There are many myths that surround DUI-related crimes. They’re all over the Internet, and there’s always some friend of a friend who swears he beat the system in some bizarre way. We don’t want you to get busted for DUI because you believed some silly myths. So today, we’re going to break down the five we hear the most often. 1. You can lower your BAC by eating and/or drinking coffee Eating something after the consumption [...]

Whether you go out for a night on the town with friends or you have a dinner function to attend, situations involving alcohol consumption are often a part of life. You’re not mentally calculating your blood alcohol content (BAC) with each sip thinking that your drive home could end in disaster. You may not even realize that your faculties are compromised before getting behind the wheel. Then you hit someone. Or perhaps you were never behind [...]

Traditionally, law enforcement officials were the only individuals who had access to breathalyzer devices that are supposed to measure a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC). However, these devices are now available to anyone. Although some degree of accuracy may be achieved with these DIY breathalyzers, there also serious questions as to the reliability of the readings they can produce. In addition, there are other potential negative consequences of relying on these devices to keep you out [...]

 Having been charged with a DUI, you've obviously found yourself in an unfortunate situation. That situation can go one of two ways. It can go really bad for you, or it can improve through the use of a skilled advocate. I want to be that advocate. In particular, all of the information needs to be gathered. The reports from the officers, the video, the audio; anything that comes to bear on your case. The particularities [...]

Tennessee laws are strict when it comes to punishing drunk drivers. Sentencing for DUIs in the state can include months or years in jail, hefty fines, court costs, and restrictions or complete loss of driving privileges. An additional and recent addition to these penalties is the requirement for the one convicted of DUI to install an ignition interlock device (IID) on his or her vehicle in order to be given a restricted driver’s license. Operation of [...]

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) almost 30 people in the U.S. are killed in drunk driving crashes each day. The state of Tennessee takes the threat imposed by drunk driving very seriously. If you are pulled over on the suspicion of driving under the influence, the attending police officer may ask you to step out of your vehicle and comply with a series of field sobriety tests (FSTs). These tests are standardized [...]

If you drive while you are drunk and/or high on illegal and/or prescription drugs, you face a wide variety of consequences. This wide variety of consequences includes field sobriety tests. Field sobriety tests (FSTs) usually consist of three specific tests (though there are others that are less commonly used): the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) test, the Walk and Turn (WAT) test, and the One Leg Stand (OLS) test. Police officers administer these tests at traffic stops [...]

 If you're convicted, how does the court decide what your sentence is? There are a lot of factors that come into play, but basically, felonies are graded on a letter system: A being the most serious, E being the least serious. Misdemeanors, likewise, from A being the most serious, to C being the least serious. The court will normally request a pre-sentence report – that is unless the charge requires a mandatory prison term, or [...]

 That would depend on the situation, and that is when it's very important for you to go ahead and immediately hire an attorney, because that attorney can investigate where that person got intoxicated, and things such as if that person was over-served and if that business has some liability for over-serving that person. That's why it's very important that you immediately contact an attorney who has knowledge about these types of cases. We at Banks [...]

If you’re anything like us, you’ve been watching the case about DUI testing fees move through the courts. In late August of this year, the Tennessee Supreme Court has issued its final ruling, and it appears these $250 testing fees are here to stay for people convicted of drunk driving. Why was the TBI charging and collecting fees for DUI testing? Back in 2008, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) was facing major budget cuts and [...]