Annual DWI Seminar
The Middlesex County Bar Association has scheduled its annual DWI Seminar for January 27, 2020. The seminar will focus on DWI advocacy in the Municipal Courts of New Jersey with special emphasis on major changes that will affect all DWI defendants. The Governor recently signed an act adopted by the New Jersey Legislature which will change the way DWI complaints are handled in New Jersey. This new law will allow the courts to offer, in many cases, an opportunity to install an IID, ( Interlock Ignition Device ) and allow operation during the period of suspension, when drivers would otherwise not be allowed to operate their cars. This sentencing alternative will give drivers the chance to prevent DWI from appearing in a permanent driving record, since the defendant will be able to challenge the State’s case by trial and still have the ability to drive even if unsuccessful. Obviously, the approach to defending a DWI defendant will be completely different with this new law.
The seminar will also discuss how to present applications to reopen prior convictions as a result the Supreme Court’s decision in the Cassidy case. There, the Court determined that breath test results from breath test devices which were inspected without following Supreme Court procedures established to insure proper testing, could not be used as evidence of intoxication in proving a driver’s guilt. The Court is in the process of determining how these challenges can be made. Representing clients will require understanding these procedures so that prior convictions can be challenged when prior DWI violations might result in enhanced sentences which can include jail.