Interacting With the Officer

How you interacted with the arresting officer and any other officer that you came in contact with during your New Jersey DWI charge is a very important factor in the assessment of your case. It is important from the defense perspective, and also how the officer, prosecutor, and judge will view your situation once your case comes to court.

It is certainly best to have been polite, calm, and cooperative during all of the processing, even though your anxiety may have been extremely high. If you were cooperative, that may be helpful in seeking the officer's cooperation in resolving the charges in a positive way in court.

If you were agitated and not as cooperative as you could have been under the very stressful circumstances, that is certainly understandable. It will take additional skill and finesse to convince the officer, prosecutor, or judge that your demeanor was a result of the stress you were under due to what was occurring, rather than what the State may assert, which might be that your behavior was indicative of being intoxicated.

It is critical to have a skilled and qualified New Jersey DWI lawyer helping you in this situation.

There are many technical issues involved in a New Jersey DWI defense that require counsel with NJ DWI defense experience. That experience also helps with more subjective issues such as stressing all positive actions that occurred during your interaction with the officer, and seeking to demonstrate that any less positive interactions are not necessarily due to intoxication.

You need a New Jersey DWI defense law firm that has a reputation of fully fighting for their clients. Then, the officer, prosecutor, and judge will understand that your lawyer will thoroughly challenge the evidence alleged against you, and, if you choose, will go to trial in your case. If the officer, prosecutor, and judge understand that your lawyer will fight your case for as long and as far as you direct, positive things can happen.