Posted by duijim in on August 25, 2025
Under Georgia’s implied consent laws, police officers are authorized to administer breath, urine and blood tests in order to ascertain a driver’s blood alcohol content (BAC). While these chemical tests can provide useful data about an individual’s BAC levels, they may still be inaccurate due to factors like food particles in the mouth and improper procedures.
Refusing to take a test doesn’t clear you of suspicion for DUI, but it could increase penalties you face in court. There are strategies available that could help avoid conviction.
Implied Consent
Georgia DUI laws mandate that every driver submit to a chemical test – either breath or blood – in order to measure his or her blood alcohol concentration (BAC), which exceeds 0.088% is illegal and therefore constitutes DUI offenses.
The State can leverage the threat of license suspension against you to coerce you into agreeing to take this test; refusing could make your criminal case harder to win.
An experienced Georgia DUI Lawyer can use multiple tactics to challenge BAC breath or blood test results. One such approach would be challenging whether the officer provided you with the required implied consent warning, while also challenging testimony or advice provided by law enforcement that violated your constitutional right against self-incrimination. Moreover, DUI lawyers may attempt to show that your BAC reading was not accurate and thus should be excluded from court proceedings.
Field Sobriety Tests
As soon as a driver is stopped by police, they must make an important decision under pressure – whether to submit to a roadside breath test or politely refuse. Their choice could have severe ramifications for their DUI case.
Failing a field sobriety test could give an officer probable cause to arrest you for DUI and use its results as evidence in court against you, however such tests are prone to errors which could significantly alter their results and it may be possible to challenge their accuracy using legal or factual arguments against their accuracy.
Georgia Supreme Court ruling has altered how breath test refusals are treated in DUI cases. Under prior Georgia Supreme Court precedent, refusal was prohibited under Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination but now will result in administrative license suspension through DDS.
Breath Tests
As with field sobriety tests, breath tests are another piece of evidence used by prosecutors when building DUI cases in Georgia. There are various factors that must be considered before deciding whether or not to submit to one.
In many instances where an individual refuses testing, police will request a warrant to bring them directly to a hospital or medical center for blood sampling instead of driving patterns or observations alone. This can make all the difference when considering court admissible results of blood samples instead.
Employing an experienced Georgia DUI lawyer on your side can help you successfully fight a breath test refusal charge. For example, if the officer didn’t have probable cause to stop you or followed proper procedures when administering the test, any refusal charge against you could be dismissed from court. Furthermore, if your license was suspended as a result of refusing the breath test you have 30 days to request an administrative hearing in order to challenge this action against your license.
Blood Tests
Under Georgia’s implied consent laws, when driving on state roads you implicitly agree to submit to chemical testing such as breath or blood tests if arrested for DUI. You have the option of declining such tests however.
If an officer suspects you of driving under the influence, he or she will request a breath test to measure your blood alcohol content (BAC). Any reading above 0.08% could justify a DUI arrest in Georgia.
If you refuse the breath test, the officer will inform you immediately of an administrative license suspension process that begins immediately. This civil penalty exists independently from any criminal charges, and can suspend your driver’s license for up to a year without providing access to restricted permits. At The Waltman Law Firm we can explain your options and guide your decision about taking or declining a breath test; making this choice should not be taken lightly.