Ruling Makes Losing Your License Easier

A Supreme Court ruling in an Orange County DUI case may forever change the way DUI rulings are made. On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that the DMV may use circumstantial evidence in rulings for DUI cases. This means that swerving, or failing a field sobriety test may be used in a decision against you. When a driver is arrested for a DUI they have the right to request an administrative hearing with the DMV to determine the state of their license.

Driver’s who possess borderline breath or blood-alcohol levels will have a much more difficult time proving they were capable of driving safely under this new ruling. The case can be made that although they are under the legal limit, they were still under the influence and therefore were unsafe drivers.

The ruling stems from an Orange county case where Ashley Jourdan Coffey was arrested after failing field sobriety tests. Coffey admitted to officers that she had just turned 21, and she was at a bar, but says she did not drink. Her blood alcohol level was tested an hour after her arrest and she had a blood alcohol level of .08. Coffey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge but tried to fight losing her license.

In Coffey’s case they argued that at the time of her arrest her blood alcohol levels were below .08, but the DMV ruled to suspend her license based on police accounts. A trial court and appellate court both ruled in favor of the DMV, and Coffey lost her license.

Defense attorneys are worried that this ruling will mean the DMV can use evidence to widely penalize drivers, but others think this ruling could be beneficial to some drivers.