Michael R. Reitman Personal Injury Law Blog on Lawyers.com

Field Sobriety Tests in NJ: What is the one-leg-stand test?

Friday, July 2, 2010 by Michael R. Reitman

Our last two posts have discussed field sobriety tests in New Jersey.  Most recently we explained the walk-and-turn-test. Here we will talk about the one-leg-stand test.

This is another two-stage test, which includes an instruction stage and a balancing/counting stage.  During the instruction stage, you must stand with feet together and arms at your sides.  The officer instructs you to stand with one foot about six inches off the ground, with toes out, and count aloud by thousands (one thousand-one, one thousand-two, and so forth) as you look at your elevated foot until he tells you to put your elevated foot down.

During the balance/count stage, the officer looks for four impairment cues:

  • Do you sway back and forth while balancing?
  • Do you use your arms to balance?
  • Do you hop to maintain your balance?
  • Do you put your foot down to maintain balance?

If you exhibit two or more cues, the officer has cause to believe that you have a blood alcohol content of .10 percent or more.

Do I have a New Jersey drunk driving defense?

Many factors come into play before we can answer this question here.  To determine if you have a strong drunk driving defense, we recommend you cotact an experienced NJ DWI law firm today to discuss your case.

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Posted at 08:08 AM
Topic: Personal Injury
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