In so many situations, it is important to keep your eyes on the end goal. Whether you are investing money, pitching a baseball game, or raising children, remembering what you are doing in the long run, and why you are doing it, is crucial to doing it correctly, and feeling satisfied when you are done.

Defending against a charge of driving under the influence, or DUI, is no exception.

The big goal is acquittal. To understand how this happens, though, you need to know how an acquittal happens. Understanding this requires seeing what a burden of proof is, and how it works.

In all court cases, one side has the burden of proof. This means that they have the responsibility of showing that what they are saying is right. It is important to remember that this does not mean that the other side – the side without the burden of proof – has the burden of showing that what they are saying is wrong. Sometimes, the side that does not have the burden of proof can sit back and say nothing at all, and still win because the other side never met their burden of proving that they are right.

However, in different cases, there are different standards of proof that have to be met. These different standards require the side with the burden of proof to show that they are right, to a certain degree. In most civil cases, this degree is by “a preponderance of the evidence.” In criminal cases, including DUI cases, this degree is “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

In a DUI case, it is the prosecutor that has the burden of proof. This means that he or she has to show that you are guilty of DUI beyond a reasonable doubt.This is a very high standard for them to meet, because a reasonable doubt is not a very big thing to raise.

If you have been charged with DUI, this high burden of proof in your case is important to remember, because it helps to keep the end goal in mind – acquittal. The jury will acquit you if the prosecutor has not met his or her burden of proof. And in DUI cases, this burden of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt. If the trial ends and the jury thinks about your case, and has a second-thought that you are guilty, they will acquit you, and your case will end. The prosecutor knows this, so they try to account for every possible reasonable doubt that you are guilty of the DUI charge, and then prove that that doubt is not feasible.

As a criminal defense attorney, my role is to raise those reasonable doubts in a jury's mind. Through years of practicing as an attorney, and defending countless DUI cases, I have become one of the best lawyers in the Atlanta area at raising doubts that you are guilty of drunk driving. Call me at my law office at (404) 816-4440, if you want me to defend you against a DUI charge.