Question:  I got arrested on my way to work in the morning for a DUI. But I didn't really have anything to drink after I woke up in the morning, and all I did was drink the night before.

The night before I was drinking pretty heavily, I'll admit that. I was out with some friends and we had dinner in Atlanta and we went to a couple of bars and were drinking. We drank only expensive stuff. I'm talking rare scotch, bourbon and some vodka you can only get in Russia. Needless to say I drank a lot of it and get drunk. We were also smoking some Cuban cigars that I got when I went to Cuba for a recent vacation.

Anyway I got a ride home from the bar with a friend who didn't drink too much and at home I did have a little Italian wine.

The next day I got an early call from my boss who wanted me to get in to work early. So instead of getting there at about 2:00 PM as usual, my boss wanted me there at 8:00 AM because we had some clients come in from Florida and Alabama. So I felt like I had to go to work or I'd get fired.

On my way to work a Georgia State Trooper said I went thru a stop sign and pulled me over to give me a ticket. He said he could smell alcohol on my breath and he asked me if I'd been drinking. I said no, just the night before. He made me get out of the car to do tests and I didn't do well.

I think I was still drunk form the night before. He arrested me and I did a breathalyzer test and it came back as a .139. Basically, I really was still buzzed up from last night. I can't believe I was still pretty drunk and now I need an Atlanta DUI lawyer to help me.

Have you ever heard of people being drunk from the previous night? And could this actually help me get out of the DUI?

F.F. in Atlanta

Answer:  It is actually common for people to wake-up drunk after a night of heavy drinking. Being drunk in the morning simply means that your body has not processed all of the alcohol that was consumed the night before. Interestingly, alcohol is metabolized (broken down) by the body at a rate of 0.016% per hour.

And if you are stopped by a police officer or state trooper, you can certainly be charged with DUI no matter what time it is.

You mentioned that the breathalyzer test was a .139, which indicates that you were fairly intoxicated. That likely means that when you went to sleep you were quite drunk (although you don't state how long you slept for). 

Just because you were arrested in the morning (as opposed to the evening) will not help with your DUI defense. In fact, in every DUI case we want to examine whether there was a lawful, constitutional stop and we always scrutinize the police report and the video of the arrest, if one exists.