Drunk Driving and Related Offenses.

Robert S. Reiff Michie 701 East Water St. Charlottesville, VA 22902 505 pp., $100

Reviewed by Lawrence Taylor 

In a brochure for Drunk Driving and Related Offenses, the publisher observes that "a constant stream of legislative and judicial activity and a proliferation of scientific and technical development have rendered DUI practice a highly specialized field requiring the mastery of several legal, scientific, and medical elements."

Very true. The question is, Will this book help practitioners achieve that mastery? The answer is, While the book has some merit for the novice attorney, it is not of much help to the experienced DUI lawyer.

The book's strength lies in its presentation of issues frequently encountered in DUI cases. Subjects like corpus delecti, stop and arrest, roadblocks, admissibility of field sobriety and chemical tests, and consequences of a refusal to submit to testing are covered at some length. Chapters on suppression of blood, breath, and urine test results are of particular value.

The author, Robert Reiff, a managing partner in a Miami law firm, discusses pretrial and trial tactics he has found effective, and these should be of interest to the new practitioner. Reiff also covers--necessarily very briefly--collateral subjects that are rarely found in DUI treatises: accident reconstruction, drug recognition, and attorney-client relations. The chapter on administrative license suspension hearings, a subject often ignored by other authors, offers many helpful tactical considerations.

The book's weakness, however, is its surprisingly superficial treatment of highly complex evidentiary issues.

The essence of any DUI defense is an attack on (1) the arresting officer's observations and opinion regarding the defendant's driving, behavior, and appearance, and the field sobriety test results, and (2) chemical evidence (blood, breath, or urine analysis).

Unfortunately, Reiff devotes only two chapters to attacking an officer's testimony. The first addresses field sobriety tests. These tests are easily discredited, but the author offers little information about how this is done.

For example, the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, one of the "standardized" battery of field sobriety tests used in most states, is of questionable value in determining a person's sobriety, and few police officers can administer it or interpret its results correctly.

Reiff also includes only two chapters on chemical testing, and these focus almost entirely on legal issues like admissibility. He then concludes, "Once it has been determined that a breath or blood test result is going to be admissible in evidence, defense counsel must be prepared to deal with that sort of damaging evidence at trial." Unfortunately, the author provides nothing to help defense counsel do this.

The key to a successful defense is understanding the physiology, biochemistry, and engineering principles involved in breath, blood, and urine analysis. These are subjects that most attorneys do not understand well. Yet, the book lacks information dealing with the theory and administration of these tests.

For example, there is no discussion of physiological absorption and elimination of alcohol or of how the various breath instruments work. The author briefly discusses how urinalysis is used to test for cocaine and marijuana use, but he does not mention its notoriously inaccurate use in alcohol analysis. The chapter on blood analysis similarly fails to address theory, procedures, and sources of error.

Nor does Reiff include any techniques for cross-examining the testing officers or laboratory technicians responsible for ensuring the accuracy of test results.

Also notably absent from the book are helpful litigation aids like sample motions, pleadings, and opening and closing statements. Nor is there a bibliography--no list of treatises or scientific articles that are so valuable in cross-examining the state's expert.

In summary, the book has value for the general practitioner handling an occasional DUI case. The attorney seeking competence in this complex field, however, should recall the publisher's admonition that "DUI practice [is] a highly specialized field requiring the mastery of several legal, scientific, and medical elements."