Can You Beat A DUI Charge If The Police Don't Read You Your Rights?

When you're arrested for DUI, the police may or may not read you your Miranda rights. What happens if they don't? Can you beat the charge?

What Are Your Miranda Rights?

Your Miranda rights are the warnings you hear the police read in every TV show when they arrest someone. They include the right to remain silent, the fact that anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law, your right to have an attorney present, and your right to have an attorney appointed if you can't afford one.

The Miranda warnings are an important reminder of your constitutional rights. You have these rights automatically whether or not the police read your rights to you.

What Happens if the Police Don't Read Your Rights?

The police not reading you your rights isn't a violation by itself. The police not reading your rights doesn't invalidate your arrest. What reading your rights does is protect the rights listed.

If the police don't tell you you have the right to remain silent and have an attorney, they're not allowed to ask you questions. If they do ask you questions, what you say can't be used in court.

For example, if someone confessed to a murder and that was all the evidence police had, the confession couldn't be used in court, so that person couldn't be found guilty. In a DUI case, your answers to questions aren't as important since there's usually other evidence, but it could make a difference in a close case.

Do the Police Need to Read You Your Rights to Do DUI Tests?

You may think that the police would also have to read you your rights to do DUI tests. This isn't the case. Your rights are all about the police questioning you.

There are different kinds of DUI tests including breath tests, blood tests, and roadside exercises. None of these rely on the police asking you questions. They test physical attributes. This is also why the government is allowed to suspend your driver's license for refusing the test without the suspension violating your right to remain silent.

What the police can't do is ask you questions during the tests without reading you your rights. That would be inadmissible, but anything you said on your own without being asked a question would be allowed in court.

To learn more about how to beat a DUI charge, contact a local DUI attorney today.