DUI

D.U.I. / Driving Under the Influence is a serious crime in Tennessee and has serious legal consequences. DO NOT assume that you can handle a charge of D.U.I. without SERIOUS ADVICE from a serious attorney. The criminal defense team at Patton & Hyder is staying up to date on all the latest developments in the ever- evolving body of D.U.I law in Tennessee state courts and the federal courts of the United States. These cases involve real people, perhaps just like you. We study how juries and Judges have evaluated the facts of these cases and decided the issues of law. Chances are, your case is not exactly like the facts in these cases. But we use these binding court decisions to evaluate your case. Then we develop and refine your defense to your case.

In order to perform a traffic stop, a police officer must have reasonable suspicion, based on facts he or she can articulate when in Court under the pressure of a seasoned defense attorney, that you are committing a crime or that you are about to commit a crime. Many D.U.I arrest warrants indicate that a Defendant was “weaving” or “driving erratically.” Many times the evidence in a case, often including the dash-cam video recording of one or more police officers or Tennessee Highway Patrol officer shows that the arresting officer simply didn’t have the necessary level of suspicion that was required to pull the Defendant over in the first place. Courts have held that when this happens, the prosecuting attorney shouldn’t be allowed to introduce any evidence, in a trial against you, which follows such a “bad” stop. The criminal defense team at PATTON & HYDER will file a “Motion to Suppress” evidence against you and will fight to get your case dismissed by the Court or, when necessary, found NOT GUILTY by a jury of your peers. Call Patton & Hyder WHEN JUSTICE DEMANDS IT.

Law enforcement ROAD BLOCKS, DRIVERS’ LICENSE CHECKPOINTS or DUI CHECKPOINTS should not be PRESUMED to be legal in Tennessee. There is a complex series of steps that police officers and/or Tennessee Highway Patrol Officers must follow AND DOCUMENT, in order for one of the stops made at such a roadblock to be considered ultimately “legal” by a Court of law. Let the experienced Defense team at PATTON & HYDER demand that the State provide proof that these steps were followed. You might be surprised at how many times they aren’t. If the stop is “bad”, the arrest is “bad”. Call the experienced criminal defense team at Patton & Hyder WHEN JUSTICE DEMANDS IT.