Experienced Atlanta, Georgia DUI Attorneys at Chestney & Sullivan

If you have been arrested anywhere in Georgia for a DUI, our experienced Atlanta, GA DUI Attorneys can speak with you about your case anytime, including after-hours, holidays, and weekends. Remember that you only have thirty days from your arrest to address an administrative license suspension action. Mr. Sullivan is available to discuss your criminal case and your license suspension action today. Mr. Sullivan is prepared to go the distance. If you refused the officer’s request for a blood test, Mr. Sullivan argues before the Georgia Supreme Court that a defendant’s right to refuse the state blood test cannot be used against him at trial. He won that issue at the trial court level, and the prosecution appealed the case to the Georgia Supreme Court. We can discuss how his Georgia Supreme Court case, as well as recent appellate cases, may help in the defense of your DUI. Call Chestney & Sullivan today 404.816.8777

Arrested for DUI in Atlanta or face DUI charges anywhere in Georgia? 

Our Atlanta, Georgia, DUI attorneys understand what you are going through. If you were arrested for DUI in Atlanta or anywhere in Georgia, our experienced Atlanta, Ga DUI attorneys can speak to you about your case anytime, including after-hours, holidays, and weekends, free of charge at 404.816.8777. Mr. Sullivan is a former prosecutor certified by Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST). Mr. Sullivan went through Standardized Filed Sobriety training with members of the Conyers Police Department and the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Department when he was a prosecutor. Our Georgia DUI lawyers also offer a free in-office consultation to go over your case in more detail and discuss how we can effectively defend your Driving Under the Influence case in Atlanta or anywhere in Georgia.

Whether you were out in Atlanta with friends and loved ones or attending an event, being arrested for a Georgia DUI can be a stressful experience—especially if you have been summoned to appear in court for a DUI shortly after your arrest! You probably have many questions about the penalties for a DUI in Georgia, the court process, and possible defenses you may have in your case. 

You may also have concerns about your driver’s license and driving ability. As previously stated, substantial changes in Georgia’s DUI law took effect on July 1, 2017, which impacted administrative license suspension actions. Drivers arrested for DUIs in Georgia must be fully informed about these changes and several paths to take regarding an administrative license suspension action. Contact Chestney & Sullivan today, and we will happily explain which path might be right for you.

Vigorously defending Driving Under the Influence and serious traffic offenses like Vehicular Homicide, Serious Injury by Motor Vehicle, and Hit and Run is essentially all we do. Our experienced DUI attorneys in Atlanta, GA, can answer your questions. We are not like other lawyers who use pressure tactics to hire them. Our experienced DUI lawyers in Georgia understand the anxiety you are experiencing. We can put your mind more at ease as we explain how we successfully defend Georgia DUI cases. We will also explain the court and investigation process for your case, which is pending. Our experienced DUI lawyers are available anytime to discuss your case – including on weekends! We can also appear in court with you if you have an initial court date in Atlanta Municipal Court. Just give us a call at 404.816.8777. For more information about the Atlanta Municipal Court process, click here: Atlanta DUI arrest. 

Recent Appellate Cases that may impact your Georgia Driving Under the Influence case:

A major Georgia Supreme Court decision regarding Georgia DUIs was issued in 2019 that impacts your right under the Georgia Constitution to refuse to submit to an in-custody breath test. That refusal cannot be used against you at a criminal trial! Important decisions have come from our appellate courts that protect the rights of drivers not to be compelled to submit to field sobriety evaluations, portable breath tests, or the state-administered breath test at the police station or jail. Recent appellate cases include a Georgia Court of Appeals decision in Woods v. State, which extended protections against the police from compelling drivers to perform field sobriety exercises. In Mia Lashay Ammons v. State,  the Georgia Supreme Court extended Georgia constitutional protections not to be compelled to submit to an act to pre-arrest field sobriety evaluations as well as portable breath test devices. Again, in Awad v. State, the Georgia Supreme Court extended constitutional protections to urine testing. What does this mean for you? You have the right not to be compelled to submit to an act that might incriminate you, including field sobriety evaluations, breath tests, and urine tests under the Georgia Constitution.  If you exercise that right, the prosecution cannot mention your refusal to submit to “acts” at a criminal trial! Also, a critical case on the admissibility of blood test “refusals” under the implied consent notice was sent back to the trial court for clarification on the harm or chilling effect the language would have on a suspect deciding to voluntarily take or refuse a blood test  (State v. Randall).  The Athens trial court issued a decision granting Randall a motion to suppress Randall’s refusal to submit to a blood test.  Randall went back to the Georgia Supreme Court, where oral arguments were heard on November 7, 2023, and the case was sent back down to the trial court for consideration of an evidentiary rule to determine the admissibility (or inadmissibility) of the refusal to submit to the blood test. The Randall case will not return to the Georgia Supreme Court. However, Mr. Sullivan also won a motion hearing on the same issue as Randall in Fulton County, and the prosecution appealed the granting of Mr. Sullivan’s motion.  Mr. Sullivan’s case, State v. Dias, is pending in the Georgia Supreme Court, with oral arguments to be set to be heard. 

Why we exclusively defend Driving Under the Influence cases in Georgia:

Some people can’t have a Georgia DUI conviction. The Atlanta salesperson. Johns Creek Surgeon. Athens full-time student. Gwinnett small business owner. Or the Marietta / Cobb professional driver. Other community members also must have a valid driver’s license and a clean criminal record. At Chestney & Sullivan, all we do is defend DUI charges and other serious driving offenses – and have been exclusively and effectively doing so for 30 years and counting! We represent clients across the state, including those charged with drunken driving in northern Georgia cities such as Alpharetta, Canton, Cumming, Dawsonville, Decatur, Gainesville, Johns Creek, Marietta, Milton, and Roswell to those arrested by the Atlanta DUI Task Force or Georgia State Patrol Nighthawks. Our attorneys will travel down to Peachtree City, Macon, LaGrange, and as far east as Athens to Carrollton in west Georgia and beyond. The people we represent are typically individuals who fit the description above. They come to us because we provide the absolute most vigorous defense available to those facing Driving Under the Influence charges in Georgia. In most cases, we can protect their freedom, ability to drive, and criminal record. Mr. Chestney is board-certified by the National College for DUI Defense, and Mr. Sullivan is a former prosecutor.

Possible defenses in your Georgia Driving Under the Influence case

You may not feel at this time that you have a solid opportunity to avoid a conviction for the DUI charges you face. But the law provides protections that are very important to you. Some examples are:

• Was the initial stop legal?
• Did your officer properly administer the field sobriety tests by NHTSA standards?
• Did the officer give proper advice to request a state-administered breath or blood test from you?
• Was the device used to test your blood alcohol level properly calibrated and tested for accuracy within the required time before your driving under the influence arrest?
• Did medical conditions or medication contribute to the facts upon which your DUI arrest was based?
• Is the prosecution’s breath test or chemical test even admissible for trial?
• Can your arresting officer legally suspend your driving privileges?
• Did Law enforcement properly obtain a blood search warrant?
• Has the prosecution violated your right to a speedy trial under the United States Constitution, Georgia Constitution, or the Georgia Code?

These are only some strategies that would make a seemingly indefensible case winnable! Our experienced Georgia DUI lawyers have dedicated themselves to providing the best Driving Under the Influence defense possible.

Can I represent myself on my Georgia Driving Under the Influence charge and avoid the expense of hiring an experienced DUI lawyer in Georgia?

You can represent yourself in your Driving Under the Influence charges in Georgia and avoid the expense of hiring an experienced Georgia DUI lawyer.  However, there is a saying that “a person who represents himself has a fool for a client.” It is not wise to represent yourself. Driving Under the Influence charges in Georgia is one of the most severe charges prosecuted in municipal, probate, state, or superior court. Even if you think you are guilty and may not want to fight your Georgia DUI case all the way, there are matters that an experienced DUI lawyer in Georgia is better able to handle than someone representing him or herself. Here are some reasons why you might consider hiring Chestney & Sullivan rather than representing yourself:

• If you represent yourself, you will jeopardize your driving privileges if you go to court and enter a guilty plea. Suppose a Georgia DUI Task Force officer or Georgia State Patrol Nighthawk DUI Task Force Trooper has arrested you. In that case, you should have been notified of an administrative license suspension action. Enter a guilty plea without adequately addressing this license suspension action, and you will not be able to get a limited permit (if you are eligible to get one at all) unless the suspension action is conducted effectively or disposed of properly.
• If your license or privilege to drive is administratively suspended for refusing the State’s chemical test from either losing a license suspension hearing or failing to address the license suspension action within 30 days from the date of your arrest, your Georgia driver’s license or driving privileges will be suspended for one year with NO PERMIT starting on the 46th day after the date of your arrest. Having our experienced Georgia DUI attorneys by your side to properly navigate and defend the criminal case and the administrative license suspension action can improve your chances of being able to drive and possibly avoid a Georgia DUI conviction.
• Other criminal or traffic charges in addition to your Georgia driving under the influence charge may be more severe and carry more punishment than the DUI charge itself, such as DUI Child Endangerment, Fleeing and Attempting to Elude, Hit and Run, or Vehicular Homicide. If you plead guilty to these other charges, your Georgia driver’s license may be seriously jeopardized – possibly being declared a Habitual Violator!
• Sometimes, the prosecutor may give you a lousy plea offer. Even if you decide not to contest your Georgia DUI case, our experienced DUI attorneys in Georgia who are familiar with the particular court your case is pending in can assess a plea offer to determine if it is worth accepting or rejecting and take your case to trial.
• A nolo contendere plea will not save a license suspension and still counts as a conviction – the same as a guilty plea or guilty verdict after trial. 
• If you decide to represent yourself at trial, the Georgia Rules of Evidence still apply. Lawyers who practice DUI defense go to law school for years to learn these rules, and you will also be at the mercy of a skilled prosecutor and judge if you are not careful. You may inadvertently make incriminating statements that a prosecutor can use against you if an experienced DUI attorney in Georgia does not represent you.

More police agencies are using search warrants (for your blood) to use in the prosecution of your Driving Under the Influence charges in Georgia:

On July 1, 2006, a law took effect in Georgia that expands the available use of search warrants in Driving Under the Influence cases (OCGA 40-5-67.1(d.1)). This law was passed after the Georgia Supreme Court in State v. Collier, 279 Ga. 316 (2005), ruled that law enforcement officers could not use coercion techniques to obtain a blood sample by threatening to get a search warrant and use a catheter to receive it. During the Collier case, the statute prohibited search warrants for bodily substances if a person refused to submit to a chemical test under the Georgia Implied Consent Notice. The 2006 legislation attempted to expand the use of search warrants in Driving Under the Influence arrests. We believe the final version falls short of allowing search warrants for blood, breath, or urine samples when a suspect refuses to submit a sample after being read the Georgia Implied Consent Notice. The “no test shall be given” language if a driver refuses the state chemical test is still in the statute’s current version. Our firm is also making a constitutional challenge on how the 2006 statute was passed by the Georgia Assembly (Georgia legislature). If the police obtained a chemical sample from you after getting a search warrant, call us today. We can explain in more detail how we are attacking the admissibility of chemical tests obtained by search warrants in Driving Under the Influence cases. Although you may have ultimately given a chemical sample to the police under a search warrant, the officer may still attempt to suspend your Georgia driver’s license or privilege to drive here in this state administratively if you refused initially to submit to a chemical test when the implied consent notice was read. See below for steps that may need to be taken to protect your driving privileges. 

For more information about where our experienced DUI attorneys defend DUI cases in Georgia, click here: Where we go to protect your DUI.

The Administrative License Suspension action and your DUI in Georgia

IMPORTANT INFORMATION CONCERNING YOUR DRIVER’S LICENSE WHILE YOUR GEORGIA DUI CRIMINAL CHARGES ARE PENDING IN COURT

Besides your Georgia DUI case pending in Court, you are likely facing an administrative license suspension – a separate action from your Driving Under the Influence criminal charges. Unfortunately, there is little time to request a hearing regarding this license suspension action. The hearing is conducted through the Office of State Administrative Hearings. If you have been charged with a DUI in Georgia, chances are the officer served you with a notice of a license suspension. If you were arrested by a DUI task force officer or a Georgia State Patrol Trooper, you can be sure that you were served with a notice of a license suspension action. Whether you refused the State’s chemical test or the breath test results indicated an alcohol concentration above the legal limit, Georgia law requires your officer to notify you of a license suspension. This notice is commonly referred to as a DDS-1205 form (indicated on the bottom left corner of the form). The top of the form will say “Georgia Department of Driver Services.” This form is either yellow or white; the officer may have had you sign it. Officers sometimes explain that this form acts as a temporary driving permit but never explain that this form also serves as a notice to you that the officer initiated a license suspension action against you. Sometimes, this form gets lost (you may have received it – but it may have been misplaced, or it may have been lost at the jail).

• We strongly suggest that you set up an online account with the Georgia Department of Driver Services to monitor the status of your driver’s license 

Regardless of whether you have received a DDS-1205 form, you must understand that you only have 30 days to request a hearing to preserve your driving privileges or waive your hearing through the Georgia Department of Driver Services by opting for an ignition interlock device permit. 

Three tracks you can take [beware of choosing without the advice of an experienced DUI lawyer]:

1. Do nothing within 30 days of the date of your Georgia DUI arrest:

   In most cases, we do not recommend doing nothing within 30 days of your Georgia DUI arrest date. If you do nothing within 30 days of your arrest and your officer initiates an administrative license suspension action, then on the 46th day after your arrest, your driving privileges will automatically be suspended by the Georgia Department of Driver Services. Even if you did not receive the DDS-1205 form, we still recommend that you take some action instead of doing nothing. However, there are limited circumstances where we recommend our clients take no action, but those circumstances are rare.

2. Request an administrative hearing in your DUI case in Georgia:

   The traditional track that has been the law for many years now is to request an administrative hearing, except now there are thirty days instead of ten business days to submit a request for a hearing. This track is where a request for an administrative hearing is submitted to the Georgia Department of Driver Services (along with a $150 processing fee) challenging your Georgia DUI officer’s decision to administratively suspend your driver’s license for testing above Georgia’s “per se” legal limit for alcohol concentration, or for refusing the officer’s request for a state-administered chemical test of your breath, blood, urine, or other bodily substances.  

3. Properly waive your right to an administrative license suspension hearing and have an ignition interlock installed:

   This track came into effect on July 1, 2017. If this is your first DUI arrest in five years, you can properly waive your right to an administrative hearing, have an ignition interlock device installed, and apply for a limited permit. This will enable you to drive in Georgia and fight your Georgia DUI criminal case without losing the privilege to drive. It comes with a cost, of course. It involves you waiving your right to an administrative hearing through the Georgia Department of Driver Services, and you will need to install an ignition interlock device on your vehicle by a certified ignition interlock provider for a minimum of 120 days if you tested over the “per se” legal limit. You will have to suffer through one solid year of having the ignition interlock device installed in your vehicle (and driving under the confines of an ignition interlock permit) if you refuse the officer’s request for a state-administered chemical test. If you choose this track, we highly advise installing the ignition interlock first and then going to DDS within 30 days from the date of arrest to obtain the permit. There are obvious concerns and pitfalls in choosing this track. For many, the stigma of having the ignition interlock device installed in their vehicle is not worth it. The ignition interlock device is expensive, requiring installation and monthly monitoring fees. And if you remove it while under your ignition interlock permit, tamper with it, or it tests positive, your permit to drive may be revoked for six months – meaning no driving at all. In addition to waiving your right to an administrative hearing and having an ignition interlock device installed on your vehicle, you must also meet the following conditions:

• The application for the permit must be made with DDS within 30 days of the person being served notice of the ALS by your Georgia DUI arresting officer through the DDS-1205 form or—in the event of a DDS-1205S form—within 30 days of receiving such notice of the ALS from DDS;
• The ALS cannot stem from a motor vehicle accident involving fatalities or serious injuries;
• The person must be licensed in Georgia and not have any other suspensions, cancellations, or revocations against their Georgia driver’s license;
• If the person holds a Georgia commercial driver’s license (CDL), they must downgrade to a non-commercial Georgia driver’s license to obtain and maintain the permit;
• A driver cannot have any prior convictions for DUI in the 5 years preceding application for the permit;
• The person must surrender their Georgia driver’s license, either to the arresting officer at the time of arrest or to DDS before issuance of the permit; and,
• There is a $25.00 ignition interlock permit fee.

The period during which a person must successfully maintain the ignition interlock device on their vehicle will depend on whether they consent to or refuse the state-administered chemical test requested by their arresting officer. 

A person who consents to the state-administered chemical test and opts for the new permit will be required to successfully maintain the ignition interlock device on their vehicle for 4 months. If they are subsequently acquitted of the underlying Georgia DUI charge or the underlying DUI charge is dismissed or reduced, the ignition interlock device may be removed at no cost, and the driver’s license may be replaced. A person who refuses the state-administered chemical test and opts for the new permit will be required to successfully maintain the ignition interlock device on their vehicle for 12 months, regardless of the outcome of the underlying Georgia DUI charge.   

Successful maintenance of the ignition interlock device must be evidenced by the permit holder to DDS by producing satisfactory monthly monitoring reports before DDS removes the ignition interlock restriction from the permit. A permit may be renewed for a fee of $5.00 if additional time is needed for the permit holder to comply with the terms of the ignition interlock device. Still, it may only be renewed one time once the permit holder becomes eligible to reinstate their driver’s license. Following the designated term of successful compliance, the ignition interlock device restriction may be removed from the limited driving permit in person at a DDS Customer Service Center for a fee of $100.00 (or $90.00 if removal of the restriction is requested by mail or other approved alternate means). The removal fee is in addition to any reinstatement fee that may be required.

A Warming to Georgia drivers:

Every Summer, Georgia State Patrol and almost every other law enforcement agency in Georgia enforce the 100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T. campaign from mid-May through Labor Day. The Click It or Ticket campaign ran from May 13 through Memorial Day, June 3, and just wrapped its recent campaign over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Operation Zero Tolerance ran from June 24 through the Fourth of July. The Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign wrapped up this Labor Day, September 2, and will run from mid-December through New Year’s Day again. Local law enforcement H.E.A.T. units, such as the Atlanta Police Department, participate in all sober driving mobilization campaigns. We continue to see a concentrated effort for DUI detection, including roadblocks (checkpoints) during major sporting events, concerts, and holidays. The Georgia Department of Public Safety (DPS) issued a press release that seventeen people were killed in Thanksgiving Day holiday travel period crashed. Also, 425 people were arrested for DUI.

Seventeen People Killed in Thanksgiving Day Holiday Travel Period Crashes

. The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) constantly issue warnings about the dangers of driving drunk and designate a sober driver. Here are recent social media posts on Facebook and Twitter from Georgia GOHS never to drink and drive and to plan for a sober ride home: The Thunder Task Force campaign is currently running.

Drinking and driving should never be on the agenda. Call a sober friend, taxi, or ride share to get you home safely. #BuzzedDriving is drunk driving pic.twitter.com/TddnARYPGk

— Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (@gohsgeorgia) November 30, 2024

Call our experienced DUI attorneys today:

The experienced Atlanta-based DUI attorneys at Chestney & Sullivan will vigorously investigate and defend every aspect of your arrest. If something provides grounds for reasonable doubt of your guilt, we will find it. And we are prepared to go as far as necessary within Georgia law to protect your rights. Suppose you are facing serious DUI or vehicular homicide charges in Atlanta/Fulton County, DeKalb County, Cobb County, Cherokee County, Forsyth County, Gwinnett County, or anywhere in Georgia. In that case, you deserve the best defense available. Contact Chestney & Sullivan today at 404.816.8777.

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