How America Is Changing its DUI Laws in 2021

August 26, 2020

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DUI laws refer to the criminalization of driving under the influence of intoxicating substances, this crime is something that should be taken very seriously as it puts so many people at risk for such an unnecessary reason. There is much variation in opinion when it comes to the current DUI laws, with many people arguing the penalty should be increased in order to further deter people from drink driving and consequently save lives. The current laws state that a person would be committing a DUI offense if he or she is found operating any kind of vehicle whilst under the influence of drugs or alcohol in a public space. The severity of a DUI penalty can totally depend on the circumstances of the incident and if anyone was hurt, however, we may be seeing a stricter penalty system in the future.

Current DUI Laws

The current DUI laws that are in place are highly influenced by the case-specific details of each offense, if someone was to commit this crime with minimal damages and without hurting anyone, the penalty is likely to be less severe than that of someone who injured another member of the public whilst behind the wheel. Many argue that this should not be the case as people who are prepared to drive their cars whilst intoxicated still show a lack of care for others’ safety and they shouldn’t be shown leniency just because they were lucky enough to not hurt someone.

A drunk driver is someone with an alcohol blood concentration of 0.08 percent or higher, readings are taken with a breathalyzer and the authorities may ask for a simple reaction test to be conducted as well. This process of gauging a person’s intoxication level has also seen much scrutinization in recent years, with general opinion being that anyone who has had a drink and is prepared to drive should face more severe consequences in the reflection of the sheer recklessness they have displayed. As previously mentioned there are further factors that can influence the severity of punishment such as DUI with a minor in the car, multiple DUI offenses, and DUI leading to serious injury or fatality. These factors would all increase the severity of the punishment as they reflect a lack of care for your safety as a driver and others around you.

There are also factors within DUI laws that could decrease the severity of the offense, intoxication by prescribed medications, having no previous driving offenses on your record and there is some discretion when it comes to readings close to 0.08 percent. These factors could result in a drunk driver being let off with a less drastic punishment but, not everyone agrees with this leniency and believe the punishment for a DUI offense should be taken seriously no matter the circumstances.

Legal Representation

When it comes to crimes of this nature, proper legal representation is a must due to the sheer amount of factors that come into consideration during prosecution. Boise DUI is a well known legal service particularly for cases of intoxicated driving, whether you are the offender or victim of such a crime the law currently requires a high level of factor consideration in order to determine the necessary punishment. Your legal representative should be well versed in DUI law so they can effectively represent your case and put forward any of the necessary factors that come into play around your situation. DUI law allows for some negotiation of your sentencing, so having a representative who ensures you are treated fairly and given the correct level of punishment severity would be the right way to go. Although you should not be allowed to get away with the offense by any means, you still have the right to be treated fairly in court and given the opportunity to plead your case with the proper legal representation to aid you.

How should they change in the future?

With some discrepancies around leniency factors within DUI law, many people are calling for a change when it comes to how people are prosecuted for getting behind the wheel under the influence. It is a common opinion that just because nobody was injured or killed during an incident, the driver still had the intention to disregard road safety so the punishment should still be severe. Rather than offering leniency factors, we may see a much more severe punishment for DUI in the future as a means to decrease the number of offenders. There seems to be a lot of evaluation involved within how people are prosecuted for driving under the influence, with many states having levels of one to five based on how serious the incident was. This is where leniency and aggravating factors come into place for a court of law to decide what the most suitable punishment would be. Currently, punishments range from a driving ban to a fine and short prison sentence, but we may see a drastic change in how DUI laws are conducted in the future.

Those who have fallen victim to reckless and drunk driving will understand how life-changing an incident of this nature could be, with the law currently having a rather slack attitude to this crime we could see a decrease in the amount of opportunity that is given to offenders to get a reduced punishment over the coming years.

Essential Tips for Preparing for the LSAT

New York can be a difficult place to begin your law career. With such a competitive market and new waves of future lawyers starting everyday, it’s important to make sure that you stand out from the rest. The most effective way to stand out in such a overpopulated career path is to achieve the highest grades you can in your LSAT. Here are some tips on how to prepare.

Revision time table

To do well in your exams, you are expected to retain a lot of detailed information, like case names and what particular laws entail. This is something that can’t be learned the night before your exams as it’s simply too much information. The best way to comfortably learn so much information is gradually over a couple of months. Set a few days a week as dedicated study time and before you know it, you’ll be ready to take on the exam.

Get a tutor

There is nothing wrong with struggling with the work for these exams, they don’t make it easy to pursue a career in law. There’s no point revising something that you don’t understand as you won’t be able to apply your new information to your exam questions. There are plenty of businesses offering LSAT tutoring in New York for very affordable prices so it may be worth looking into in order to achieve the best possible results. Even if you’re not struggling too much with preparing, tutoring will really give you the edge over other future lawyers and make sure that you get the best results.

Study buddy

Find someone that is taking the tests that you can study with. Law is largely a memory game and bouncing your knowledge back and forth from someone else is a great way to remember all the information that you need . Studying in pairs can be especially useful when it comes to remembering cases as it can be easy to forget your long line of names. An easy and fun way to remember some cases is by trying to match the case name to a description. You can get competitive with this and tally up who remembers the most, a little friendly competition is always a sure way to retain hard to remember information.

Post it notes

Invest in a colorful pack of post it notes and put them absolutely everywhere. On each post it note, write a piece of legislation or law that you need to remember and put the post it on something that you need to look at. A few good places would be on your bathroom mirror, on your wardrobe, next to your oven or on your fridge. This is a non forced way to remember important information and will mean that you are slowly picking up information in a non stressful way.

Sleep

What is most important is that you look after yourself. Make sure you’re getting at least 8 hours of sleep every night, drinking plenty of water and eating enough food. Around exam time it can be easy to forget that you need to look after yourselves, but when you’re under so much stress it is important that you make sure you put your own health first.

Health & Safety Regulations Every Small Business Owner Must Know

Keeping your small business afloat is a lot of responsibility. But one of the most important aspects of owning a small business is ensuring you are aware and compliant of health and safety regulations. They ensure your employees and clientele are kept safe. Failure to comply can lead to injury or damage which can be expensive to deal with and detrimental to your small business. While it shouldn’t be an issue for the vast majority of small businesses, it’s probably worth noting that your employees have the right to refuse to do any task they deem as unsafe. So, if you’re wanting to make sure your business is on top of its health and safety, pay attention to this advice and be sure to do your own research – or else your business could be on the line.

Furniture

In order to prevent injury and potential lawsuits, it’s probably worth checking the furniture you have around your workspace. Check your desks and chairs are sturdy and unlikely to break. If you’re unsure it may be worth investing in some new furniture that passes health and safety regulations. For example, the best office chairs to invest in if you’re wanting to ensure you’re meeting health and safety regulations are like the office chairs reviewed here. Don’t take any chances, your employees and clients should always be your number one priority.

Cleanliness

It should be a given, but it is very important you keep your workspace as clean as possible. It could be worth investing in a cleaner, but if it isn’t in your budget, you should ensure your workspace is given a deep clean at least every two weeks. It may also be worth establishing a basic cleanliness standard that all your employees are aware of. Make sure your soap dispensers are consistently topped up and add a sign beside your sinks to remind people to wash their hands. It could also be worth in investing in some hand sanitizer pumps around the workspace.

Fire Safety

Also, an extremely important aspect of keeping your workspace safe is ensuring you’re on top of your fire safety. Make sure you test your fire alarms regularly and have a fire escape plan in place that your employees are confident with. Ensuring you have fire extinguishers around your workspace could be the difference between a burnt-up microwave and losing the entirety of your workspace.

Space to People Ratio

Many people may not know this but there is a regulation in place to ensure your employees have an adequate amount of space to work in. To stay within regulation, you should ensure per employee, there is at least 41 square feet of office space.

Obstructions

To help reduce the risk of injury, it’s important to limit the clutter in your workspace. Any doors, especially fire exits, should never be blocked and walkways should be clear. Should the worst happen, and you and your employees need to exit the workspace quickly, it shouldn’t be made any more difficult by obstructions. Don’t put your business at risk and keep your workspace tidy.

What Are Companies Legally Allowed to do with Your Data

It seems that in this internet age we are slowly but surely giving away all of our personal and deeply important liberties. It feels like there is a new story every day of a tech giant selling our data or overstepping their boundaries. The confidence these big tech firms have comes from an awareness that the everyday internet user does not fully understand their internet rights. This has led almost every site using cookies to track and consume your internet footprint to distort to their own needs. This passage will aim to break down what a company is actually legally allowed to do with your data, so you know of and are aware of any wrong practices.

What Data can They Collect?

Firstly, I feel it is important to understand just what data a website can collect before we obviously go into how they choose to use it. Under current US internet law, any company can access your location information, how long you choose to spend on a website, your internet history, and the activity on any given site. So, please do keep this in mind as I examine what they choose to do with this information.

Targeted Advertising

Targeted advertising may not be a practice that many are not even aware of, but companies can and will use your internet search history to give you certain advertisements. So, for a thought exercise let us say you have been searching for tennis rackets on google, you should then expect to see an uptick in tennis based advertisements. It is as simple as that. This most certainly does feel like quite a shady practice, that may be open to corruption. The idea in principle is meant to lead to advertisements that the user may find useful and relevant. As stated in the above text, this is companies using their access to your internet search history. So before consenting or ticking an option keep this in mind.

Site User Analytics

This is another practice you may not have been aware of, but companies will access your information to find out which demographics you fit into. Let us say that a company is looking for more users in the 18-25 female demographic, to understand how to reach their quotas they will access your data to see where you fit and what exactly you chose to interact with on the site. This means that companies will legally be able to see your name, age, and gender; to process and analyze as they please.

Hardware Analytics

Companies often store the type of hardware that a consumer is using, in order to gain an understanding of your processing power. This will also be used to gain an understanding of when and where you choose to access different sites. If a user uses his computer mainly at home for recreative purposes then sites will store this information. This information is most often sold back to tech companies so they themselves can understand how their hardware processes different sites and software in the field.

If you are looking for extra safety then perhaps read the list of companies – fcra compliance site, and remember to always read the small print of any agreement, it truly does not matter how small it may seem. The agreements will usually come in the form of website cookies, and though they may seem innocent they do allow for far wielding access to your internet habits and personal information.