About Blood Alcohol Content (BAC)

DUI Lawyer Serving Cumming & Forsyth County

Blood alcohol content, or BAC, is a figure used to show the amount of alcohol in your system at a given moment. In our state, a person under the age of 21 is considered intoxicated if their BAC is .02% or higher. For those who are 21 or older, the BAC limit is .08% and if it is .15% or higher you could be facing enhanced penalties.

Commercial drivers face a standard that's twice as tough: if you are driving a commercial motor vehicle and your BAC is .04% or more, you can be arrested for DUI.

Additionally, the state of Georgia recognizes that a driver may be impaired even if their BAC is below the .08% limit. If it can be shown that it was " less safe" for you drive due to the influence of alcohol, you can be convicted of an offense.

Defenses for BAC Test Results

There are many ways that a proven DUI attorney can find and utilizes errors or flaws in the procedures and results of tests used to figure out your BAC. Although BAC is thought to be a reliable method of determining intoxication, an experienced attorney from Zeliff | Watson may be able to use the facts in your case to reduce the charges against you or get them dismissed.

For instance, people with diabetes or who are taking certain medications are more likely to have a higher BAC reading than people with perfect health. In addition, breathalyzer tests can only approximate BAC--the only accurate way to test BAC is through an actual blood test. As a result, a breathalyzer that hasn't been recently calibrated can return an inaccurately high result.

Because the accuracy of blood tests is key to a case, police officers and lab technicians must follow a strict chain of possession whenever they receive a sample for BAC testing. If this procedure is violated in any way, then the results of the test may be inadmissible in court. Our attorneys make it a point to investigate whether perfect procedure was followed--and whether this can benefit your case.

Some people will refuse to submit to a blood or breath test in order to give the court less evidence in their eventual DUI case. While that is a strategy we've heard before, it does come with consequences. You'll likely have your license suspended or revoked, and you'll lose it for at least a year if you're convicted.

Conviction for DUI Charges

Conviction for DUI charges can be punished by a suspended license of a year or more, fines, community service, installation of an ignition interlock device on your vehicle and incarceration. If you are charged with leaving the scene, have had multiple DUI convictions or if it is a DUI with injury, the penalties can be more severe.

• First-time DUI convictions come with the following penalties:
• Up to a year in jail
• Between $300 and $1,000 in fines
• 1-year license suspension
• 40 hours of community service
• $210 reinstatement fee to recover your license

If you have a hard-hitting attorney at your side, just because your BAC level tested high does not guarantee a conviction by the prosecution. Attorney Zeliff from our firm has been named one of Georgia's "Super Lawyers" two times and was voted a "Rising Star" by his colleagues in the Georgia criminal defense bar. Our firm has successfully defended many hundreds of DUI cases, including those that were prosecuted based on BAC findings and we are ready to put our experience to work for you.

To understand BAC and how it affects your DUI charges and defense, contact a DUI lawyer from our firm. 

The following is a non-exhaustive list of courts we defend clients in:

• Fulton County Superior and State Courts
• Atlanta Municipal Court
• Alpharetta Municipal Court
• Milton Municipal Court
• Johns Creek Municipal Court
• Sandy Springs Municipal Court
• Doraville Municipal Court (Dekalb County)
• Suwanee Municipal Court (Gwinnett County)