If you were stopped for New York DUI / DWI, the police probably directed you to perform a field sobriety test before taking you into custody. You may have also been subjected to coordination tests at a precinct post-arrest if you were arrested in New York City. Although you probably hoped that “passing” your field sobriety/coordination test would prevent your arrest (or result in your release), that’s almost never the case. Police most likely administered your tests to establish probable cause for your arrest or to gather more evidence to prosecute you in court. Fortunately, all of the evidence against you can be effectively contested by a skilled New York DUI / DWI attorney from the Law Offices of Adam Perlmutter. In many cases, it can also be used to prove that you were not impaired or intoxicated.

Field sobriety/Coordination tests are divided-attention tests, meaning they’re designed to assess the mental and physical impairment caused by alcohol intoxication by requiring you to focus on two different tasks simultaneously.

The prosecutor in your New York DUI / DWI case will use any variation between your test performance and the test instructions as evidence that you were mentally and physically impaired. However, there are many conditions unrelated to alcohol impairment can cause you to “fail” a field sobriety/coordination test.

There are two types of field sobriety tests – tests standardized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and non-standardized field sobriety tests that lack objective scoring systems and precise instructions. Standardized field sobriety tests carry more evidentiary weight than non-standardized tests, but both can be effectively challenged in court. New York City does not use standardized tests and therefore its tests are continually open to challenge.

The three field sobriety tests standardized by the NHTSA are the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, the walk and turn test, and the one leg stand test. Some of the non-standardized field sobriety tests include the Rhomberg balance test, the finger-to-nose test, the ABC test, the hand-pat test, and the finger-tap test. These tests are imprecise and not a good indicator of physical or mental impairment. New York City uses the walk and turn, one leg stand and finger-to-nose tests.

Field sobriety tests are inherently flawed because of their reliance on physical agility. Experts agree that when it comes to drugs or alcohol, mental impairment precedes physical impairment. If you had difficulty performing physical tasks but displayed no mental impairment, your physical problems must have been caused by something other than alcohol, such as illness, injury, fatigue, or even nervousness.

Even if you believe you “failed” your field sobriety test, an experienced New York DUI / DWI attorney from the Law Offices of Adam Perlmutter can establish that your test performance was not a result of impairment.