Steve Palmer: All right, Steve Palmer here. Lawyer Talk off The Record, on the air, taken another session of Q and A. That means question and answer. If you have a question. If you want me to answer your question right here on the air, all you got to do is go to lawyertalkpodcast.com. uh, there's a little, uh, form, a little email form you can fill out, send it. It comes right to my inbox, and I'll answer it. But that's not the only way. Check us out on all the socials, all the social Media platforms, uh, whether it's YouTube, whether it's Facebook, or wherever you get your social Media. Uh, leave a comment, I guess, down below. That's probably how it works. Uh, and we'll. You can leave your question there, too. Might even get a little interaction from all the other millions of Lawyer Talk listeners across the globe. Uh, but until you have your own question, you're gonna have to listen to this question. This one comes from Mark here in Columbus, Ohio. So those who don't know, I have a legal practice representing folks charged with all sorts of criminal activity, uh, right here in Franklin County, Columbus, Ohio. I travel all over the State and sometimes out of State. But, uh, I do a lot of DUI work, and I have done a lot of DUI or OVI here in Ohio, we call it. And, uh, this question is near and dear to my heart because it is an OVI question. This, uh, comes from Mark, and the question is, I was pulled over for speeding and charged with dui. That would be OVI in Ohio. Uh, I was always told not to take the breath test, so I refused. But I ended up taking field sobriety test. Was I allowed to refuse those tests, too? All right, I love this question. And by the way, there's an old series in my. Go back to the archives of Lawyer Talk. Back to the early days, uh, before the studio even. I, uh, had a series called DUI360, where I took on a lot of these types of questions and topics. Maybe not as questions, but just sort of presented them as topics. I may dust that off here for the holidays coming up. But anyway, for now, I'm going to take this question just as it is. Uh, to take the breath test or not to take the breath test. I always tell people, first of all, you never take a test that you don't think you can pass. So, you know, if youif you're on the side of the road and you think that you're not gonna pass a breath test or a blood test or a Urine test. A, uh, it's probably best not to take that blood, breath or urine test unless you think you're gonna pass. Um, but even before you get there, the question about field sobriety test is a great one. If I could choose if I could be a little devil or an angel on somebody's shoulder on the side of the road while they're in the middle of an ovi, uh, I would probably tap them on the shoulder and say, you don't have to take those. Now I'm like Joe Biden, you don't have to take those field sobriety tests. Um, so I would tap you on the shoulder. I would say, don't take the field sobriety test. Uh, and the reason is you don't have to. And not only do you not have to, there's really no direct consequence for not taking the field sobriety test if you refuse a blood, breath or urine test. In theory, not even in theory. In fact, your license is going to be immediately suspended under an administrative license suspension for one year for failing or refusing to take the test. If you refuse to take a field sobriety test, there's no such suspension. All you've done is you have limited the amount of evidence that the police can gather against you. So, uh, there's, and there's all sorts of reasons with, for not taking field sobriety tests. And it just put it to you this way. It's like sort of like the breath test analogy. This is like taking a test but you don't know how you're being graded. These are sort of trick questions. You're supposed to do things, you're supposed to walk the line. You're supposed to raise your foot six inches off the ground and count to 30 by 1, 1000. Uh, there's some other non standardized tests that the police sometimes use, but you're not, they're not, they're not telling you how you are graded on these tests. So chances are you're going to fail. And I have so many people tell me, even if they've only had one, maybe two drinks or even no drinks, that they think they did awesome on these tests. And then when I watch the video, when I see the interaction with the police, I find out that, uh, no, he didn't do so well. And the reason is that you don't really understand what you're being graded on. There's a clues, uh, and a grading scale and all sorts of stuff going on behind the scenes. So I generally tell people, don't take these tests. You don't have to, and there's no consequences, uh, so don't take them. Um, now look, I'm going to cover these field sobriety tests and lots of other stuff with DOI. I'm going to dust off the DUI 360 series and we're going to really, uh, I'm going to really zero in on it and, uh, give you some details on it. Particularly as we've got the holidays coming up. There's probably a good reason to do that. So anyway, if you've got your own mark, I hope that helps so you didn't have to take the field sobriety test. If you need help on your case, by the way, give me a call. Steve Palmer, 614-224-6142. Happy to help out. If you've got a lawyer, uh, I'm sure it's a good one. Stick with that guy or stick with that gal. But if you don't and you still need some help, give me a shout. Palmer Legal Defense. Um, anyway, we're going to be coming at you with some more, uh, stuff on DUIs. As I said, uh, if you've got your own question, Lawyer Talk, podcast.com or hit the socials, whatever you do. This is Lawyer Talk Podcast Q and A off The Record, on the air until now.