Challenging the Legality of a Traffic Stop in Ohio DUI / OVI Cases

Ohio OVI Attorney Joslyn explains challenging the legality of a traffic stop in Ohio DUI / OVI cases. Joslyn Law Firm is experienced in defending people accused of OVI offenses in Ohio. If you have been accused of a crime or arrested in Ohio, please call (614) 444-1900 to schedule a free initial consultation to discuss your case.

OVI  is one of the most common offenses that our firm handles. We’ve handled thousands of OVIs. and to define OVI, it’s operating a vehicle under impairment. It’s interchangeably used with OMVI, DUI, DWI, depending on which state you’re in, they name it differently. But it’s essentially drunk driving. And every drunk driving case or OVI case starts with the analysis of should this police officer have pulled this person over in the first place. And so we’re first attacking the case on the basis of whether there was probable cause or reasonable suspicion to believe that a traffic offense occurred. Now a lot of these cases come out of the, you know, 2 o’clock morning hours. After people get out of bars, we’re frequently seeing the type of citations where it’s marked lanes violation, what we would refer to as these suspicious stops. Where it’s not for speeding, it’s not for running a red light, it’s for swerving within your lane, or touching the fog lane. Things that are immediately red flags for us to “Yep this officer was pulling people over after bar hours and they’re just going to see what they can find. So we need to thoroughly evaluate any cruiser cam footage that we get to make sure that there was a traffic violation. If we can demonstrate through a cruiser cam that there was no traffic violation, very good chances you’re gonna get a good result on your case. Because one of the first things that we’re going to do if we identify that there was no traffic violation is file a motion to suppress evidence. And what that is, is us, asking a court to eliminate pieces of evidence in a case, because it was unlawfully obtained. And in the circumstance that we’re talking about, if you are unlawfully pulled over, it does not matter what happens after that, it doesn’t matter if there was a breathalyzer, it doesn’t matter whether you took a field sobriety test, it was all obtained unlawfully, under this unlawful stop. And therefore a court should throw it all out. Which will ultimately lead to a dismissal of the case.