For criminal defendants, the right to a jury trial is found in the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This right and the others enshrined in the Constitution are intended to keep the country from instituting an oppressive government.
Arizona has a similar right to a trial by jury found in Ariz. Const. Art. VI § 17. The right to a jury trial in criminal cases is recognized in felony cases in Arizona.
DUI charges in Arizona can result in harsh penalties when people are convicted, depending on their blood alcohol concentrations at the time of their arrests and their driving records.
Arizona has a seven-year lookback period for DUIs, which means that the state will charge you with a second-offense DUI if you have a prior DUI conviction within the last seven years.
Some people who are charged with DUIs might wonder how other types of traffic violations might affect their DUI penalties.
If you are pulled over for DUI in Arizona, and an officer suspects that you may have been drinking, chances are the officer will administer the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, or “HGN test”.
Mainly referred to by its acronym, the HGN test is part of a battery of three standardized field sobriety tests used by police officers in Arizona and throughout the United States for DUI investigations.
Keep reading below to understand your rights and how our goal is to get your DUI dismissed.