Most successful DUI defense lawyers recognize that the use of motions hearings is an important, if not critical, part of the defense of a Georgia DUI case. I take this view. The stated purpose of motions hearings is to exclude certain pieces of evidence from the trial of the case. However, motions hearings serve multiple different purposes. In addition to excluding certain pieces of evidence, motions hearings may be used to preview the state's case against you and shape the course of the trial of your DUI case.

In many DUI cases, certain pieces of evidence are not favorable to the defense of the case. Our law permits DUI defense attorneys to file motions to exclude certain pieces of evidence when the evidence has been illegally obtained. There are many bases to exclude evidence from a DUI case. Below are some of the reasons that harmful evidence against my clients may be excluded from the trial of the case:

· The state cannot show that the stop of my client was lawful, and that it was preceded by reasonable, articulable suspicion of criminal conduct;
· The state cannot show that the arrest of my client was based upon probable cause to believe that my client was driving under the influence;
· The state cannot show that my client was timely and properly advised of their rights under Georgia's implied consent notice;
· The state cannot show that my client voluntarily submitted to field sobriety tests;
· The state cannot show that the my client voluntarily submitted to the state-administered test of their blood, breath, or urine;
· The state cannot show that reasonable efforts were made to accommodate my client's request for an independent test of their blood, breath, or urine; or
· The state cannot show that the operator of the breath testing was qualified to perform the breath test upon my client.

This is by no means an all-inclusive list of the issues upon which evidence may be excluded in the defense of a Georgia DUI case, and to be candid, the possible bases for the exclusion of evidence in your DUI case is only limited by the creativity and tenacity of your Georgia DUI lawyer. In certain cases, it may be appropriate for your DUI defense attorney to pursue a limited number of these issues, but that is a decision that is typically decided by an experienced DUI defense lawyer.

In many Georgia DUI cases, defendants are forced to make a decision about whether to take their DUI case to trial without the benefit of a video recording. In fact, in many Georgia DUI cases, the only "evidence" upon which a defendant receives from the state is an incident report produced by the arresting officer, and the defendant is expected to decide whether to take his or her case to trial based on this report. It should be noted that experienced DUI trial lawyers recognize that there are multiple other sources of information which must be researched prior to trial. However, motions hearings provide frequently provide my clients with an invaluable opportunity to see and hear the arresting officer(s) testify in court on the witness stand and under oath about the facts of their particular case. Motions hearings in your DUI case can provide us with an opportunity to evaluate the strength of the officer's testimony (their training, their experience, their ability to explain the facts of this case, and their ability to explain whether my client was impaired). I frequently have clients that face DUI charges which appear, based on the incident reports, to be very "bad" cases for the defense. However, after motions hearings, our opinion of many of those cases changes. Without the benefit of the motions hearings, many of those clients may have made a decision to enter a guilty plea in their DUI case without the benefit of this type of information.