If you drive with an open alcoholic beverage in your car, you violate Colorado's traffic laws. Even if you are not under the influence, it is still against the law. There are few exceptions to this law.
Additionally, it is also illegal to drive with an open container of marijuana. Here is an overview of the law to help you understand its prohibitions, exceptions and penalties.
Like most of us, you probably take driving for granted. However, if a law enforcement officer arrests you on suspicion of DWAI or DUI, you face suspension of your driving privileges.
How long will you be without a license? How will this affect your daily life? How will you get around?
Colorado statutes outlaw disorderly conduct. The goal of outlawing disorderly conduct is to protect the safety and peace of the community in public places such as movie theaters, shopping centers, restaurants and places of worship.
Each state has unique definitions and penalties for disorderly conduct. It is important to know what behaviors constitute a disorderly conduct offense in Colorado and the punishments you may face.
If you grew up in Weld County, you know how fun it can be to drive on the rural roads around Greeley. After all, few things are better than seeing distant mountains through miles of fields. Still, regardless of where you choose to drive, alcohol and motor vehicles do not mix.
Like most of your Northern Colorado neighbors, you would never attempt to drive after a night on the town in Denver’s Lodo neighborhood. When the bars close, Denver police officers line the streets near Union Station. Even though Weld County is mostly rural, you must apply the same logic to driving around Greeley. That is, you must not let a rural setting lure you into a false sense of invincibility.
If you have made a few mistakes on the road and found yourself on the receiving end of a license suspension, you may feel stuck. Without a driver's license, you have to rely on carpools or public transportation to get you where you need to go.
There is the possibility that you can obtain a temporary license even during a suspension. This probationary driver's license, or PDL, is also known as a red license in the state of Colorado. How do you get one of these temporary permits, and what does it do?
So, you may have made a mistake with legal implications. What happens next? The first thing you should know is that you have rights. You could probably do many things when faced with having to go through the criminal justice system in Colorado.
You should also know that making decisions about the law is not about immediate concerns. It is about consequences, penalties and costs over the long term. The best possible thing you could do in most situations is to take a step back and review your case from this perspective.
Colorado police officers have the right to administer field sobriety tests. They can conduct the horizontal gaze nystagmus test. During this test, you must follow an object with your eyes. The officer looks for any jerking in the eyeballs that would imply you are under the influence of alcohol. There is also the walk-and-turn test where you must take several steps from heel to toe, turn around and take several more steps. Again, the officer looks for anything that would imply intoxication.
Having evidence you should not drive gives the police officer sufficient reason to place you under arrest. Even if you did not say or do anything inside the vehicle to suggest intoxication, then a field sobriety test can provide that reasoning. However, you actually do not have to submit to them.
In all likelihood, you have never heard about the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine. Nevertheless, if you face criminal charges in Colorado, this long established legal doctrine could spell the difference between your conviction and your acquittal.
The U.S. Supreme Court first hinted at the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine in 1886 when it decided the case of Boyd v. United States. The doctrine did not receive its official name, however, until Justice Felix Frankfurter coined the phrase in his opinion in Nardone v. United States in 1939.
Plenty of people think they can safely drive home from the bar while intoxicated. However, Colorado police are out in full force. In 2017 alone, police arrested over 10,000 Colorado residents on suspicion of DUI.
If you ever find yourself in custody over a DUI charge, then you need to go about the process wisely. That may involve trying to reduce your charges to only a wet reckless. A lot of people have never heard the term "wet reckless" before, so here is everything you need to know about it.
You are probably already aware that reckless driving laws exist in Colorado. However, you may not know what constitutes reckless driving behavior, or the penalties for it. Another surprising fact is that Colorado has a separate offense for careless driving.
It is vital to understand the differences between reckless and careless driving, especially if facing a ticket and/or criminal charges. Below is a brief explanation of these two traffic violations.
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McAdams Law Office
822 7th Street Suite 530
Greeley,
CO
80631
Phone:
970-573-7765
Fax:
970-353-0009
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