Tag: Iowa DOT

GRL Saves CDL After Officer Unreasonably Limits Phone Calls

When your CDL is at risk for failing a breath test, you need the expertise of the impaired driving defense attorneys at GRL Law. Merely three weeks after suppressing a breath test to save a commercial driver’s license, the firm’s efforts have rescued another CDL holder, this time through the DOT appeal process. The administrative law judge found that the arresting officer provided our client only 14 minutes to place phone calls prior to chemical testing.  When the last call attempt went to voice mail at the stroke of the deadline, the officer exclaimed “Times Up!” and took his phone […]

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PBT Log Out of Date = License Saved and OWI Avoided

Fort Dodge, Webster County, Iowa.  GRL Law’s investigation revealed that the arresting officer failed to keep his Preliminary Breath Test (PBT) devise properly calibrated and documented as required by Iowa law.  The officer based his request for a breath sample at the station upon the PBT test result.  Failure to comply with the calibration, documentation and reporting requirements required that the judge disregard the preliminary breath sample result.  Without that result, the officer did not have the legal requirements to invoke the procedures of Iowa’s implied consent law.  As a consequence of all of this, the Iowa DOT could not […]

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Consequences of Marijuana Possession in a Commercial Motor Vehicle

The drug defense attorneys at GRL have blogged before on the pitfalls of being stopped by police with marijuana in your personal vehicle.  Fortunately, Iowa no longer suspends your driving privileges for drug convictions. Does this mean you can keep personal use quantities in the sleeper area of a semi truck? In a word, no.  Not unless, of course, you are looking to have your CDL privileges disqualified for six months. That’s right. You will lose your privilege to drive a commercial motor vehicle if convicted of most simple possession offenses.   Marijuana, amphetamines or any narcotic drug will do the […]

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GRL Saves CDL with DOT WIN

The drug defense attorneys at GRL Law prove once again that preparation is everything when it comes to implied consent testing and DOT administrative hearings.  This is especially true when it involves professional CDL drivers and forensic drug testing. In this case, a DOT officer assigned to an I-35 weigh station in North Iowa believed he had reasonable grounds to invoke implied consent and request a urine sample under Iowa Code section 321J.6 based on the discovery of a small amount of marijuana and an admission to smoking the previous evening.  When the sample came back positive for non-impairing metabolites […]

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Don’t Let Those Traffic Tickets Pile Up: How the DOT Can Pull Your Driver’s License for Multiple Moving Violations

Imagine this scenario: you get a traffic ticket for a failure to correctly use a traffic signal.  You might have failed to signal within the required distance, you might not have.  You could dispute the ticket, but you decide that it’s not worth it to take the time off from work, go to trial, and fight the ticket.  So, you decide to just send the payment in to the clerk of court.  A week or so later, you get a letter in the mail from the Iowa Department of Transportation saying that the DOT is going to take your driver’s […]

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Suppression of Urine Test Result Leads to OWI Dismissal WIN

Northwood, Worth County, Iowa.  The district court in Worth County granted the State’s motion to dismiss the charge of OWI, but not before suppressing the results of a urine test. A thorough review of traffic stop and implied consent videos revealed several issues that were briefed by the drugged driving attorneys at GRL Law, including whether: The deputy lacked reasonable suspicion to detain the driver; The deputy unreasonably prolonged the traffic stop to await a drug dog; The drug dog trespassed onto the vehicle turning the “free air sniff” into an unreasonable search; The handler cued the drug dog to […]

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DOT Suspension Reversed for School Bus Passing WIN!

You never intended to pass that school bus, the one with the flashing amber lights and extended stop arm.  But it happened.  In fact, it happens to the very best drivers across the state every day. The police officer hands you a citation with a court date and says something about probably paying a small fine.  You make your court date and the judge mentions the fine again.  You plead guilty and pay the clerk of court on your way out.  Walking back to your car, you say to yourself, “That wasn’t so bad.” Then, a week or so later, […]

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