Law Offices of George Scharmen

Coping With a Parent With Alcoholism: A Guide

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 14:15:00 GMT

Children with alcoholic parents have first-hand experience of how heartbreaking it is to have your loved one deal with substance abuse. If you live with and are coping with your parent’s alcoholism, it’s important to know that you’re not alone and that there are ways to deal with the situation. Addiction, especially to alcohol and drugs, harms a person’s health and changes them into different people from what we know them.

As an experienced DWI attorney, the Law Offices of George A. Scharmen has seen many people troubled when their parents deal with a DWI charge as a consequence of alcohol addiction, and we want to help.

Here’s how to deal with parents with alcoholism.

Signs of an Alcoholic

About 1 in 12 men and 1 in 25 women have an alcohol use disorder, which may include your parents. The first step is to confirm whether your parents are dealing with alcoholism. It’s important to remember that people exhibit different signs of addiction. Some common signs include the following:

· Mood swings and getting quickly irritated over minor things

· Blackouts and gaps in memory

· Making excuses for excess drinking and bad behavior

· Isolating themselves from family and friends

· Drinking in secrecy and prioritizing drinking over obligations

· High frequency of hangovers

· Changes in behavior, appearance, and social presence

What It’s Like To Live With Alcoholic Parents?

Living with parents with alcoholism is extremely difficult. It affects how you feel and act; their behavior towards familial relationships also becomes problematic. According to research , there is increased conflict, emotional distancing, and unbalanced support and care between partners when one of them is dealing with alcoholism. Similar feelings and actions are found when children deal with parents with alcoholism.

Some people may worry for themselves, their siblings, and even their parents. Others may feel angry, sad, or embarrassed. Moreover, frustration and feeling unsafe around them are also common. If you’ve dealt with their alcoholism from a young age, it may have forced you to grow up faster than your peers. You may resent your parents for forcing you to become an adult before you were ready. It’s important to remember that this situation is complex, and all your feelings are valid.

What Can You Do?

A study has found that 1 in 8 American adults struggle with alcoholism. Alcohol abuse can lead to severe health problems, cost people their jobs, and destroy their relationships with their families. In extreme cases, people with this condition can cause harm to others while drinking under the influence. No one wants their parents sitting in a trial next to a DWI attorney fearful, guilty, and embarrassed. This can even lead to a guilty feeling inside children of parents with alcoholism. There are some steps that you can follow to help yourself and your parents.

1. Avoid Feeling Guilty

Research has reported that children that have parents with alcoholism or another substance use disorder feel guilty and frustrated. If one or both of your parents are dealing with alcoholism, you mustn’t think it’s your fault. Speak to an expert about getting support. Never feel that you need to do it on your own. In many cases, children feel some responsibility for the addiction. So, this tip may be easier said than done. But the fact is, alcoholism is an illness, and there’s nothing you could have done to prevent their addiction. Alcoholism requires treatment like any other disease.

2. Don’t Enable Them

Alcohol cravings can be bad. When someone starts craving it, they will do anything to get their hands on a bottle. Although it may seem easier to give in, enabling them is akin to shielding them from experiencing the consequences of substance abuse. In some cases, it will feel heart-wrenching to say no, but you have to stand your ground.

3. Avoid Arguing When They’re Intoxicated

Dealing with parents with alcoholism is a challenging situation. Your first reaction after seeing a parent in denial about their addiction might be to force them to acknowledge their alcoholism. However, if you try to force them to realize this, it will backfire. It will push them away from you, and they may become physically or verbally abusive in the worst cases.

People who are under the influence don’t have the clearest minds. They can lie, skirt the issue, or manipulate it. Alcohol affects the brain , causing blackouts and memory gaps; they likely won’t even remember what they said in the heat of the moment.

4. Understand The Process of Recovery

Overcoming alcohol addiction is a long and bumpy road. Some days it will feel even impossible. If you want to be a part of the recovery, you must alter your own responses and reactions, such as changing old ideas and behaviors that enabled your parents or left you in denial. It will be an ongoing recovery where you will have to work towards separation from unhealthy habits and develop more mature responses.

5. Take Care of Yourself

While you’re trying to help your parents with alcoholism and support them in overcoming it, don’t forget to take care of yourself. Children of alcoholic parents might be in a unique position to help them, but if you’re not properly cared for, it will drain you quickly. Make an appointment with a therapist to voice your thoughts and frustrations to a neutral third party.

6. Suggest Rehab

Even if you support your parents to the best of your abilities, there’s a limit to what you can do. The best solution for alcohol addiction is rehab. Once they complete rehab, roughly 85% to 95% of people successfully cross the nine-month mark without giving in to their addiction.

Experienced DWI Attorney In San Antonio, Texas

People make mistakes, especially while under the influence. If your parents, siblings, or your friends were under the influence and were involved in an accident or caught driving under it, you will need a DWI attorney.

If you’re looking for a DWI attorney in San Antonio , feel free to connect with us at the Law Offices of George A. Scharmen. I am an experienced DWI lawyer in Texas who stands by your side to improve your case's outcome and reduce your jail time from DWI arrests. Get in touch today!

6 Ways a DUI Lawyer Can Help You Win Your Case

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 15:30:00 GMT

Many offenders in San Antonio find it incredibly challenging to win a DUI case because of how trained and stringent the Texas police are at identifying their intoxication while driving and how motivated most prosecutors are to prove them guilty. It can often take just a few missteps for an individual’s charges to turn into DUI convictions without the support of a DUI lawyer.

Therefore, representing yourself after a DUI arrest is never a good idea. It’s because you need substantial training, knowledge, and experience to be legally represented after a DUI arrest, which is rarely possible without the legal counsel of a qualified DUI lawyer.

Your DUI lawyer won’t only be there to listen to your side of the story but will also help you win your DUI case by fighting your charge. From preparing you for court to challenging the prosecution and having your charge dismissed, there’s undoubtedly a lot your DUI lawyer can do for you.

If you’re wondering what it means to hire a DUI lawyer when trying to win a DUI case, here are some of the top ways they can help you avoid jail time, penalty fees, license revocation, and more.

Avoiding the Bias in a DUI Charge

Winning a DUI case significantly depends on what you can do to avoid the existing bias in the DUI charge. There’s a wide range of challenges people face after being charged for a DUI incident. One of them is dealing with the bias and one-sided stories associated with the incident. There’s a high chance of people not believing you or your story.

With a DUI lawyer, this isn’t something you’ll have to experience. It’s because they’ll trust you and be open to hearing your side of the story to help you win your DUI case. They’ll acknowledge that you’re not a bad person and will develop the most effective strategy to convince the judge and jury of that too.

As a result, there’s always a greater potential for success in court when you’re being supported by a DUI lawyer.

Having Substantial Knowledge Of DUI Laws and Penalties

If there’s one reason you should always hire a DUI lawyer, it’s that they come with substantial experience that they use to provide you with their legal support and counsel. A DUI defense lawyer spends years handling DWI and DUI cases of all kinds. This gives them the edge and expertise they need to win your case seamlessly.

A DUI lawyer’s experience allows them to understand your case better and find the best ways to defend you. From determining the relevant questions for witnesses to presenting proper evidence and finding loopholes in the prosecution’s accusations, they can take all the necessary steps to help you win your DUI case.

It’s because DUI lawyers have the unique skill of concealing the events that aren’t favorable for your case and highlighting the instances that benefit you as an accused person. Their strategy is based on years of experience defending multiple DUI and DWI offenders and winning their DUI cases.

Reducing The Time Spent in Court/Jail

One thing to always keep in mind after a DUI arrest is that you’ll be required to make an appearance in court at least once. Furthermore, you may also have to face jail time, depending on the nature of your DUI charge. Your DUI lawyer’s ultimate goal is to not only win your DUI case but also make sure you spend the least amount of time in both court and jail.

They’ll do their best to ensure you’re not required to be present in court during every legal proceeding and that you’re adequately represented even in your absence. This will allow you to be at home or work with peace of mind, knowing that your DUI lawyer is doing everything possible to have your charges dismissed and eventually win your DUI case.

Furthermore, they’ll try to negotiate the amount of time you spend in jail by working out alternatives like house arrests, rehabilitation, community service, and more.

Handling Critical Evidence and Paperwork

A significant factor that your DUI case critically relies on is evidence. Your sentence will be determined after you and the prosecution have successfully drafted and submitted evidence of the DUI incident you’re being charged for.

It can be incredibly overwhelming to handle paperwork and evidence, including photographs, screenshots, videos, and other documents, as the defendant. It’s because the process of acquiring evidence is time-consuming and stringent.

However, your DUI lawyer knows the significance of timely evidence in the process of winning a DUI case and will do everything in their power to handle the necessary paperwork and obtain important evidence to prepare your case.

Presenting a Strong Defense Case

When a judge determines your sentence and closes your DUI case, the only thing they rely on is your defense case and the facts presented by the prosecution. Therefore, you can always count on your DUI lawyer to build a strong case based on the events of the DUI incident and defend you as wisely as possible.

Whether they’re contesting on your behalf or trying to negotiate your sentence, they’ll ensure every measure they take is to help you win your DUI case.

Helping You Decide on a Plea

It can be overwhelming to determine whether you should plead guilty or not guilty during your arraignment in a DUI case. Your DUI lawyer’s advice can play a major role in helping you decide on a plea and sticking to it.

Their legal counsel will be based on a plea’s chances of helping you win your car.

You can now win your DUI case by connecting with the DWI attorneys in San Antonio at The Law Offices of George A. Scharmen . As one of the most experienced DWI lawyers in San Antonio, I’m committed to representing you in DUI and DWI cases and preventing consequences like license suspension. Contact me to learn more today!

The Top Driving Habits Everyone Should Adopt This Year

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 15:45:00 GMT

Driving is an essential part of most people’s lives today. However, heavy traffic and the need to spend a long time behind the wheel before getting home or to work often result in most drivers making reckless mistakes due to poor driving habits. As we start a new year, the ability to adopt better driving habits should be on top of the list of things to learn.

Whether you drive alone or with kids, it’s crucial to take all the right steps to be safe while driving and adopt habits that won’t result in roadside accidents, collisions, DWI arrests, and other hazards.

Better driving habits are all about what you can do to protect yourself, your loved ones, and other drivers and passengers on the road, regardless of how bad the traffic or how bumpy the road is. With your DWI attorney’s legal assistance and representation, you can always get out of legal trouble and avoid penalties that you may face due to a DWI arrest or reckless drunk driving.

Read on to know all about some of the better driving habits one should adopt in 2023:

Staying Calm While Driving

When you’re getting driving lessons or looking for the best driving tips to follow, one thing many people don’t tell you is how crucial it is to stay calm while driving. You’re likely to experience a wide range of circumstances on the road. From aggressive drivers to road rage , heavy traffic, or a situation of someone breaking the traffic rules and laws. This may trigger a lot of emotions, causing you to act recklessly without being mindful of other people’s safety.

However, staying calm is one of the best driving habits one can have. This means you must always be patient with others on the road and understand the need for being a responsible driver with better driving habits than others.

If you notice someone driving in an excessive speed because they’re in a hurry, make sure you give them space to get through. Similarly, avoid responding or reacting to the words or actions of aggressive drivers at any moment.

This will help you reach your destination safely without being in legal trouble due to breaking driving rules and regulations.

Being Aware of Your Blind Spots

We often hear a lot about blind spots during our driver’s tests and interviews. While it’s never a good idea to look behind yourself multiple times to be mindful of the blind spots, it’s always ideal to be aware of what other drivers are doing around you. In other words, being proactive in identifying other drivers’ moves will help you take measures to protect yourself and your loved ones while driving on the road.

Checking blind spots through your rearview mirrors is undoubtedly a better driving habit that can prevent various unprecedented roadside accidents. This is also an essential step when you want to change lanes, turn around, overtake, or move away from a specific road.

A fair idea of all the blind spots around you will help you determine whether the coast is clear for you to drive safely and make a different move.

Wearing Your Seat Belt At All Times

Despite the increased awareness about wearing seat belts , many drivers fail to do so and end up in some of the most tragic roadside accidents. Some of these accidents and their consequences can easily be prevented if drivers understand the need and urgency to start wearing their seat belts regularly.

If there’s one better driving habit to start with, it’s the practice of wearing your seat belt. You can add a reminder to your smartphone or use a safety checklist to put your seat belt on as soon as you sit in your car and prepare to start it.

Seatbelts can protect you from hazardous injuries in case of a roadside accident and play a significant role in ensuring your loved ones’ safety.

Performing Vehicle Safety Checks

Cars and other vehicles are undoubtedly the most important investments one can make. However, they can always be subject to wear and tear that won’t be instantly visible. Some of the damage within cars often reveals itself when you’re already driving on the road, which is never a good sign because it can lead to multiple accidents.

Performing vehicle safety checks can help you combat this problem. Make sure you’re frequently inspecting various parts of your car, including its brakes, tires, steering wheel, windscreen, rear view mirror, engine, and more.

Avoid Drinking and Driving

If there’s one better driving habit that can always keep you out of legal trouble, it’s that of never driving while intoxicated. DWIs are a leading cause of roadside crashes and collisions in the USA. It’s when people try to navigate through roads, highways, and freeways with a substantial amount of alcohol in the system.

DWIs can lead to speeding, overtaking, and various other irrational steps one may take when they’re inebriated. Therefore, if you’re in a drunken state or under the influence, it’s always better to let someone else drive you home instead of taking the risk of driving yourself.

Hire a DWI Attorney

If you find yourself at risk of being charged for a DWI incident, a better driving habit for you is to always have a DWI attorney you can trust. Your DWI attorney can play a significant role in helping you contest your case and stay out of legal trouble.

If you’re looking for a DWI lawyer in San Antonio who you can call whenever you’re convicted of a DWI incident, make sure you connect with The Law Offices of George A. Scharmen . As your DWI lawyer in San Antonio , I’ll make sure you’re not wrongfully charged and will take all the right steps to represent you adequately in legal proceedings. Contact my team to learn more today!

Preparing for Court - Surviving your DWI Court date

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 06:51:44 GMT

A DWI conviction can be incredibly stressful because of all the penalties it comes with, depending on the nature of your offense. This also indicates that you have a few DWI court dates to appear. Charges as severe as DWI and DUI require substantial planning and strategizing, especially when there are court appearances involved.

It’s one of the key reasons why most DWI attorneys advise their clients to take matters seriously instead of trying to brush the charges off. Navigating through the criminal court is a complicated process, primarily because DWI charges can significantly alter the course of your life by impacting your personal relationships, career, money, and future plans.

Considering the lifelong consequences of DWI charges, ensuring that your arraignment and the rest of the court process go seamlessly is crucial. A smooth legal proceeding will ultimately shape your future after a DWI arrest. While your DWI attorney can always guide you through the process, we’ve created a guide to help you prepare for your DWI court date.

Here are some essential tips you should follow.

Dress Appropriately

Many people often fail to realize that how they dress can have an incredible impact on others. In other words, some outcomes are a direct response to a person’s dressing. This means it’s critical to consider your dress and overall appearance when getting ready for your DWI court date.

Choosing appropriate attire for your court date is one of the first rules of learning all the necessary court rules. The point of most court dates is for the judge to determine whether you’re guilty of a crime or likely to commit a DWI offense again.

You have the responsibility to create a good first impression. A decent and professional dress, paired with polite behavior, can go a long way in ensuring a better outcome for your DWI court proceedings.

For men, the ideal dressing choice for their DWI court date would be a pair of dress pants and a collared shirt with a coat. Similarly, women can wear a formal skirt, blouse, and anything that seems professional and minimal.

Understand the Court’s Rules

There are several rules to abide by when you appear for a DWI court date. This includes addressing the judge as “your honor”, avoiding eating or drinking during legal proceedings, staying disciplined at all times, and relying on your DWI attorney for advice because taking any action.

The more respectful you’ll be in the court and with the judge, the easier it will be to contest your case, prove your innocence, and have your charges waived by the judge. Remember to go through the guidelines given to you by your DWI attorney a few days before your DWI court date.

Hire a DWI Attorney

While it’s important to always have a DWI attorney by your side regardless of the severity DWI conviction, you always have the choice to hire one once your DWI court date is around the corner.

DWI cases can become complicated, especially if there are injuries and deaths involved. Navigating through court proceedings and ensuring your fair representation is critical in this process. Therefore, if you’re being charged with a DWI offense, the first thing you should do is get in touch with a reliable and trustworthy DWI attorney.

Even if it’s a first-offense charge with minimal penalties, it’s always better to have your DWI attorney’s assistance to avoid the long-term repercussions of your conviction. Instead of handling your DWI court case on your own, choose an experienced and qualified DWI attorney to help you out.

Their legal counsel will play a significant role in helping you prepare for your DWI court date, make a strong defense, and achieve the most desirable outcome.

Jot Down What Your Lawyer Says

Once you have a DWI attorney to help you out, you must trust their knowledge and expertise and listen to their advice. Whether it’s a recommendation they’re making for a strong defense or guiding you through the principles of the court of law, understand their instructions properly and make sure you note them down.

Listening to your lawyer’s advice can help you avoid a wide range of challenges and hurdles many DWI cases come with.

Determine Your Plea

Among many others, a crucial step in preparing for your DWI court date with your DWI lawyer is to decide on your plea . This usually needs to happen on your arraignment when the judge asks you to enter your plea. Your decision will ultimately decide the next steps for your DWI court case.

If you decide to plead “guilty”, the case will move on to the sentencing stage, where the judge will formally announce your sentence and other penalties associated with the DWI charge. However, if you plead “not guilty”, there’s a high chance you’ll be going to trial to present evidence of your innocence and challenging the prosecution accordingly.

Determining your plea for your DWI court date can be a stressful process. Therefore, it’s always better to take your DWI lawyer’s advice to get the best possible outcomes.

Write Down the Circumstances of the DWI Incident

Another important step for DWI court date preparation is writing down all the circumstances of the DWI incident. Start by going down memory lane and jot down every important thing that happened before, during, or after the DWI arrest.

This will give your DWI lawyer substantial information to prepare for your case and defend you accordingly.

If you’re looking for a DWI attorney in San Antonio to count on when trying to prepare for your DWI court date, make sure you reach out to the The Law Offices of George A. Scharmen . My legal assistance as your DWI lawyer in San Antonio will play a significant role in your adequate legal representation and preventing multiple consequences of a DWI charge in San Antonio. Contact me to learn more today!

Tips for Staying Sober During the Holidays

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 05:55:01 GMT

The Holiday season is one of the best times to experience joy, express gratitude, and spend some quality time with friends and family members. It’s the perfect season to prepare for the upcoming year, participate in festivities, donate and give back, host parties and get-togethers, and, most of all, create new memories with your children, parents, significant others, and other loved ones.

However, one thing many people with excessive drinking or substance abuse problem struggle with is the challenge of maintaining sobriety and avoiding relapse during the holidays. In other words, the holidays can be difficult for individuals if their goal is to stay sober and clean throughout the festivities without any factor triggering a relapse throughout their time with loved ones.

The use of alcohol to celebrate moments and express excitement and emotions is a normal habit during the holiday season. This ultimately makes it crucial for some people to do everything they can to maintain sobriety during the holidays and stay away from practices that’ll increase the need for a DWI attorney at any point.

Here are some incredibly helpful steps you can take to meet this goal.

Make a Precautionary Plan Ahead of Time

When you’re aware of the challenge of maintaining sobriety during the holidays, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. A precautionary plan is just what you need to prevent a relapse when you’re out and about or celebrating with friends and family.

Planning ahead includes many steps, such as determining who you want to spend the holidays with, deciding whether you should drive your own vehicle or let someone else drive you, choosing the right holiday parties, and more.

This step is a lot like making a holiday itinerary, except that it’s solely based on the goal of maintaining your sobriety during holidays. A well-planned holiday season will always keep you away from people and events that might trigger you or result in a relapse when it’s the last thing you need during this magical time of the year.

Furthermore, having a sober companion by your side, especially while driving to another city or state during the holidays, can be incredibly helpful. Their support can help you be aware of your possible triggers, anxiety, loneliness, anger, exhaustion, and other similar factors that lead to relapses.

Keep Self-Care In Mind

There’s no better way to celebrate the holidays than by using this time to take care of your needs, health, and well-being this year. Maintaining sobriety means fulfilling your mind, body, and soul by treating it well and practicing self-care whenever possible.

The first thing to get started is acknowledging that you’re human and can always make mistakes. This will help you plan your holidays without the risk of becoming a victim of a bottle of alcohol simply because you’ve got nothing to do.

It’s always good to use the free time to treat yourself to a massage, a cooking class, a yoga class, meditation, or a prayer circle. Furthermore, focusing on eating well during this time will help you nourish your body and give it the strength it needs to function optimally.

Physical movement, along with practices like a new skincare regimen, journaling, and watching your favorite TV shows, will play a significant role in helping you maintain sobriety during holidays. It might be the first time to finally achieve your goal of being 100% clean and combatting your drinking or substance abuse problem once and for all.

Get Support As Much As You Can

Recovery should never stop, regardless of what time or season it is. A brief pause in your journey toward sobriety can affect all the progress you’ve made over the last few weeks. You should always have your doors open to support and assistance, especially when you want to maintain sobriety during the holidays.

If you’re traveling this holiday season, seeking the help of your sponsor or attending new support groups can help you stay away from a DWI charge and stay clean throughout the festivities.

Always Know Your Limits

It’s always good to be aware of your limits when agreeing to plans during the holidays. While you can’t expect others to avoid drinking around you, you should be responsible enough to know when to leave a situation if there’s a risk of a relapse.

This also means being mindful of who you spend your time interacting with. There might be people who’ll try to affect your mood or trigger your emotions by discussing your drinking habit or criticizing your journey to sobriety. Once you know it’s not a safe space for you, make sure you leave it instantly before it starts influencing your progress.

Know What You Can or Can’t Have

Alcohol is a common beverage in most holiday parties and gatherings. It’s always better to know what’s on the menu before attending these parties. This will give you a better idea of what you can or can’t have. Once you’ve entered a party, try having some fresh juices or a glass of fresh water in your hands at all times.

This will keep you aware of your goal of maintaining sobriety during holidays without making you feel like you’re missing out on the fun among other family members.

Have Your DWI Attorney on Speed Dial

There’s always a risk of relapse, even when trying to maintain sobriety during holidays. This can result in DWI arrests if you’re driving while intoxicated. You should always keep this risk in mind by having a reliable DWI attorney’s contact on speed dial. This will help you avoid the hassle of dealing with the police if you’re caught driving under the influence.

If you’re looking for a DWI attorney in San Antonio to count on when trying to maintain sobriety during holidays, make sure you reach out to me at The Law Offices of George A. Scharmen . With me as your DWI lawyer in San Antonio , you’ll never have to be worried about severe DWI penalties and other lifelong consequences of a DWI charge in San Antonio. Contact me to learn more today!

DWI Incidents & Driver’s Rights

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 10:44:39 GMT

One of the leading causes of concern in the United States of America is drunk driving . According to the CDC, around 29 individuals lose their lives in auto-vehicle accidents daily, most of which result from DWI incidents. This has ultimately led to the annual costs of alcohol-associated road accidents being over $44 billion yearly. With the number of deaths and injuries being caused by DWI incidents, it’s critical to know how these events can alter the course of one’s life.

From causing life-threatening injuries to resulting in long or short-term driver’s arrests, there are several consequences of drunk driving, especially in San Antonio. While your DWI attorney in San Antonio, TX can always help you navigate through this overwhelming process, it’s critical to always be aware of what it entails and the rights you’re entitled to at every step of the way.

If you or a loved one is being charged with DWI in San Antonio, make sure you know everything about DWI incidents and drivers’ rights during this time. Read on to learn all about it.

What Is a DWI Incident?

DWI incidents refer to car accidents and crashes that occur when an individual is driving while they're drunk. It’s one of the most dangerous forms of driving because alcohol tends to have a severe effect on a person’s mind and body. This ultimately hinders their ability to keep most driving laws in mind while handling a vehicle on the road.

Despite taking measures to reduce the effect of alcohol such as drinking coffee and energy-boosting drinks, many drivers often fail to stay sober while drunk driving. It’s a challenging situation for both the driver and every other individual driving on a road, threatening their safety and life in general.

With alcohol in their system, most drivers find it difficult to respond to situations wisely or even view the road clearly. Furthermore, poor hand-eye-foot coordination along with confusion and an inability to make practical decisions leads to vehicle collisions, crashes, and other similar accidents, jeopardizing the driver's safety and health.

Cities like San Antonio are significantly stringent with it comes to DWI incidents, making it critical for you to have your DWI lawyer’s contact on speed dial at all times. Therefore, if you suspect such a risk, remember to appoint a DWI lawyer in San Antonio that you can always count on.

The Consequences of DWI Incidents

Apart from multiple injuries and loss of life, there are several penalties that a driver might be charged with in a DWI incident. The severity and duration of these consequences essentially depend on the offense number and the nature of the DWI accident, especially when you’re 21 years or older.

Here are some penalties you should know about so that you may seek assistance from your DWI attorney accordingly.

First Offense

If you’re being charged with a first offense, you’re likely to be charged with a fine of up to $2,000 in Texas. Furthermore, this penalty also includes jail time for drivers, the duration of which may be between 3 and 180 days. If you were significantly drunk during this accident, the authorities are highly likely to suspend your license for at least two years. You may even be asked to attend a DWI education program as a penalty.

Second Offense

Drivers being charged with a second DWI offense must pay a fine of up to $4,000. The penalty for second-offense drivers may also include up to one year of jail time along with a license suspension for two years. Apart from the need to attend an intervention program, there might also be a possibility of you getting an ignition interlock device.

Third Offense

Lastly, the penalty for third-offense DWI charges includes a $10,000 fine along with jail time of up to 10 years. Your license is highly likely to be suspended for two years with this charge.

Fortunately, you can fight this with a reliable DWI attorney in San Antonio by your side.

Your Rights as a Driver During a DWI Incident

While it’s critical to team up with your DWI attorney to map out a viable way out of a DWI charge, the first thing to be mindful of is your rights as a driver. Here are some key drivers’ rights to know about during a DWI incident.

Your Right to Fight Back

Whether you’re in trouble for driving drunk or under the influence, it’s never a good idea for you to give up. With proper assistance from your legal counsel, including your DWI attorney, you, as a driver, are fully entitled to fight back against the prosecution when you get a DWI charge.

Your Right to Deny Unreasonable Search and Seizure

According to Fourth Amendment in the United States Constitution , drivers can always deny unreasonable searches by authorities during DWI incidents. In fact, according to Section 9 in the Texas Bill of Rights , the authorities can’t search and go through an individual’s car, belongings, or house unless they have a warrant to do so.

The Right to Contact Your DWI Lawyer in San Antonio

Lastly, when you’re being charged with a DWI offense, you have the right to not only stay silent but also contact your DWI lawyer in San Antonio to take the next steps in your case accordingly.

If you need a reliable DWI defense lawyer in San Antonio , feel free to get in touch with us at the Law Offices of George Scharmen. George is an experienced DWI lawyer and can help you get out of trouble without your DWI arrest threatening your life, safety, and finances.

We're always a call away for all our clients whenever they need to hire a DWI lawyer and frequently our my experience and specialization to avoid license suspension, prevent legal involvement, and have your jail time reduced during such difficult times. Contact us to learn more today!

Dealing with a Suspended Driver’s License in San Antonio: A Guide

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 12:30:01 GMT

Driving with a suspended driver’s license is considered a serious crime in San Antonio, TX. If you’re pulled over, and the officer realizes that your license is suspended, you’ll be charged with a misdemeanor.

First-time offenders are let go easy; you won’t step foot inside a prison cell. However, you’ll still be required to pay heavy fines and get your license suspended for an even longer duration.

In this blog, we’ll offer a closer look at the repercussions of having a suspended driver’s license in San Antonio, the restrictions you’ll face, the possible penalties that will be imposed, and the right way to navigate such a situation. Keep reading. If you have any questions, feel free to ask us towards the end of the blog. Let’s begin.

1. What Results in Driver’s License Suspension in Texas?

To keep the roads of Texas as safe as possible, the law is laid out in a way that unfit drivers are kept off the roads. This helps reduce the risk of road accidents. Driver’s license suspension isn’t common, but it’s not rare, either.

According to The Washington Post, over 7 million people have faced driver’s license suspension across the nation. Why does this happen? For starters, license suspensions are automatically triggered if a driver commits four moving violations within a year or seven moving violations within two years.

As a driver, you have the option of contesting the suspension within 20 days. Suspensions also occur when people are caught drunk driving, recklessly driving, driving without insurance, failing to pay traffic tickets, or causing serious injury or death while driving. The length of the suspension will be decided in court. This ultimately depends on the nature of the crime and the offender’s age.

In most cases, suspensions last 30, 60, or 90 days. If you’re 21 and up, your license will be suspended for two years. However, offenders under the age of 21 are granted a tad more leniency. Your suspension will last for a year. However, you will be required to complete an Alcohol Education Program and get an ignition interlock device installed in your vehicle. If you fail to do so, your license suspension will increase by 180 or 90 days.

2. My Driver’s License Just Got Suspended, What Should I Do?

If your driver’s license was recently suspended, you must patiently wait for the suspension period to end. Additionally, make sure you pay the assigned reinstatement fee on time. Of course, you have the option of contesting the suspension. However, this must be done sooner than later.

Consult an experienced DWI attorney who can guide you accordingly. The appeal petition must be file-stamped or file-marked within 30 days of the suspension. You will be required to mail a certified copy of the petition that includes a signature by the clerk of the court to DPS via certified mail. Check the license eligibility website to determine what you need to submit.

We would like to reiterate that this process should not be tackled alone. You will be required to adhere to a strict time limit, submit specific documentation, and provide accurate information. If there are any oversights, you will not be able to get your driver’s license reinstated. Work with a DWI defense lawyer with extensive experience helping people get their licenses reinstated.

3. Can I Drive with a Suspended Driver’s License?

As we discussed earlier, you cannot drive with a suspended driver’s license. If you do so, you will be charged with a Class B misdemeanor. This entails a possible prison sentence of between 72 hours and 6 months. Additionally, you’ll pay a fine of up to $500.

If you have a previous Driving While License Suspended (DWLS) or Driving While License Invalid (DWLI) conviction, your charges will increase to a Class A misdemeanor. This is punishable by up to 12 months in prison and heavy fines of up to $4,000. You may face additional surcharges.

4. Will Driving with a Suspended License Affect My Insurance?

If you have a suspended license, you will be considered a high-risk driver to your current insurer or future insurers. If you commit a violation by driving while having your license suspended, you will be charged and possibly convicted.

This information will be displayed on your driving record, i.e., your insurer will be able to see it. As a result, your car insurance rates will increase. If your auto insurance renewal is due during the suspension period, your insurer may choose to delay or cancel renewal.

It’s also important to note that the large majority of auto insurance companies do not provide insurance to drivers with a suspended license, especially if they violated the suspension.

5. Will I Get Fired?

If your license has been suspended, the management may find out. If you fail to inform them, you will most likely get fired. If your job requires driving, the repercussions will be more serious. For example, if you work as a delivery driver or bus driver, you can only keep your job if you have an active license. If your driver’s license is suspended, you will automatically lose your job.

Even if your job doesn’t require driving, your employer can still choose to fire you. This is because license suspension brings your personal judgment and responsibility into question. Make sure you’re honest with your employer. Present the situation to them without any sugarcoating or embellishment. Promise to do better and prove that it was a one-time mistake. Honestly and openness will go a long way in helping you retain the job.

The Most Common Reasons for a Driver’s License Suspension

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 12:15:00 GMT

Whether you use your vehicle to commute daily or rarely drive, a driver’s license suspension isn’t what you want. Having your license suspended means temporarily losing your driving privileges, usually for a specified period. You may also be required to go through multiple legal obligations and may have to hire an ALR/license suspension attorney to have your license reinstated.

Here are a few reasons for a driver’s license suspension.

Driving Without Insurance

Almost every US state has a minimum auto insurance requirement to provide financial protection and cover liabilities. According to Texas law , drivers need at least $30,000 worth of coverage per injury, $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 per each instance of property damage. This is known as a 30/60/25 coverage and is the minimum liability insurance drivers are required to have to drive legally.

If you fail to meet the minimum insurance requirement, you’re likely to get fined by law enforcement authorities at some point. When this happens, you may end up getting your license suspended.

Driving Recklessly

You must have seen those “Speed Thrills But Also Kills” signs. While reckless driving can lead to fatal accidents, you can lose your driving privileges for speeding or driving carelessly, even if you aren’t involved in a traffic accident.

Reckless driving refers to driving in a way that jeopardizes your or other people’s lives and puts them at risk of injury or death. Making dangerous turns while driving? Reckless. Speeding on a highway because you don’t see any cars around? Still reckless. If you’re caught driving in a manner that isn’t approved and violates traffic laws, you’ll probably lose your license. The graver the situation, the greater the chances of a license suspension.

Not Appearing in Court

Many people think that court summons isn’t that big a deal and fail to appear in court. The truth is, a court appointment is serious business. Even if you haven’t been involved in a traffic violation and are unsure why you’re being called, the last thing you want to do is ignore court summons.

If you do this, your license will be suspended. Moreover, you may not even realize a suspension has been carried out until a law enforcement officer stops you for some reason and they confiscate your license.

Keep track of any court summons or driving-related documents you receive in the mail. Sometimes, licenses get suspended because people haven’t paid their outstanding tickets or missed the letter specifying the time and date of their court appointment.

Acquiring Too Many Driving Points

This is one of those few instances where having too many points is not a good thing. Driver license points (aka driving points and demerit points) are bad news. They’re issued each time you’re involved in a driving violation, accumulating over time and remaining on your record for up to three years. The number of points given depends on the nature of the violation. For instance, a Texas moving violation entails 2 points, and a moving violation that results in a traffic accident entails 3 points.

You can get points even when you’re driving out of state. In short, it doesn’t matter where the violation occurs. If you don’t adhere to traffic rules, you’ll be given points you really don’t want on your record. So, for instance, you can get demerit points if you’re caught speeding, making illegal U-turns, running a stop sign, or driving without valid insurance.

The more points you get, the more likely you are to lose your driving privileges. A judge will likely suspend your license if your record shows too many driving violations over the past few months and you’ve accumulated too many points. This is less likely to happen to experienced drivers as they’re usually well-versed with the driving system and traffic rules, but hey, you don’t want to risk it! Nobody’s exempted from the driving point system.

Fleeing an Accident Site

Being involved in a traffic accident is scary. Many drivers responsible for a motor accident panic and flee the scene (aka hit and run) without offering aid or identifying themselves. Not only is this highly unethical, but the Texas law can also have you held liable if you’re caught.

Hit-and-run penalties vary depending on the extent of damage caused and the nature of the incident. However, you’re most likely to have your license suspended. Word of advice: don’t drive away if you’ve caused an accident. It’ll only make things worse.

Using Fictitious License Plates

It goes without saying, but using altered license plates is a huge no-no. If you knowingly modify your vehicle’s license plate, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll have your driver’s license suspended.

We’re not talking about legally customized driving plates. This refers to using altered license plates that are false or unlisted. For instance, altering a parking decal or disability license plate is considered an offence and can cost you your driving privileges.

Missed Child Support Payments

Frequently skipping and/or not paying child support has greater consequences than you’d imagine. Many drivers don’t realize this, but child support payments also play a role in a driver’s license suspension case.

If you haven’t been making child support payments, you can lose your driving privileges. The Texas court or the Attorney General of Texas (OAG) may suspend your license without warning.

Getting a DWI/DUI Conviction

Finally, another major reason for getting a driver’s license suspension is a DWI arrest or conviction. Driving while impaired or under the influence has a series of negative consequences, one of which is license suspension. You could lose your driving privileges for several months or even years if the incident was severe.

Avoiding a DWI case is always better than getting arrested/convicted, losing your license, and having to go through a trial. However, if you do find yourself in this unfortunate situation, make sure you hire a seasoned DWI attorney to help fight the case and reduce your penalty. They can also help you acquire your license at the earliest.

We can help. The Law Offices of George A. Scharmen provides DWI defense services to San Antonio drivers, helping them with their ALR/license suspension and pre-trial needs. Contact our team today to hire a DWI lawyer.

Info graphic: Is Your Loved One Arrested For DWI? Stop Panicking!

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 13:04:44 GMT

If one of your loved ones has been in a DWI, do not panic and make the right decision! Contact the best DWI attorney as soon as you can and follow these guidelines:

How a DWI Claim Can Affect Your Family

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 11:43:58 GMT

While DWI arrests directly affect the accused, they also take a toll on the offender's family. If you were recently arrested for drunk driving, you may feel anxious, stressed, nervous, and agitated about what's to come.

Yes, thinking about your future and freedom is important. However, you must also think about how the arrest will affect your family.

DWI cases can cause severe fragmentation. If your sentence includes jail time, your family will struggle to cope with your absence, especially if they're financially dependent on you. This article will offer a closer look at how DWI arrests affect families. Keep reading.

1. Your Partner

Your partner will be mentally, emotionally, and financially affected by your DWI case. Your relationship will be impacted if you're required to spend time in prison. If you've established a healthy foundation, your partner will be supportive. However, they will still struggle with your loss, the financial toll of the case, and your public perception across the neighborhood.

People often hold DWI convicts responsible for putting their lives in danger and risking the lives of others (especially if there were children involved). If the accident resulted in a death, there would be greater judgment and vitriol. Since you will be in prison, your partner will have to deal with the bulk of the criticism.

In some cases, partners file for divorce if the couple is married. If you were engaged or dating, the engagement/relationship might come to an end. It's important to note that this process is never easy for the accused's partner. Your partner will also suffer financially if you're heavily fined and imprisoned.

2. Your Children

Children suffer tremendously when a parent is incarcerated. If you were driving with a child in the vehicle, you will face child endangerment charges and lose custody of your child.

Under Texas law, any child under the age of 15 is considered a child passenger. While a regular DWI is a Class B misdemeanor, a DWI with a child passenger is considered a state jail felony (SJF). Your driver's license will be suspended for 180 days, you'll serve between 180 days and two years in prison, and you'll pay a fine of up to $10,000. Additional penalties include probation, community service, attending an alcohol/drug education course, installing an ignition interlock device in the vehicle, paying additional fees, and so on.

In this case, the child who was present in the vehicle will suffer emotionally. If the accident was of a more serious nature, the child might also get injured or develop PTSD .

Children who weren't present in the vehicle also suffer in numerous ways. The most significant impact is the loss of their parent. Your children will spend several weeks, months, or perhaps years in your absence if you're incarcerated. Children often become resentful and grow up feeling bitter about the absence of a parent. If you were the sole or shared breadwinner for the family, your children would also suffer financially.

It's important to note that multiple DWI convictions can result in the loss of child custody. If you have more than one DWI, it can be argued that you pose a risk to your children. Your partner may receive full custody. The judge will ultimately look out for the children's best interests. You will be considered an unfit parent if you have made multiple decisions that have affected your children's safety.

3. Immediate Family Members

Immediate family members like parents, siblings, grandparents, and cousins are also affected by DWI arrests. Your loved ones look up to you. If you're arrested, they will develop a different perspective about you. Many family members hesitate to leave their children with DWI convicts in the future. There are many implicit ways that DWI convicts are made to feel irresponsible.

Your family will also struggle to grapple with the significant change. If your case resulted in serious injuries or death, you might be ostracized by your immediate family. While this is rare, it's possible. In most cases, families provide support, encouragement, guidance, motivation, and reassurance to loved ones who are arrested. However, it all comes down to the nature of the case. If your case is more severe, your family will be devastated and may take drastic action, like distancing themselves from you.

4. Extended Family

Your extended family will be affected the least since they weren't close to you, to begin with. However, at this level, the offender's social life is affected the most. Since your extended family will have less regard for you than your partner, children, parents, or siblings, they're more likely to spread misinformation and damage your reputation.

Local arrests are considered gossip across neighborhoods. As word spreads about your arrest, the circumstances around the incident may be exaggerated to paint you in a certain light. It's extremely important to request your family to stand by your side and protect you until your release when you can defend yourself. Until then, your loved ones require protection.

Request your family and friends to help maintain a clean reputation for you. This will positively affect your partner's work and social life and your children's schooling and social life. The more support they receive, the better.

We also recommend requesting close family members to ensure that your immediate family (spouse and children) are doing okay. If not, request for arrangements like therapy to be made. It may also be a good idea for your immediate family to switch neighborhoods and enjoy a fresh start (while still being close to you for convenient visits).

Recommended Read : Why Should I Hire a DWI Lawyer?

If you're looking for a DWI attorney in San Antonio, TX, George A. Scharmen should be your first call. DWI cases can take a toll on the accused and their family. As you work with an experienced, conscientious, dedicated, and detail-oriented DWI defense lawyer, you'll protect your future and freedom.

Scharmen builds a strong DWI case for his clients, achieving the most favorable outcome possible. With over 40 years of experience, he serves clients across San Antonio. Hire a DWI lawyer who can steer your case in the right direction, hire George A. Scharmen. Click here to get started .

BLOOD TESTING ERRORS

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 18:58:00 GMT

(That really happens?)

Blood testing for alcohol using chromatography is supposed to be the gold standard for forensic evidence of intoxication. Much of the time it is, but yes , in a significant percentage of the tests there are laboratory, machine or analyst errors. For example, the laboratory may receive blank or erroneous chain of custody documentation, but it may nevertheless enter record data indicating that there is an accurate chain of custody. This information must be correct because the substance being tested (your blood) has unique characteristics such as your name, your DNA and your alcohol concentration, if any. Therefore, it is important for your lawyer to confirm the validity of the outside of the lab chain of custody of the blood tube so as to be sure the laboratory number assigned to the blood tube should be named for you. Obviously, it should not be someone else’s blood in your name !

Another problem frequently occurring is machine error. This equipment is used every day: day in and day out – morning, night and weekends. It’s complicated because it’s actually two machines attached together by gas tubes, software and a printer. There is also a “carrier gas” (hydrogen) connected to the machines constantly flowing through the equipment that is needed to push the samples through for testing. It comes from a hydrogen generator. There is one generator for three machines. So, the software breaks down during the automated testing process. The hydrogen generator fails. Needles used to inject the gas into the system malfunction or break. There are many other things that can affect the machinery.

Analysts have a tedious job taking a hundred or more blood tubes out of the refrigerator. They open the tubes and document the notes on the seals to confirm them with the receiving documentation. They pipette a specific amount of the blood and an internal chemical standard in each testing vial. The vial must have a septum for the needle to puncture, and they are sealed with a crimped aluminum top. The vials are placed in sequence in a rotary tray for testing. This process may take a few hours to complete. The analysts make pipetting errors when they put the wrong amount of fluids in the vials. They make mistakes on their bench memoranda documenting the chain of custody. They fail to correct measurement errors in their controls. They fail to inject any fluid at all in a vial. They put too much or too little fluid in the vials. They may also attempt to hide their errors. Sometimes they take measurements of a control from another testing batch and insert those numbers in the batch being tested in order to make it look correct.

Some of this sounds strange and frightening, but I have seen all of these errors. In fact, in preparation for a lecture I have been reviewing about 50 of my prior cases to see what percentage of the blood tests had errors. I am only about sixty percent through the process, and the numbers are really shocking –even to me. So, I am telling you that your lawyer must not simply look at a laboratory result and say: “well, you failed.” That number is meaningless unless the test was done correctly. From where I sit, there appears to be 50% chance that something went wrong during your test.

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DWI DURING COVID-19

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 22:05:00 GMT

The nightmare is you were -screaming into your computer –stressed out about everything, and after a couple of drinks you -decided to drive a couple of blocks over to the Circle K to pick up a snack. It so happens that an officer was working late and saw you roll through that stop sign. The inevitable quizzes at 1:30 am were given by the officer along with an invitation to do some tests “just to see if you are ok to drive.” Sure… An hour later you are getting jabbed with a needle in the arm in jail on a DWI.

What about Covid-19!? Am I going get sick? What else could possible happen to me in the course of this DWI?

First, some good news:

And that final comment brings me to the point of this blog post. DWI conviction is forever. It is not ok. It leads to bad things in the future. Even a “deferred adjudication” DWI is, in fact, a conviction which will lead to bad things in the future. Most people do not know that. Now you do.

Don’t feel pressured by the pandemic to move quickly on this case. The prosecutors are not giving bargain-basement deals because of a case overload. They are not that busy because for a period of time the police were just not arresting people that often. The Governor even issued a proclamation that we can drive with an open container in the car! This offense has not been on the police hit list for the last few months. But, they are coming back.

Another thing is that the court-appointed lawyer is not going to handle your driver license issues unless you pay him. That is a civil matter, and he is appointed on the criminal case.

So if you have been arrested for DWI these are the do and don’ts for now:

If you would like to talk, give us a call.

The post DWI DURING COVID-19 appeared first on Law Offices of George Scharmen .

San Antonio Law Office ‘Rises Above’ Encroaching Development

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 18:37:00 GMT

“The historic landmark at 315 Dwyer, steps from the courthouse, was once the tallest structure in that part of downtown San Antonio.

Today, dwarfed on all sides by construction cranes and towering development, the charming, yellow brick house looks like it could escape the irritations of progress with a spray of colorful balloons fastened to the roof.

It just might be San Antonio’s own version of the house in the heartwarming Pixar film Up.”

DWI Blood/Alcohol Testing in Hospitals? (“Hey, prosecutor, that’s none of your business!”)

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 16:15:00 GMT

San Antonio DWI Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Testing in Hospitals

I’m not talking about “privacy” here. I think we all know that if the government really wants to get into your business, it can and it will. This is just a fact of modern life. So, unless you live in a shack in the middle of northern Montana that is off grid and miles from the nearest roadway, someone in the government can contact you when they want.

No, I’m talking about the business of blood/alcohol testing and reporting. Hospital blood draws are not really (and scientifically they should not be) usable in a DWI trial to report an alcohol concentration. Yes, I know about the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal’s opinion in Somers v State , and its progeny. However, if one were to read the opinions and the details in them, the hospital “assays” (“tests”) were confirmed by another type of test to show that a drug or alcohol was detected , but the numerical results were not admitted. What is admissible from hospital blood draws in the DWI trial is the fact that ethanol was detected during photometric testing. Why?

Hospitals Aren’t Forensically Certified Testing Laboratories

Wrong. Spectrophotometric testing (enzymatic assay) is not specific enough to produce an alcohol concentration. It is a screening test that must be confirmed under the Forensic Laboratory Guidelines that were adopted by the Society of Forensic Toxicologists and the American Academy of Forensic Science in 2006. The guidelines also specify that enzymatic assays must be confirmed by a secondary and more specific test. If you are in a hospital it’s probably because you were injured in an accident. That’s why you are being tested. The hospital staff does not get a warrant to seize your blood for testing. The only probable cause they need is the nature and extent of your injuries. By the way, their test does not test whole blood.

A whole blood alcohol concentration is what the prosecutor needs for a DWI conviction under Texas statutory law. The hospital blood tubes are either allowed to sit long enough for the red blood cells to fall to the bottom of the tube and clot or they are centrifuged down, crushing the red blood cells at the bottom. What is being tested is serum or plasma. After centrifuging your blood and before your serum is put in the machine for testing, an enzyme is added in order to allow the molecules to be detected by light at a specific wavelength, 340 nm to be specific. Only one small problem – the enzyme will react to alcohol and other substances in addition to alcohol in order to produce the measurement.

Okay, you were injured, right? You were bruised. You dislocated something, and it is swollen. You might even have broken a bone or two. That’s why you are in a hospital and not in a jail! Well, your body does some things in and around those injured places. It produces lactate and lactate dehydrogenase that get into your blood stream. I’m not here to tell you why. Go look it up on Google. The fact is that these chemical compounds are also detected by light at a specific wavelength, 340 nm to be specific. Therefore, the enzymatic measurement for alcohol concentration is wrong – really wrong! Don’t take my word for it. See, Serum-ethanol determination: comparison of lactate and lactate dehydrogenase interference in three enzymatic assays , Nine JS, et al. J. Anal Toxicol. 1995 May-June. The measurement may add to ethanol, it can spike at a particular time or it can produce a false positive for alcohol.

By the way, law enforcement didn’t like this study, and they had other researchers try to rebut it. Problem was, the other studies (like Somers v State ) used other chemical tests to confirm the amounts in serum or they actually tested for lactate and lactate dehydrogenase during their analysis in order to subtract it from the overall measurement. Again, there was no whole blood analysis. The problem is that hospitals usually don’t test the average patient in the ER for lactate while treating her for accidental injury from a car crash. Also, they don’t care about whole blood analysis for alcohol concentration. AND they don’t care about this whole debate. They want the courts and the lawyers to leave them alone!

But, every now and then, in a small town, or in a case where some officer feels that he was denied the right to fully investigate, or some prosecutor just insists on getting that number because without it he has NO DWI CASE, the enzymatic assay suddenly becomes: **scientifically reliable!** He figures out that he can convert the hospital serum analysis results to a whole blood number. It’s simple! You just use the well-known “serum to whole blood alcohol ratio” while (ahem!) ignoring the inconvenient fact that other substances are measured in that serum at 340 nm. (Let’s see… ? x .20 = ? – uh, never mind…)

Contrary to the State’s assertion, the serum/whole blood alcohol ratio is concentration-dependent, with average values ranging from around 1.12 to as high as around 1.18, depending on serum alcohol concentration. There is no generally applicable serum to whole blood conversion factor. Again, don’t take my word for it. J Anal Toxicol . 2007 Jan-Feb;31(1):23-30 Comparison of hospital laboratory serum alcohol levels obtained by an enzymatic method with whole blood levels forensically determined by gas chromatography. So, the formula for hospital serum to whole blood conversion is actually: ? x ? = ?. Quod erat demonstrandum !

Law, science, common practice, and common sense demonstrate that chromatographic forensic testing is the standard for courtroom BAC evidence. If Texas courts have ruled that enzymatic assays were the forensic standard for BAC evidence, we would not need the DPS Forensic Toxicology Laboratory for BAC testing. I don’t think they are going to do that. Otherwise, who else would we have to harass in the courtroom?

The post DWI Blood/Alcohol Testing in Hospitals? (“Hey, prosecutor, that’s none of your business!”) appeared first on Law Offices of George Scharmen .

DWI or Defendable? Looking at Blood Test Inaccuracies.

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 16:59:00 GMT

A Blood Test Isn’t Airtight Evidence in Your DWI Case

Blood testing in DWI cases may be a bit frightening, especially to someone who has been arrested. Of course, there is the medical procedure of drawing blood that makes many people squeamish. Then, there is a lot of pomp and circumstance around the process. Latex gloves, test tubes, and an official-looking medical professional who does this all day. You have every reason to think, “they went to med school, so whatever they say must be right.” But that person isn’t the only one involved in your blood test.

Things May Be Different than They Appear

The Texas Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Forensic Toxicology Laboratory is the central blood test lab in the state. Their gas chromatographs are touted as the newest and best in DWI blood testing, and they provide more reliable results than even a police report. You can argue that your arresting officer didn’t do a good job of testing your sobriety, but blood reports are all about science.

When the inevitable results come in, most people believe, “well, if it’s .08 or higher I’m in trouble.” Then, you look at what the tests show:

At this point, you might think, “.24? I’m done!”

It looks official and organized, showing a number of other people in the same position as you. So, what is there to do?

When the Numbers Lie

You must understand that the State of Texas has the burden to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the blood test used to prosecute a DWI is scientifically reliable. Your lawyer should fight back by analyzing the laboratory reports and looking for inaccuracies or procedural errors. In this particular case, the judge agreed with me that the reports were not reliable. My .24 client’s DWI was dismissed. Why?

There were a few reasons, but the main reason was that the testing process, although it looked great on paper, was never completed. Take a look at the notes:

What the supervisor is saying about the analyst’s work is very interesting. It goes like this:

Run B was sampled Thursday (5/19/16) and run Friday (5/20/16).

Okay, the .50 control vial was cracked during sealing and all the gasses escaped before testing. A control is essential in the testing process to make certain the machine is returning the correct values. In this case, we have no proof, and the notification of this error was buried at the end of a file of about 150 documents.

One defendant’s vial in this test group did not get a result because it was empty when the analyst put it in the machine for measurement. He failed to pipette blood into the testing vial. The vial is clear glass, and the analyst didn’t notice that the very red blood was not in it when he put it in the machine. This guy needs a vacation!

So, he re-samples and runs the whole batch again on Monday (5/23/16).

The .08 whole blood control on Monday (5/23/16) was sampled using only ½ the appropriate amount and tested at .04 rather than .08. Therefore, the .08 control was not working during the batch of tests. That’s a problem for every piece of data collected from this test, especially since it was the only blood control.

A full .08 control was sampled and added as a replacement on the day after the run, Tuesday (5/24/16).

In that frightening chart with your .24 blood test result, in the slot for the .08 control, the result from Tuesday (5/24/16) was substituted for the number that the Monday (5/23/16) .04 control should have measured, in order to make it appear that the proper amount was tested in the Monday batch. Of course, now we know this data comes from Tuesday after the batch test was run. The documents showing the erroneous .04 result were placed at the end of the long file.

Convenient, right? But that’s not all. The supervisor also said:

Every red square represents the use, and performance, of that .08 control in the batches tested during 2016. For that Monday (5/23/16) and Tuesday (5/24/16), do you see any red square showing .04? Nope. Apparently, it was not plotted and within control because a .04 would be here if it existed. I guess it never happened, right?

No Reliable Data Means No Conviction

Fortunately for my client, we found the numbers for that control, and the judge ruled appropriately and threw out the unreliable test result. Going back to our idea of human error and evidence reliability, while these machines may run the same every time, the operators can really mess up results. That’s why the Supreme Court actually published decisions that articulated some rules for the blood test process .

Remember, the burden of proof is on the State of Texas when you’re arrested for a DWI. Just because something comes from a fancy laboratory doesn’t mean it’s 100% truthful. I analyze test results like these for my clients all the time, and I know firsthand that a lot of the numbers on the page don’t reflect reality. With this case, the chart looked really good (and scary) at first, but things are not always as they appear.

I can look at the facts behind the “facts” in your case too. Contact my firm today online or by dialing (210) 960-8066.

The post DWI or Defendable? Looking at Blood Test Inaccuracies. appeared first on Law Offices of George Scharmen .

Specialty and Treatment Courts

Thu, 09 May 2019 16:55:00 GMT

Some of my clients take drugs or drink alcohol for reasons other than recreation. It is sometimes a sad fact of heroism in the military that our heroes suffer not only physical injuries but also mental injuries. These injuries may include traumatic brain injury as well a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). People with these problems attempt to treat their anxieties and fears with intoxicating substances – substances that may even have been prescribed for them by their doctors. Eventually, they become involved in the criminal justice system.

Along with other jurisdictions, our legislature in Texas has recognized this problem, and Texas has created the Veterans Treatment Court. Veterans who have eligibility under the Veterans Administration and who may have disability ratings granted by the Administration are the subjects of this treatment program.

What happens to these veterans is that the program allows them to be transferred out of the criminal court system into a treatment program. This transfer gives them the opportunity to have the criminal charges dismissed when they successfully complete the treatment program. Recently, Bexar County’s program graduated its 500th veteran from that program who just happened to be my client. The success was his own, and I am happy and proud that he was able to qualify for and complete the program.

Unfortunately, PTSD is suffered not only by war veterans. Many people who have experienced sexual and physical abuse as children have this disorder as well. It may be difficult to recognize at first, but with some conversation and counseling my clients have been able to accept the fact that their addiction is related to their experiences as children. With psychiatric intervention and counseling the source of their problems can be diagnosed and treated. Recognizing this fact, prosecutors are often more likely to be lenient in plea bargains or even dismissing cases. Often times the facts surrounding the arrest lead me to believe that there is something at work other than bad luck.

It is important that someone accused of DWI should be honest with themselves as well as with their lawyers in order to address the cause of their problems.

The post Specialty and Treatment Courts appeared first on Law Offices of George Scharmen .

DWI’s Today

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 16:15:00 GMT

First, if a lawyer guarantees that he will get your case dismissed have him put it in writing , and I will represent you for FREE because criminal lawyers cannot ethically present that they can be hired for a specific result. To do that is a violation of State Bar Ethics, and a lawyer can be sanctioned.

After practicing DWI law in Texas for 40 years or so, I have found that it’s getting a lot harder to represent people in DWI cases. Back in the day we were getting not guilty verdicts left and right, on high breath tests, with vomiting defendants after a crash! Back then when a driver killed someone in a DWI accident, he got charged with criminally negligent homicide and 3 years probation. That was considered harsh. You could drive around with an open beer in your car as long as you weren’t drunk. Also, the legal limit was .10. No one went to jail. So, there were some bad things as well as good things about the justice system back then.

However, in today’s courts the laws concerning DWI have significantly changed thanks to the efforts of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and law enforcement lobbyists. There are always breath or blood tests in courts. There is a video from the scene of the arrest. The State will call expert witnesses on intoxication during trial. There are stiffer penalties after convictions. There is more alcohol monitoring before trial and on probation. Additionally, the DPS administrative penalties and collateral vocational consequences of a DWI conviction can be even more severe that the actual court punishment.

You need a lawyer with some actual expertise and experience to help in a DWI case. No lawyer can just put up a website, call himself a DWI lawyer, and start getting cases dismissed. The judicial system is not corrupt. The money that goes to a lawyer cannot be used to influence a court or a prosecutor. DWI cases are won or negotiated in a courtroom or in the courthouse. Experience, training and skill in DWI defense are not taught in law school.

In a DWI trial an alcohol concentration number has the greatest evidentiary value for the prosecutor. Jurors usually forget everything else that is said during the trial once they hear that number: .08 or greater. Therefore, if it is the wrong specimen; it is inaccurate; or it is false for any reason, justice is denied! It is imperative for the DWI lawyer to understand the underlying science and procedures involved in blood and breath testing. Government analysts make mistakes; they tell lies; they are biased in favor of the State; their equipment breaks down; they mislabel specimens; and they test people out of sequence attributing test results to the wrong person. The types of errors can be simple or complex. The errors can relate to a single person or to an entire batch of persons tested. For further information, please see my blog on this website which refers to specific cases I have tried.

I have been trained to recognize these errors and to litigate them. I have decades of experience in legal issues concerning: unconstitutional searches and seizures; trial errors; illegal auto stops; false or illegal confessions; the use and misuse of retrograde extrapolation of alcohol and drug concentration in breath and blood; improper field sobriety testing; cross examination of expert witnesses; and many other issues. You can go to “ scholar.google.com ” and under “case law,” federal and state, type in “George Scharmen.” There will be a lengthy series of cases involving these issues that are published from my jury trials.

Know who you are hiring before you make the decision. Make certain that the attorney who you hire, if he represents he is a “specialist” or “board certified,” is actually an expert who has been board certified. It’s easy. Just go to https://www.tbls.org/FindLawyer.aspx

The post DWI’s Today appeared first on Law Offices of George Scharmen .

A Method to Their Madness?

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 15:58:00 GMT

Testing on the Machine

(Perkin-Elmer Clarus 500 and TurboMatrix)

After a laboratory purchases a gas chromatograph, a Perkin Elmer employee comes to the site to set it up, and he tests it to assure that it is in working order. After all, it costs about $75,000. Nevertheless, the DWI lawyer should know that it is the laboratory’s duty to establish its own analytical method to run on the machine. Without that analytical method the machine would not know what to do.

“What are ya doin’?” It says. “GC?” “GC/MS?” “GC/FID? ‘Sup?”

Additionally, the method must be “validated,” meaning that the overall handling of the DWI testing process must be shown to be accurate and scientifically reliable.

The laboratory’s method is all encompassing in its scope, and it has to comply with rules set down by ISO/IEC 17025, an international standards organization that sets the standards for the WHOLE WORLD for calibration and testing laboratories. (Go to the website and see if you can copy anything on it or download anything of use without paying and registering. Let me know if you can, okay? On second thought don’t, because it was probably illegal.)

When you get your discovery (as a DWI lawyer) from the lab, they will show you their certification, and even though it is through another certification agency, that agency relies on the DPS lab’s compliance with ISO/IEC 17025. Without that compliance, the lab’s work is not scientifically acceptable. (We will see more of that in future blogs.)

So the DPS lab does more than blood/alcohol testing, of course. The DPS laboratory method and standard operating procedures covers a broad scope of investigative procedures for a state crime lab, but here we are dealing with only that portion of the method that deals with blood/alcohol testing.

For blood/alcohol the majority of the U.S. labs rely upon GC/FID with something like a turbomatrix to run what is known as a “dual column” testing process. Each person’s DWI sample of blood gets tested twice, at the same time. The gas above the blood in the vial is split between two 90-foot-long capillary tubes ( really small inside space) that have a “carrier gas” constantly going through them. That gas pulls along the gasses from your vial and separates your margaritas from the other gases in the mix. By the time the margaritas reach the end of the 90-foot “column” they are separated from the other gasses, and they go out the end to be burned by the F lame I onization D etector (FID). Then the gas chromatograph prints out a result that looks like this:

The peak area for the margarita is given a number, the bigger number (n-propanol here) is divided into the smaller DWI margarita number in order to give you a “ratio.”

Here comes the method! Then the software goes up the vertical column on this graph below and finds the ratio number, and then it goes across to the diagonal line (the calibration “curve”). It goes straight down from there to the horizontal line at the bottom where we find the DWI alcohol concentration. (This picture is only for humans because software doesn’t see pictures.)

Now, that diagonal line looks kind of – askew. I mean, it doesn’t go through the corner (“0”). That’s okay. That’s really okay! Because it means that the diagonal line has been measured in some way. That line is part of the method, and it is created by “calibrators.” Their amounts are set out in the method. Calibrators are vials of pure water and ethanol mixed at various concentrations (from low to high) that your testing machine has measured before, during and after your test in order to create this diagonal line. The line is made by connecting the dots created where their ratios and their NIST (see previous blogs) concentrations meet on the graph -from the lowest amount measured through several other points on the way to the top of the curve: .01, .08, .15, .30, .50 and so on. So your DWI margaritas come through the machine and they meet that diagonal line set by the calibrators and they go down to find your alcohol concentration for your DWI trial.

BUT, for years the DPS lab has created that diagonal line by taking only one point: .08 and forcing it through the corner: “0.” Their only measurement was .08. The national forensic organizations say:

“Hey, don’t do that.”

However, DPS said,

“No, we are going to do that, but every six months or so we will test our machine (not our defendants) to see if the machine is measuring the diagonal line like we think it should be: a straight line from zero to infinity and beyond !”

Besides, their experts have testified, in DWI trials over and over, that they are not interested in anything below .08, the magic number. In other words the line, the calibration curve in their method, was purely theoretical. It wasn’t measured! Everyone was tested under a theory that the line was correct. When they did their test every six months or so to see if the line was correct, they didn’t test anyone. And, by the way, they didn’t always test that line every six months as set out in the method. So, in all those batches how many people were theoretically DWI?

“Okay,” you say. “These machines are accurate, and they don’t vary that much from month to month so there isn’t any a harm in relying on them to measure the alcohol concentration.”

Dude, it’s not the machine I’m concerned about. It’s the analysts ! It’s the people who prepare the controls and the calibrators – the ones who run the batch.

(LC GC’s Chromacademy, http://www.chromacademy.com last visited July 30, 2018)

It is the measured control that can change the value of the calibration curve. There is no measured point below the .08 to secure the curve when you use a theoretical calibration.

Look at the variance of this “control” over time. Each square is a batch of 50 people with their calibrators and controls, including this one. There is no straight line. Every square is different: higher or lower. Sometimes the controls go way out of range. You can’t rely on theory here for your calibration curve. You need real world measurements or someone gets screwed in their DWI case.

“Okay, calm down,” you say. “DPS has fixed it. Now they use a multipoint calibration curve like the national organizations say they should.” Yes, now they do. Starting in late 2016 they began dropping the theoretical curve. However, for the previous 15 years and in thousands upon thousands of tests the lab was defying the national standards. Was that method or madness?

The post A Method to Their Madness? appeared first on Law Offices of George Scharmen .

“Good” Science For Gas Chromatographic Blood Alcohol Analysis

Tue, 07 Aug 2018 15:30:00 GMT

First of all, we need a cast of characters for this story.

A Laboratory

The central calibration and testing laboratory in Texas is the Texas Department of Public Safety Forensic Toxicology Laboratory [DPS].

The Rules

All laboratories have their own Standard Operating Procedures . These are usually in the form of a manual that describes in great detail the analytical process for blood alcohol. This manual always should be followed! As my friend Tom Pittman says: “The SOPs are the scientist’s bible, and if you don’t believe in the Bible you can’t be a Christian.”

The Machinery

There are a number of companies that make gas chromatographs . Agilent, Perkin Elmer, and Shimadzu are the companies most used in Texas. DPS labs use Perkin Elmer gas chromatographs. This is what they look like:

The chromatograph is on the left, and it is attached by a black tube and some software to another machine on the right called a turbomatrix. On the turbomatrix is a circular carrel with all the round slots where the testing vials are placed – hopefully in the same order listed in the software program.

The Result

There will be a printer somewhere that prints out the chromatograms . They look like this:

The software program (Total Chrome, if you are interested) will print one of these for every vial that was placed in that carrel. This chromatogram is actually the raw data file from which we can calculate the ratio of the ethanol peak area to the n-propanol peak area. The first peak is ethanol, second n-propanol. That ratio helps to calculate an amount: .08, right?

The Problem

When I think of “ethanol” I’m thinking “margarita.” I don’t think about n-propanol much except when I talk about this stuff. N-propanol is the “internal standard.” They mix it up the same way every time, and they put the same amount of it in all the testing vials. They also put the same amount of blood in each vial for every test, but the thing is, they don’t know if or how much of the margarita, I mean ethanol, is in that blood. That’s why we are here. If there is ethanol in that blood, it will make a peak at that location on that chromatogram every time it is detected in someone’s vial: EXCEPT the peak is going to be bigger or smaller depending on the number of margaritas, right?

Okay, we ran the batch. The needle came out of that turbomatrix, pierced the septum on the vial, took out the headspace gas, and sent it over to the chromatograph through that black tube to be analyzed. However, in that batch there were also other vials that had ethanol in them with known concentrations. They are called “controls.” They are made by companies who manufacture them and seal them into glass vials. The controls are certified to be an exact amount of an ethanol concentration. The companies certify that these controls comply with the requirements of the National Institute of Standards and Technology: www.nist.gov. Why? We must know that the machine is measuring the ethanol concentration accurately.

If our controls are measured accurately in the batch of tests with your blood sample, then we will know that we are measuring your margaritas correctly. Right? Not so fast, professor. Let’s look at the laboratory data, starting with the in-house review of the work by the analyst. It may look something like this:

Hmmm… The comments by the batch analyst’s reviewer were:

“HSGCC (Run A) had communication error starting at vial 44, so vials 44-60 were recapped and the sequence was restarted on 6/20/18 for vials 44-60.”

The comment refers to software communication error between the chromatograph and the turbomatrix that handles the vials and sends the gas sample to the chromatograph for testing. The vials in this batch, as is usual, each had a septum that was pierced by a needle used by the turbomatrix and through which gasses within the vial are in turn sent through that black tube connecting the two machines to the chromatograph for analysis.

Okay! Remember that moment before you were going to get that shot in your whatever , and the nurse took that long needle and inserted it through the top of the vial that held the penicillin? There was a rubber stopper inside a metal frame on top of her vial. That rubber thing is a “septum.” Our analyst put the blood and the n-propanol in the glass vial. He put the septum on top. He took the metal cap and placed it over the septum, and used a “crimper” to seal the deal.

The turbomatrix and the chromatograph communicate during the analysis via Total Chrome software. When the carrel has been loaded with all of the vials to be tested, once begun, the testing process proceeds automatically.

During the automated testing process in this batch, software communication between the turbomatrix and the chromatograph ceased to function at vial 44 even though the mechanical testing proceeded to conclusion of all 60 vials. Therefore, vials 44 – 60 each had the septum pierced by the turbomatrix needle, and a portion of gas was extracted from each of the vials. However, no information was derived from vials 44-60 in the chromatograph that could be used to create chromatograms for those specimens.

Laboratory Quality Action Plan

Once the error was recognized by the analysts, they should have looked to see if the SOP’s have a procedure to correct the problem. If it was a problem that could affect the batch as a whole, the failsafe correction would be to redo the batch. Pipette everything again, and put all the vials in again for re-testing. Sure, it’s a lot of trouble, and yes, the lab has a LOT of work to do, but it’s a good solution. It will be scientifically reliable for everyone in the batch as long as the analyst follows the SOPs again.

However, maybe the SOPs did not cover the particular problem involved. Then what happens? In this case the solution was to uncap vials 44-60; use the same remaining mixture; recap them with a new, un-pierced septum; and restart the analyses using the same software program, beginning at vial 44 the next morning.

Defense Analysis

The failsafe, of course, is the more reliable scientific resolution to the problem. Run all sixty samples, including calibrators and controls, and run the tests correctly to conclusion using the same calibration and controls for each vial in the batch. Why?

You and your friends are dining at a good restaurant. The head chef comes to your table after the meal. (You ordered his specialty!) He asks how was the food? You say, “Acceptable.” Is that an indication of quality to him? What quality?

You are a defendant in a criminal case, and the analyst was able keep his error in your case within a range that was “acceptable.”Do you think that is scientific reliability? You might say, “If I was a juror on the case I would probably have to accept the analysis because it was scientific.” Well, was it really scientifically reliable?

Different people in the same batch obtained more accurate readings than others because of a lab analyst’s opinion on how the error could be corrected. There is no mention of the lab’s Standard Operating Procedures. How would you feel if you were the defendant in a trial in which the rights you were provided were merely acceptable based upon someone’s unguided opinion? Was this solution “good” science?

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Laboratory Blood Testing: What’s Really Going on Here?

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 23:39:00 GMT

So many States in this country are using blood test results in DUI/DWI cases that the Supreme Court had to lay down some rules.

Number One:

A blood draw is a search, and the police are going to need a search warrant to do it. Missouri v. McNeely (2013)

Number Two:

The person who actually tests the blood in the laboratory has to come to court to answer questions like “what are your education and laboratory qualifications?” and “what exactly did you do when you tested this blood?” Bullcoming v. New Mexico (2011)

The accepted machinery for this process consists, generally, of these two things:

A pipette to measure the blood into a testing vial:

Others may be used from different manufacturers, but this one is a good example.

Next, and equally if not more important, is the chromatograph:

Again, others may be used from different manufacturers, but this one is a good example.

The equipment sounds all scientific and supercharged, but as with any piece of machinery, its results are only as good as the person who uses it. Sure, it runs automatically, but have you ever heard the word “recall?” General Motors, Toyota and even Tesla have recalls all the time. They are published in the news, and you will get a letter in the mail. Why? Because their automated process made a mistake along the line (or maybe a person?).

What possible mistake can the State Forensic Toxicology Laboratory make? I mean these organizations have been around for a long time. They are part of our government and law enforcement programs. They hire qualified experts to get in there and ferret out crime from the crime scene so we can put these guys where they belong!

Well sometimes these perceptions prevent people from seeing the truth about laboratory testing. That’s why the Supreme Court has made these decisions – so that defense lawyers will take a good look at this stuff before they tell their guy to plead guilty. You have read about laboratories being exposed for problems. For example, in 2016 in Austin, Texas the Austin Police Department DNA lab was shut down for possible contamination in 4,000 samples. As a matter of fact, just Google “testing laboratories shut down,” and you will see examples of MANY testing laboratories in the U.S. which have had to shut down over competency and accuracy issues.

People want to have faith in their State testing and police laboratories, and for the most part, their confidence is justified. However, the problem with laboratory testing is that it is automated . Several people, as many as 50 persons, may all be tested at the same time : all day long and five days a week. There is pressure on the lab to get results out in order to meet deadlines set by courts or law enforcement. Lab testing involves detailed, repetitive bench work. A big state lab may test as many as 750 persons’ blood a week for an alcohol concentration, and that doesn’t include dna testing or drug testing both of which take different equipment and equally tedious procedures. These machines break down. They malfunction. The analysts make mistakes. We all understand that, but what happens then? What if there is a problem? We all know there will be problems. That’s why we have recalls ! Because they don’t always find the mistakes before the process has been completed, and the product is sent out to be used by the public.

“Come on! These big State labs – they check their work and find these problems before they send it out! It’s all taken care of, right?” Well, maybe not. For example:

These are bench notes from a “batch” of testing vials during their preparation. Each line represents a person’s testing vial. (Some lines are for calibrators and controls, but we can talk about that later.)

The date and time of the blood tube containing the defendant’s blood draw was clearly written on the blood tube, and the bench notes indicate which line that blood was assigned to. The arrow, of course, shows the line that defendant’s blood was assigned to. This is the defendant’s blood tube:

Did the blood get pipetted into the correct testing vial, Mr. Juror? I’m just sayin’ … that sometimes things happen that aren’t supposed to happen. When you see things like this, it makes you wonder how many other people were directly affected by this error?

The problem is that some kinds of errors relate to part of or even the whole “batch” of persons. Sequencing errors can occur so that a group of individuals’ testing vials are misplaced in the sequence. Because the testing is automated, the software and the machine don’t know the vials are out of order. The test results can be assigned to the wrong persons in the batch. Controls and calibrators can test out of range and the entire batch can be invalid… wait! How often does something like that happen, really?

“Controls” are put in vials and tested with the batch of persons so the lab can say:

“We bought this control with a .08 alcohol concentration, and we tested it, and we know that it is “.08.” Its “www.nist.gov” approved! We tested a batch of persons with it and other similar controls of different alcohol concentrations that we know are accurate. Therefore, when we tested these persons’ blood vials at the same time with this control, our control tested correctly at .08. Therefore, we know that the persons’ alcohol concentrations tested in the batch are also correct.”

“Controls” are commercial substances that can be purchased from companies who make them, and the companies certify that the controls are made in compliance with the standards set out by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (www.nist.gov).

Each square on this “control plot” represents the accuracy of the lab’s measurements of this .08 blood control over several months during actual testing of peoples’ blood. Each square (batch) represents 50 peoples’ blood tests . Do you notice anything unusual in this chart? Does anything seem to STAND OUT as unusual in it? I’m thinking “recall.” What do you think? You say, “Hold on, Einstein! There has to be a good explanation for this. If this was such a big deal, then the lab cleared it up and told everyone…and, hey, it could have been charted wrong, right?”

Wrong! In a DUI/DWI case this .08 is the magic number. So what went wrong for those 50 people? Was the NIST control wrong? Or, was it the testing process itself that NIST is trying to “control” that went wrong? Well, take a look. This high (“out of control”) reading didn’t just happen at once. If you look carefully, there are other squares leading to it that seem to be headed in a direction that is different from the regular cadence of control measurements. This problem happened over a period of time during which these automated processes were ongoing.

Was the control going bad? Well, no, because the labs buy them in packages called “lots” of sealed glass vials. If one vial goes bad and starts testing too low (because the alcohol escapes from the vial over time), they can open another one. It appears from the cadence of results on the chart that the analysts were doing exactly that: changing vials that were going bad after periods of time. That’s why we plot these results: so we know we are operating our testing process in a range that is “in control.” No, Mr. Juror, something went wrong with the testing process. It went wrong for a lot of people too because when a lab’s controls test out of range, the whole batch needs to be retested or recalled. “Well, they told everybody and corrected it, so everything is ok now. Right?”

I am sorry to say that we do not know, and it is quite possible that nothing was done to correct the problem. In fact, during actual legal proceedings the laboratory denied that these charts even existed! Only when the analysts were on the witness stand, under oath, did they admit that the charts existed. Later when the lab was asked to produce the batch lists on this chart to show that the wrong batch was re-tested and corrected, your State lab refused to produce the information – even through a supervising prosecutor who was willing to ask. Moreover, this problem was not discovered until months after the chart was made and the criminal litigation was probably concluded for those 50 or more people.

What happens when Ford, Toyota, General Motor Companies do something like this after it has affected people’s lives? Remember the Pinto? Why do we have seat restraints in cars? Why is there special glass in car windows? It’s so people don’t get burned, ejected and shredded in auto accidents! Are we going to have these same recall protections for people accused of crimes involving alcohol? I mean, in time for the trial so that we don’t need to have some national news special that makes everyone aware after years of problems are discovered. By the way, Mr. Juror, DWI defense lawyers don’t make millions of dollars exposing this kind of problem. What actually happens is that their clients get fair trials.

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Supreme Court Ruling Could Affect Future of Texas DWI Laws

Mon, 27 Jun 2016 23:35:00 GMT

Last Thursday, The Supreme Court made two rulings that placed limitations on DWI tests; one of those rulings could affect Texans. The first ruling states that police are restricted from forcibly drawing blood from someone suspected of driving while under the influence. The second ruling gives police the right to require a breathalyzer test without a warrant.

The ruling stems from three cases in Minnesota and North Dakota in which driver challenged the implied consent laws. The drivers claimed implied consent laws were a violation of the Constitution’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. Justice Samuel Alito remarked that breath tests “do not implicate any significant privacy concerns as they do pierce the skin or leave a biological sample in the government’s possession.”

Currently, Texas state legislature does not criminalize Texans who refuse to submit to a breath test. Instead, citizens who refuse a breath test are detained until they are able to obtain a warrant for a blood test. San Antonio Police department claims that right now, nothing will change for residents of San Antonio but the department may consider changing their policy later on. Local San Antonio DWI attorney, George Scharmen, expressed his views on the matter in an interview on KENS5 .

Arrested for DWI in San Antonio?

If you have recently been arrested for a DWI in the San Antonio area, you may face considerably high fines, jail time and even lose your driving rights. When you’re faced with DWI charges, you need to choose an experienced San Antonio DWI defense attorney that can properly represent you. With over 40 years of experience, Attorney George Scharmen has extensive experience representing the rights of those accused of DWI.

The post Supreme Court Ruling Could Affect Future of Texas DWI Laws appeared first on Law Offices of George Scharmen .

Attorney George A. Scharmen Listed in Top 3 San Antonio DWI Lawyers

Wed, 04 May 2016 23:28:00 GMT

In an effort to provide consumers a list of the best services in their local area, Three Best Rated® compiles lists of the top 3 businesses for various categories and cities throughout the U.S. They have recently listed Attorney George A. Scharmen as one of the Top 3 DWI Lawyers in San Antonio .

Three Best Rated® takes into consideration a wide variety of factors when determining the best of the best. They look at reviews, customer satisfaction, history of success, trust, overall ratings, cost effectiveness, and an overall general sense of excellence. By being handpicked by the employees at Three Best Rated® for this honor, this speaks volumes to the type of services clients can expect to receive from Attorney Scharmen.

Should you be in need of an attorney after being arrest for a DWI , do not waste any time. Call our top-rated San Antonio DWI defense lawyer for the comprehensive legal help you deserve!

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Attorney Scharmen Interviewed Regarding Accuracy of New DWI Test

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 23:31:00 GMT

According to a report from Channel 4 News , the San Antonio police department along with several other police departments across Texas are rolling out new breath-testing machines used in DWI cases. Police say The Intoxilyzer 9000—the replacement of The Intoxilyzer 5000 —is much improved from the previous model; but several people including Attorney Scharmen have questioned if this statement is true.

CMI, Inc. , the Intoxilyzer 9000’s manufacturer, states that the device uses multiple infrared wavelengths, is self-calibrating, and sends results wirelessly to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Attorney Scharmen is concerned that the calibration of the new machine may be not be as accurate as CMI, Inc. claims.

Scharmen believes DWI cases can and should be dismissed if the breath test machines used are not properly maintained. He believes attorneys should have the right to see when and how these new machines are calibrated. Scharmen claims the DPS will not allow attorneys to inspect the Intoxilyzer 9000. He also claims the DPS has denied outside toxicology experts the ability to take training classes on how to operate the device.

Attorney Scharmen commented on the 9000 saying, “When a lab hides their data from me, I don’t trust that laboratory because they’re afraid to let me see their data.”

As a co-owner of a blood alcohol testing lab himself, Scharmen feels he and his clients should have the right to review the Intoxilyzer 9000’s calibration data and methods.

If you’ve recently been arrested for a DWI in San Antonio, contact Attorney George Scharmen immediately to prevent any losses of certain basic rights. Our San Antonio DWI attorneys can offer the experience and knowledge you need to help you or your loved one get the representation you deserve.

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Attorney Scharmen Comments on Broken DWI System Related to Blood Test Results

Thu, 10 Mar 2016 23:29:00 GMT

Many DWI attorneys in Bexar County are in agreement that the DWI system is broken, according to an article from KSAT Channel 12 News . In the article, the issue of blood testing is discussed, as many DWI defense lawyers agree that blood tests are not being used in the courtroom. Attorney George Scharmen was quoted regarding his opinion on the matter of blood tests, saying:

“If they [the accused] take a breath test, their bargaining chips are gone, but if they take a blood test they’re open, because the D.A. doesn’t use blood in the courtroom.”

There is currently no credible way to test blood samples in Bexar County and yet law officers are still administering these tests. The lab that used to be in Bexar County, Integrated Forensic Laboratories (IFL), was shut down after many of their blood samples were contaminated and their technicians were not able to pass competency tests.

Instead these blood tests end up going to the DPS lab in Austin, TX. The results coming out of this lab have also been in question as of late, and many attorneys do not trust the accuracy of their lab.

Local District Attorney LaHood doesn’t quite agree and says that he sees no problems with the DPS lab. He believes that the process is in fact working, despite the backlog of blood samples needing to be tested.

If you are currently facing DWI charges in San Antonio, call Attorney George Scharmen with 40+ years of experience today!

The post Attorney Scharmen Comments on Broken DWI System Related to Blood Test Results appeared first on Law Offices of George Scharmen .

George Scharmen Featured in Fox 29 News Article

Tue, 14 Jul 2015 23:24:00 GMT

If you keep up with the latest news, you may have noticed Attorney Scharmen’s name in an article published yesterday by Fox News San Antonio. The article addressed concerns about the amount of DWI blood samples that are piling up at the San Antonio Police Department, and how this backup of over 1,000 samples may be affecting the amount of available evidence that can be used in the courtroom.

Bexar County District Attorney Nico Lahood has ordered that samples no longer be sent to the contracted lab, yet maintains that convictions have still increased despite not testing the blood samples.

“The blood sample is extremely important,” Attorney Scharmen says. “It sort of lays the foundation for the state’s case.” The sample, he states, is what ultimately decides if a person is driving drunk. For those samples to not be utilized means that the state is neglecting opportunities to gather evidence, and Texas taxpayers are unnecessarily paying for the staffing required to draw the samples.

Lahood argues that the blood test results are only one piece of evidence and are not a crucial element in securing a conviction, but Attorney Scharmen, who has over 40 years of legal experience, knows that blood samples are an important part of a DWI case and that to not use them can limit a state’s case. “They’re [sic] took box isn’t empty, but it’s certainly not full.”

Have you been convicted of a DWI in San Antonio ? If your blood has been drawn for testing, it may still be sitting in a SAPD refrigerator! You can’t afford to plead guilty – call The Law Offices of George A. Scharmen today for a free consultation .

The post George Scharmen Featured in Fox 29 News Article appeared first on Law Offices of George Scharmen .

Article Published in Voice for the Defense a Monthly Magazine

Mon, 03 Nov 2014 23:20:00 GMT

See the link for my article in the Voice for the Defense here .

The post Article Published in Voice for the Defense a Monthly Magazine appeared first on Law Offices of George Scharmen .

Blood Analysis Lab for DWI Cases

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 23:05:00 GMT

The lab has several chromatographs and the one on the center left has a mass spectrometer attached. Mass Spectrometers are used to confirm gas chromatogram results in more serious case – more later.

Some chromatographs have auto loaders (to the left) which are programed to automatically inject multiple samples into the machine.

Before injection the blood samples have to be prepared in the “wet lab.”

Preparing the samples in the wet lab is the most important part of the process. If not done correctly, the preparation can destroy the ability of the machine to accurately evaluate the sample.

These machines are named for the desired characteristics of the process: “precision.”

Harold McNair: the class was taught by the world leaders in chromatorgraph. Dr. McNair wrote the text. He was hired by NASA to produce the smallest chromatograph which will forever remain on the planet Mars.

Its called gas chromatography because the gas in the sample container above the small amount of sample in the container is what is actually injected into the machine.

Injection

Most often the sample is drawn from blood tubes by automatic pipettes.

The process is tedious, and it is not easily subject to automation.

The sample bottles must be sealed for use.

The samples are placed in the autosampler.

The order of sample placement in the autosampler is critically important: who’s blood is being tested.

The post Blood Analysis Lab for DWI Cases appeared first on Law Offices of George Scharmen .

Law Offices of George Scharmen

Coping With a Parent With Alcoholism: A Guide

Signs of an Alcoholic

What It’s Like To Live With Alcoholic Parents?

What Can You Do?

1. Avoid Feeling Guilty

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2. Don’t Enable Them

3. Avoid Arguing When They’re Intoxicated

4. Understand The Process of Recovery

5. Take Care of Yourself

6. Suggest Rehab

Experienced DWI Attorney In San Antonio, Texas

6 Ways a DUI Lawyer Can Help You Win Your Case

Avoiding the Bias in a DUI Charge

Having Substantial Knowledge Of DUI Laws and Penalties

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Reducing The Time Spent in Court/Jail

Handling Critical Evidence and Paperwork

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Presenting a Strong Defense Case

Helping You Decide on a Plea

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The Top Driving Habits Everyone Should Adopt This Year

Staying Calm While Driving

Being Aware of Your Blind Spots

Wearing Your Seat Belt At All Times

Performing Vehicle Safety Checks

Avoid Drinking and Driving

Hire a DWI Attorney

Preparing for Court - Surviving your DWI Court date

Dress Appropriately

Understand the Court’s Rules

Hire a DWI Attorney

Jot Down What Your Lawyer Says

Determine Your Plea

Write Down the Circumstances of the DWI Incident

Tips for Staying Sober During the Holidays

Make a Precautionary Plan Ahead of Time

Keep Self-Care In Mind

Get Support As Much As You Can

Always Know Your Limits

Know What You Can or Can’t Have

Have Your DWI Attorney on Speed Dial

DWI Incidents & Driver’s Rights

What Is a DWI Incident?

The Consequences of DWI Incidents

First Offense

Second Offense

Third Offense

Your Rights as a Driver During a DWI Incident

Your Right to Fight Back

Your Right to Deny Unreasonable Search and Seizure

The Right to Contact Your DWI Lawyer in San Antonio

Dealing with a Suspended Driver’s License in San Antonio: A Guide

1. What Results in Driver’s License Suspension in Texas?

2. My Driver’s License Just Got Suspended, What Should I Do?

3. Can I Drive with a Suspended Driver’s License?

4. Will Driving with a Suspended License Affect My Insurance?

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5. Will I Get Fired?

The Most Common Reasons for a Driver’s License Suspension

Driving Without Insurance

Driving Recklessly

Not Appearing in Court

Acquiring Too Many Driving Points

Fleeing an Accident Site

Using Fictitious License Plates

Missed Child Support Payments

Getting a DWI/DUI Conviction

Info graphic: Is Your Loved One Arrested For DWI? Stop Panicking!

How a DWI Claim Can Affect Your Family

1. Your Partner

2. Your Children

3. Immediate Family Members

4. Extended Family

BLOOD TESTING ERRORS

(That really happens?)

DWI DURING COVID-19

San Antonio Law Office ‘Rises Above’ Encroaching Development