Most people charged with a DUI in Michigan were drinking. That is just the reality, and any lawyer who pretends otherwise is not being straight with you. But being guilty of having had too much to drink is not the same thing as being guilty of the charge as written — and it certainly does not mean the outcome is fixed. Understanding your Michigan DUI defenses starts with understanding what a lawyer actually looks for. If you want a broad overview of how Michigan DUI charges work, see our DUI/OWI overview. This article focuses specifically on what my team and I actually look for when we take a case.
What my team and I actually do in a DUI case is look hard at everything that happened before, during, and after the arrest. We are not trying to prove you did not drink. We are looking at whether the stop was legal, whether the evidence was gathered properly, whether the tests were administered correctly, and whether the prosecution can actually prove what they need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Those are very different questions — and the answers matter enormously.
This article walks through the main areas we examine in every Michigan DUI case, and what we are actually looking for in each one.
Michigan DUI Defenses Start With the Traffic Stop
Everything in a DUI case starts with the traffic stop, and that stop has to be legally justified. A police officer cannot pull someone over on a hunch or without a legitimate reason. Under Michigan’s OWI statute, an officer needs reasonable suspicion to initiate a stop — meaning specific, articulable facts that suggest a traffic violation or criminal activity. Heading home late at night, or leaving a bar district in Wayne, Oakland, or Macomb County, is not reasonable suspicion by itself.
The first thing my team and I do in any DUI case is obtain all available dash cam and body cam footage and go through it carefully. We are looking at whether the reason for the stop holds up, how the officer interacted with the driver, what was said and when, and whether the sequence of events from stop to arrest was legally sound. If the stop itself was improper, everything that came after it — the field sobriety tests, the breath or blood test, the arrest — can potentially be challenged. Evidence gathered from an unlawful stop can be suppressed, and without that evidence, many cases fall apart entirely.
Field Sobriety Tests
Field sobriety tests are far less reliable than most people assume. They are standardized — meaning officers are trained to administer them in a specific way under specific conditions — but in the real world, those conditions are rarely ideal. Uneven pavement, poor lighting, cold weather, passing traffic, nervousness, and physical conditions that have nothing to do with alcohol can all affect performance. An officer who does not administer the tests strictly according to protocol may be producing results that are legally unreliable.
My team and I look at exactly how the field sobriety tests were conducted in your case. Were the instructions given correctly? Were the conditions reasonable? Did the officer account for any physical limitations you disclosed? These details matter, and when they are wrong, they can undermine the probable cause for the arrest itself.
Michigan DUI Defenses and Breath and Blood Test Results
A BAC result is not automatically airtight evidence. Breathalyzer machines require regular calibration and maintenance, and if those records show the device was not properly serviced, the results may be challengeable. There are also strict protocols for how blood samples must be collected, handled, labeled, stored, and tested. A break anywhere in that chain of custody can call the results into question.
Beyond the mechanics of the testing, certain medical conditions can genuinely affect BAC readings in ways that have nothing to do with how much someone drank. Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), for example, can cause stomach alcohol vapors to affect breathalyzer results. Diabetes and hypoglycemia can produce symptoms — slurred speech, unsteady balance, confusion — that an officer may read as intoxication. Low-carb diets that produce ketones can register on some breathalyzer devices. None of these are magic defenses, but where they are genuinely present and documented, they can be part of a legitimate defense strategy.
My team and I pull the calibration records, review the blood test handling procedures, and look at the full picture of what the chemical evidence actually shows — and what it might not show as cleanly as the prosecution would like.
What Happens When the Evidence Is Solid
Not every DUI case has a suppression issue or a technical flaw worth pursuing. Sometimes the stop was valid, the tests were administered correctly, and the BAC result is what it is. That does not mean there is nothing to be done — it means the Michigan DUI defenses shift from suppression to negotiation.
In Michigan, an OWI charge can often be reduced to Operating While Visibly Impaired (OWVI), which carries lighter penalties and looks meaningfully better on a record. In some cases, a reduction to reckless driving is possible. These outcomes depend on the specific facts, the court, the prosecutor, and the strength of the overall case — but they happen regularly, and they are worth pursuing seriously. My team and I negotiate these reductions all the time. For a closer look at how a first offense typically plays out, see our first offense DUI page. Getting a charge reduced is not a consolation prize. For most people, it is the most important thing that happens in their case.
The goal in every DUI case is to limit what actually happens to you — the penalties, the license consequences, the record. Success in a DUI case is best measured by what does NOT happen to you, and that applies whether we are fighting the evidence or negotiating the best possible outcome from a strong prosecution case.
If You Are Facing a Michigan DUI Charge, Call Us
Read around, call around, and do your homework — that is always the right advice when something this important is on the line. My team and I are confident that if you take the time to compare, you will like what you find here.
We offer a free, confidential phone consultation, available Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. After hours, our 24-hour answering service is available to take your call. You can also reach us through the contact form on our site or the chat box in the lower right corner of any page.
Call us at 586-465-1980.
