The regional differences are interesting to read. In my county, folks have to place a intoxilizer in their vehicles for 6 months on a first time conviction. 1 year restricted permit, ASAP and around 300-400 in fines and court costs. For the vets, fees are 5-10K but many of us get tagged by the new guys and upstarts taking them on for a grand or two. They then call us for advice and to ask how to issue a subpoena to the forensic lab.
I do the cheap ones too, but they know what they are paying for up front. And if they want a trial, they are going to pay. Some people just can't have a DWI and they have to pay whatever it is they have to pay.
The police report will say that the subject failed the walk and turn by not placing heel to toe. Then you'll get the DVD and the guy did it perfectly as far as you can tell on the DVD but the cop will explain that he placed one his heels an inch and a half in front of his toe instead of putting it exactly on his toe. You can literally see the jury roll its eyes. Then he'll say that the guy failed the one legged stand and you get the DVD and see that the guy swayed and caught his balance a bit at 22 seconds but otherwise did not put his foot down and did fine.
The biggest thing is you pull out their book. The book they are taught how to do field sobriety tests at the State Police Academy. You pull that out and you go step by step through it and you show all the ways they deviated from the standard taught exactly in the book, and they almost all get some shortcuts. They are mostly inconsequential but the jury doesn't know that. So, you go step by step through the book and then you come to the end where it says that if any one of or part of the tests are performed improperly then all the results are invalid. You do that, and if your guy isn't falling down slobbering drunk, you'll win.
