Every year, it's the same, right? First, state officials lead up to the extended Memorial Day holiday weekend with a campaign blitz of drinking-and-driving-related information and stated initiatives focused on potential DUI stops and attendant repercussions. And then,...
Month: May 2017
UT’s alcohol driving limit lowered .05 percent — is CO next?
Two months ago, Utah became the first state in the nation to lower the legal blood-alcohol-content (BAC) level for driving from .08 percent to .05 percent -- a controversial move to many.While this law still hasn't actually gone into effect in Utah, it has...
Drive-and-text law in Colorado could be changing dramatically
Here's a fundamental point about traffic tickets received in Denver and across Colorado: Although one or two of them spread out over time might reasonably seem to be nothing more than isolated instances without much cumulative effect, violations can in effect add up...
When a law-enforcement “expert” is not, well, an expert
Imagine a scenario in which a police officer has been deigned as a so-called "drug recognition expert" based upon participation in a departmental training program. And then further imagine that individual subsequently being lauded for using that training to arrest 90...
Even when not impaired, marijuana users may face DUID charges
Even though the recreational use of marijuana is legal in Colorado, that doesn't mean the state's driving while under the influence of drugs (DUID) laws are any more lenient. In fact, these laws continue to be very strict when it comes to marijuana use, despite it now...
Colorado’s DUI and DUID process in 8 steps
Let's face it, Colorado's drunk driving laws can be extremely confusing, especially when you consider all of the possible offenses, including driving while ability impaired (DWAI), driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) and driving under the influence of drugs...
Which is penalized worse: failing a breath test or refusing one?
Like many other states, Colorado has an expressed consent law that states that drivers are “deemed to have expressed [their] consent” to chemical testing simply by driving anywhere within Colorado.This means that police will likely ask you to submit to a breath or...
Hit-and-run charges in Colorado yield potentially heavy consequences
At the experienced traffic violations law firm of Shazam Kianpour & Associates, P.C., in Denver, we are certainly not averse to citing an arguably tabloid-tinged story to make an instructive and personally relevant point for our readers across Colorado.In doing...
Study shows increased drug and alcohol use among baby boomers
While the campaign to help stop teenage drug use is still in full swing and is leading to a reduction in adolescent alcohol and drug use, there is a new age group that is becoming a high-risk population. The baby boomer generation is showing an increase in both...
Algorithms: detrimental when used by courts to assess risk
People working within the criminal justice system readily perceive that judges are busy people, with built-in job leisure not being something that routinely features in their typical work day.Given their hectic schedules and sobering work responsibilities, many judges...