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You have certainly encountered them if you have been along the Atlanta BeltLine on a sunny Saturday afternoon or you have passed through the crowded pavements of Midtown in the recent past. Electric scooters be it as Birds, Limes, or personal devices have dominated the city. Their convenient, environmentally-friendly, fun way of zipping through Atlanta offers a brunch place in the Inman Park neighborhood to a festival in the Piedmont Park neighborhood. To most of the residents, there is one more reason behind these scooters; they appear to be the ideal loophole to get home after a night of drinking. You understand that you are not supposed to drive the car, but walking is too long, and riding a rideshare does not seem necessary in a short journey. then you open a scooter using your phone and jump on it, assuming that you make a responsible decision. Regrettably, according to the laws of Georgia, this ruling is enough to get you in the same deep as driving a pick-up truck along Peachtree Street. The thing is that it is true that you can indeed receive a DUI after riding an electric scooter, and the outcomes are much worse than a traffic ticket.
The misunderstanding is brought about by the general belief that DUI regulations are only applicable to cars. The majority of the population considers the crime of drunk driving to be the one of a heavy machine that can move with speeds of a highway. Nevertheless, words such as the law in Georgia statute are far more general. In the law, it is illegal to drive any form of moving vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs so that it becomes less safe to the individual driving. The trap here is the word vehicle. The transportation of people by a highway or the drawing or moving of property by a highway is a part of the definition of a vehicle in Georgia. Since the electric scooters can transport and are self-propelled, they are classified under the vehicle category, which is under the enforcement of DUI. You have to check the same traffic laws as the motor cars driving beside you when you are moving down the street or even the sidewalk on a motorized scooter.
Scooter DUI punishment is not a diluted form of the actual one; it is the same punishment as a regular DUI. In the event of arrest, there is an equal chance of jail time, large fines, service to the community, and probation. However, the effect of a scooter rider on the actual driver license is, perhaps, the most shocking implication of many scooter riders. Although you did not have to drive a car, a conviction may result in the loss of your right to drive a motor vehicle. You might not be able to drive to work or collect your children because you gave a joyride in a rented scooter when you were drunk. In addition, Atlanta prosecutors do not take such cases lightly. As scooter related injuries and accidents increase, police are cracking down on careless riders, and drunken riding is usually one of the main focal points in the enforcement.
This is not only the case with electric scooters. The wide scope of the law implies that one can get arrested due to other non-traditional vehicles. Most of the DUI cases in Georgia have involved bicycles, golf carts, and even the riding lawnmowers. Although a bicycle is not a motor vehicle as per the statute, it is still a moving vehicle. A drunkard cyclist riding through the traffic or not using stoplights is a threat to both him and others. It is the role of police officers to intervene in such situations. Although there exist certain subtle differences between the application of administrative license suspension to the non-motorized devices and the motorized ones, the criminal offence of DUI is a permanent criminal record on your profile. The embarrassment and the cost of having to appear before the judge due to making the wrong decision of drinking a lot of wine and choosing to ride a bike home are quite humiliating and costly.
Representation of a scooter or other non-traditional vehicle in a DUI case takes a very particular skillset. The case may be considered by many general practitioners who will assume it is open-and-shut, or they may not know the specific statutory arguments that can be made on the classification of the device. That is why you should have Atlanta DUI Attorney which pays attention to the peculiarities of traffic law. You require a person who can tell you that the letter of the law may have scooters, but what the law intends to do and what was happening in the case of your arrest do not justify the criminal conviction. This is where James Yeargan and his firm comes in the picture.
James Yeargan, or, as his colleagues in the legal fraternity refer to him, DUI Jim is an individual who is widely believed to be among the best of defense counsellors in the state. His law firm; Yeargan and Kert specializes in the defense of DUI. They have not watered down their efforts with a divorce, or a contract case; they learn DUI law on a daily basis. James Yeargan is a former DUI prosecutor, hence, he served years on the other side. He knows precisely how the state prosecutes such crimes and much more importantly where the weaknesses in their armor are. He understands that a scooter DUI may be viewed differently by a jury than a car DUI and he understands how to exploit that view in the negotiation or trial.
By hiring James Yeargan you are hiring a strategist who will see the totality of the incident. Was the stop constitutional? Were the field sobriety tests administered by the officer under the right circumstances and on level ground, not on a scooter rider who has just gotten off the scooter? Was it that there was real evidence of unsafe operation or was it that there was a prejudice against the scooter riders? Yeargan and Kert dive into these inquiries in an effort to develop a strong defense. They know that even a career and the reputation can be ruined by a DUI conviction, no matter what car you were driving.
When you are confronted with embarrassment and the fear of DUI charge due to a scooter ride, you should not take it lightly. The legal system will most definitely not. You should have a DUI Lawyer Atlanta residents refer to in order to deal with the most unprecedented and difficult situations. Call James Yeargan and the staff of Yeargan and Kert.
