Injured by a Possibly Drunk Driver
New Jersey’s drunk driving laws are notoriously confusing, especially for people who are new to the Garden State or who get pulled over on suspicion of DUI while visiting here. New Jersey law does not treat drunk driving as a crime when the drunk driver does not cause an accident. Instead, the case goes to the municipal court, just like an ordinary traffic ticket. The penalties, however, are just as steep as they would be for a nonviolent misdemeanor. There is usually driver’s license suspension involved, and the fees and surcharges you must pay are as high as some criminal fines. Furthermore, the restrictions and time commitments are comparable to what people who get probation in pretrial diversion programs such as drug court have to deal with. Criminal charges for drunk driving apply if the drunk driver causes an accident, especially if the accident causes bodily injury. Of course, anyone who gets accused of DUI has the right to due process of law; people can sometimes successfully argue that the breathalyzer reading was unreliable and therefore that there is insufficient evidence to prove that the driver was drunk. If the driver who hit you may or may not have been drunk, but you are definitely injured, contact a South Jersey auto accident lawyer.
The Controversy Over the Alcotest 9510 Breathalyzer
In most drunk driving cases, the strongest evidence that the driver was drunk is the results of a breathalyzer test administered at the scene of the traffic stop or accident. These devices can accurately measure a person’s blood alcohol content (BAC) based on the concentration of alcohol metabolites in the breath; if you drive when your BAC is 0.08 or higher, it is DUI. Many defendants in DUI cases have claimed that the Alcotest 9510, a breathalyzer test commonly used by New Jersey law enforcement, is inaccurate and that its results are easily compromised by officers’ errors. This has led to numerous legal challenges, and even a ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court, about which DUI breathalyzer test results are legally admissible in court.
This makes a bigger difference if you are being accused of drunk driving than it does if you got injured in a car accident where the at fault driver was allegedly drunk. The standard of evidence required to convict a defendant in criminal cases is much higher than the standard required for a civil court to award damages to a plaintiff, such as an injured person in a personal injury case. The fact that the police administered a breathalyzer test is enough to convince the judge in a personal injury lawsuit that there was reason to believe that the driver was drunk and, drunk or not, that the driver’s negligence caused the accident that resulted in your injuries.
Contact Monaco Law About Car Accidents
Contact Monaco Law PC in Marlton, New Jersey to discuss your car accident case. Joseph Monaco is a New Jersey wrongful death and personal injury lawyer serving Atlantic County, Burlington County, Cape May County, Camden County, Cumberland County, Gloucester County, Mercer County, Middlesex County, Ocean County, Salem County and all of South Jersey.
Source:
law.com/njlawjournal/2025/12/22/good-newsand-badfor-dui-defendants-in-nj-as-court-halts-hearings/?slreturn=20260405205448
