YES. New Jersey has some of the strictest DWI laws in the Country and they are aggressively enforced by every local, county and state police officer. There are 2 main ways you can receive a DWI ticket in NJ if you were not driving. The first is if you allow an intoxicated person to drive your car. The second is if you were operating or attempting to operate a car while intoxicated – even if you were not driving when police approached your vehicle.
If you have received a summons for Driving While Intoxicated in New Jersey, you need an experienced NJ DWI Lawyer. Please contact my office immediately. I have been handling NJ DWI for almost 20 years and understand how to defend DWI cases in NJ. I am certified by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a Criminal Trial Attorney. I know how to effectively protect your rights, your driving privileges, avoid interlock devices, and jail time. The penalties for DWI in NJ are some of the most serious in the country, and plea bargaining is not permissible. You need a serious New Jersey DWI attorney to properly defend against these charges.
Allowing DWI tickets
In New Jersey, if you allow an intoxicated person to drive your car, you can also receive a DWI summons. This means you can get a DWI when you were not even driving your car. This usually happens when a group of people are out together, and the owner of a car is drunk and cannot drive. If the owner gives the keys to another person who is also drunk, and then gets pulled over for DWI, the owner will also get a DWI summons even though she was not driving.
Operation DWI tickets
This is the second scenario when you can get a DWI ticket when not driving. This frequently occurs when someone is sitting inside a car, with the engine running, but not driving. Many people get into the driver’s seat while drunk, just to listen to the radio or turn the heat on to warm up. If an officer sees this, he will definitely issue a DWI ticket even though you were not driving.
This can also happen if an officer believes you are intoxicated and sees you get into the driver’s seat and turn on the car, before you attempt to drive off.
I Wasn’t Driving, Do I Need to Take the Breathalyzer?
YES. If a police officer requests you to submit to field sobriety tests, you are obligated to perform them. If the officer requests you to take the breathalyzer (Alcotest), you must provide breath samples. If you do not, you will get a second summons for Refusal to submit to the breathalyzer/alcotest. This means you can be issued a Refusal summons in addition to the DWI summons – even though you never drove your car.
Will I Lose My NJ Driver’s License from my DWI Ticket?
Just because you were issued a DWI ticket, it does not mean that you are guilty. The police officer thinks you are guilty. That’s why he gave you the DWI ticket. However, that does not mean that the prosecutor will be able to prove that you were guilty of DWI. That is why you need an experienced New Jersey DWI lawyer.
There are MANY defenses to DWI tickets – especially if you were not driving. In order for the prosecutor to prove that were guilty for allowing DWI in NJ, the State must prove that you knew the person that drove your car was intoxicated.
In order for the prosecutor to establish DWI for operation – the State must prove that you had the intent to drive the car even though were not driving when the police arrived.
In all cases, an experienced NJ DWI attorney in required in order to fight this summons. The same prosecutor and officers appear every week in their town’s municipal court. You need an aggressive attorney to defend you on DWI charges in NJ.
How Much Does a NJ DWI Lawyer Cost?
Do not sell yourself short by thinking, “I cannot afford a NJ DWI defense lawyer.” The price you pay for a DWI conviction exceeds hiring a NJ DWI attorney. The cost for an experienced attorney is far less than the fines, penalties, surcharges, insurance costs and collateral expenses for the suspension of driving privileges from a DWI conviction. The value of a qualified DWI attorney far outweighs the costs associated with a conviction. Please contact me immediately for strategy session so I can review your case and see if we can obtain a dismissal of your NJ DWI charges, or achieve a downgrade to a reduced license suspension, fines, penalties and surcharges.
Do not trust your case to any attorney. Just like you would not want a brain surgeon to operate on your heart, you do not want an attorney who does not specialize in NJ DWI cases to represent you in Court. I am a board-certified criminal trial attorney by the NJ Supreme Court and provide aggressive and professional legal services. Please contact me now to schedule your complimentary thirty-minute strategy session.
