What are the best ways for the court to handle drunken-driving cases?
Drunken driving is a more serious offense than most involving highway traffic safety and is consequently treated as a felony or misdemeanor in many states. Caseflow management tends to be like that for other crimes although evidentiary issues associated with chemical-test results in drunken-driving cases make them more technical than most criminal misdemeanors. Depending on the state, drunken-driving cases may be handled in general-jurisdiction trial courts rather than municipal courts. Implied-consent statutes have improved the ability of law enforcement to enforce drunken-driving laws and reduced the time required to litigate associated cases. Under these statutes, drivers are assumed to consent to a field sobriety test or a blood-alcohol test if the police officer has reason to believe that the driver is intoxicated. If the driver refuses to comply with the officer’s demand to submit to the alcohol test, the driver can be subject to an automatic sanction. In addition to these implie
