, but you should always know your rights and exercise them freely. While you may need the services of a New Haven DUI Defense Attorney there are also quite a few things you can proactively do right from the beginning of the traffic stop that are in the best interest of yourself. Ultimately your best bet is to avoid drinking all together if you are planning on driving so you can honestly tell the officer that you have not been drinking, that takes all the guess work out of it entirely.
If you get into a situation where you need to exercise rule #3, contact our office. One of our experienced attorneys will work to understand your situation and help you protect your long-term interests.