Rising BAC Theory

A charge of DUI can seem daunting, and with good reason. The law comes down hard on offenders, and even when the specifics vary from state to state, advances in alcohol content measurement technology and a general trend toward harsher punishment will always make things difficult.

Fortunately, a skilled attorney will know that even the most seemingly cut-and-dry DUI is far from being so. Every individual case is subject to a huge number of variables, and a wide range of possible approaches are at your disposal.

One of these approaches that has steadily been gaining acceptance involves the rising Blood Alcohol Content (BAC), or retrograde BAC, theory. The basics of this strategy go as follows:

• There is a definite lag time, affected by a number of factors, between when alcohol is consumed and when it is actually absorbed into your bloodstream. It is therefore possible to drink an eventually intoxicating amount in a short enough time and still drive under the legal limit of 0.08% for a while before the alcohol actually “hits you.”
• The problem comes if you are pulled over under the legal limit at the moment, but having had enough to be intoxicated later on – for example, on a ten-minute drive home from an establishment – and are administered a Breathalyzer test after several hours. In this case, although you might eventually hit a reading of 0.08%, you were not intoxicated while actually driving, meaning there was no offense committed.

Contact Us

If you or someone you love has been charged with a DUI after being held without sufficient reason and then administered an incriminating breathalyzer test much later, the retrograde BAC theory might apply to you. Contact experienced Rhode Island DUI defense lawyer Matthew Marin today by calling 401-287-4384.