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If you are faced with charges in Missouri for Driving Under the Influence (DUI), you must learn more about your rights and responsibilities under state DUI laws. Your actions before, during, and after you were stopped may alter the outcome of a DUI arrest.

If you’ve been arrested for a DUI, commonly referred to as a DWI (driving while intoxicated) in Kansas, you may feel you have to accept whatever penalties are handed down to you. However, a DUI charge in Missouri is almost always worth fighting, even if you know you were intoxicated at the time of the incident.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, there were 5,477 crashes where alcohol was involved or where there was suspected alcohol use in 2019. While there isn’t a crash every time someone drives under the influence, there’s often a different consequence – a DUI.

In the last decade, there has been a 34% decrease in the number of alcohol-related driving fatalities. That’s good news. There is also bad news. During the same period, the number of drug-related driving fatalities has increased by 49%. The opioid crisis has played a role in the jump; so has marijuana.

Drunk driving is a startling common mistake that can have disastrous consequences for everyone involved. For DUI offenders, the consequences can vary from a suspended license, a criminal record, or jail time. If you have been charged with a DUI in Kansas City, there are some frequently asked questions that may be able to help you better understand your situation.

One of the standardized field sobriety tests which officers typically employ to determine if someone is above the legal limit is the HGN Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus eye test.

To be found guilty of “driving while intoxicated” in a Missouri DUI / DWI case, the defendant must actually be found to have been “driving” or “operating” the vehicle, otherwise, it is a mere case of at worst public intoxication or possibly minor in possession if the driver is Under 21 years of age.

Every summer as people get out on the water, we receive numerous inquiries about Missouri Boating While Intoxicated offenses (BWI) at lakes such as Lake of the Ozarks and Smithville Lake in the Kansas City Metro area, and the differences between BWI and normal DWI cases.

When comparing driver's license point suspensions in a Missouri DUI / DWI case to driver's license revocations or denials, it is important to note that a driver may have their Missouri driving privilege simultaneously suspended for points while at the same time also having a license revocation for separate and different reasons.

In 1964, Missouri passed the state's first "Implied Consent" law. Currently, everyone who operates a motor vehicle within the state impliedly consents to giving a blood, breath, saliva or urine sample to determine the alcohol content of their blood if arrested upon reasonable grounds to believe they were driving a motor vehicle while in an intoxicated or drugged condition.