Underage DUI Per Se
August 2021
In a case out of Cobb County State Court in Marietta, Georgia, our young college student client made a serious mistake one night. But, we believe a young person’s bad judgement doesn’t have to mean they shouldn’t get a second chance, even while being held accountable. The DUI Per Se law in Georgia for anyone under 21 means anything equal to or above a 0.02% Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) level is DUI as a matter of law. And in this instance, it wasn’t even close. The reason the officer made the initial traffic stop – failure to maintain lane – was clearly visible on the dashcam video, our client was honest about consuming alcohol, and the test result from the blood draw came back high.
We evaluated the gas chromatography results for issues, but were not able to find any weaknesses in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s toxicology report. So, we went to the prosecutor and advocated hard for our client. We pointed out that, in spite of their mistake, our client had been proactive in following our advice since hiring us. They did everything we told them to do to put themselves in a more favorable position. Even though it was a tough sell, in the end, we got our client a second chance – not only will they avoid a DUI conviction, but they have a chance to avoid any conviction altogether.
Practice area(s): DUI / DWI
Court: Cobb County State Court