If you failed a field sobriety test or a chemical test (blood test, breath test or urine test), you might automatically assume you’re guilty, but that’s not necessarily the case. If you have failed a field or chemical test (blood, breath or urine test), you may automatically assume you’re “guilty” but that is not necessarily the case. There are many ways to challenge a DUI charge.

1. DEFENSES IN DUI CASES
Below are just a few of the MANY examples of ways that
DUI Attorney Kathryn Roberts would
be examining your case looking for defenses.
www.allentowncriminallaw.com

2. WERE THE MACHINES USED BY
POLICE TO TEST YOUR BLOOD
ALCOHOL LEVEL PROPERLY
CALIBRATED AND MAINTAINED?
Sometimes people charged with a DUI think that those machines
are foolproof—they aren’t. Machines break and malfunction. DUI
machines rely on humans to keep them maintained properly (just
like we have to do regular maintenance to our cars) and the
machines only give accurate results if the person using them has
followed instructions properly in running them (in the same way
that a car can have problems if being operated by a person who
doesn’t drive correctly).

3. WHEN WAS YOUR BLOOD DRAWN
AND IS THAT AN ACCURATE
NUMBER?
It’s important to examine when the blood was drawn from you
in relation to when you were driving. An experienced DUI
lawyer will always consider having the blood re-tested by a
different lab and then possibly using services of a hematologist
or blood technician to evaluate whether the blood-alcohol level
that the police have assigned to you is accurate. Blood-alcohol
levels rise and then fall, and it’s important to understand the
factors that can affect when and how that occurs (e.g. your age,
height and weight, gender, alcohol tolerance).

4. WHAT WAS THE REASON GIVEN
BY POLICE THAT THEY STOPPED
YOUR VEHICLE AND WAS IT A
PROPER STOP AND DETAINING OF
YOU UNDER THE LAW?
This is a complex subject under Pennsylvania law, as it deals
with search and seizure law under the 4th Amendment to the
Constitution. It is complex for lawyers and judges to
understand, even after they study it for many years. In addition,
search and seizure law is constantly changing. In my experience,
most police officers do not even understand the law because it is
so complex, and so they stop cars, detain people, and often
conduct searches or make arrests based on “hunches,” rather
than proper legal standards.

5. DID THE POLICE CONDUCT
FIELD SOBRIETY TESTS ON
YOU AND WAS IT DONE
FAIRLY?
In my experience, what police are not well-trained in is
determining whether there are other factors that may make a
person do poorly on these tests. For example, a person who
has never been arrested before and has been stopped by
police, especially at night, may exhibit extreme signs of
nervousness, which can affect the person’s ability to perform
the tests and also influence the officer to mistakenly believe
the person is under the influence (or think the person is more
intoxicated than he or she is).

6. CONTACT ME
484-695-7023
KathrynRoberts_Esquire@yahoo.com
www.allentowncriminallaw.com
527HamiltonStreetAllentown,PA18101