Why do people refuse breath-alcohol tests? There could be many reasons, but the chief reason is something Chicago readers should know: most breath-alcohol tests are considered to be quite unreliable.

If that strikes you as wrong, you could be onto something. A DUI charge means a huge fine and other complications for its unlucky victim if he or she is convicted. Now, no one should drive drunk, but then again, an innocent person should not be unfairly prosecuted, either, and that is a real risk when the very device that is supposed to tell a police officer whether a driver is drunk is believed to be very inaccurate.

It's not that states do not try to make sure these devices work. In Florida, for instance, authorities recently spent three days planning a "booze and Doritos" party in which they paid employees to drink Jim Beam on the clock (which they paid $330 for) and then blow into the Intoxilyzer 8000, a commonly used breath-alcohol testing device.

All told, this testing cost $8,000, but one biostatistics professor has said it did not show reliable results, since the conditions under which the test was executed did not mimic the conditions of a DUI stop.

So, in the face of very legitimate concerns about the accuracy of these tests, what can you do to protect yourself? One thing is to make sure you work with a lawyer after being charged with a DUI. Lawyers can't work magic, but they can look at your circumstances and determine if everything was done properly. It would be better if we had a more accurate means of testing for intoxication in the first place, of course, but this will do until we find such a means.

Source: The Syracuse Post-Standard, "Florida pays state employees for drinking party to test breathalyzers," Geoff Herbert, Jan. 23, 2012