Motion hearings in a Georgia DUI case

A motion hearing is an important phase in the defense of a Georgia DUI case.  Your attorney may file pretrial motions such as a Motion To Suppress or a Motion in Limine asking the court to decide what evidence is admissible against you in a jury trial or bench trial.  

There are many rules of evidence which may exclude statements made by the person arrested, performance on field sobriety tests and chemical test results of your blood, breath or urine.  The first step in this process is that your lawyer should file certain motions with the court and prosecutor to obtain the State's evidence against you in the case.  These motions are called discovery motions.  After properly filing discovery motions, your attorney should be able to obtain all of the State's evidence against you.  A second and crucial method of obtaining all the facts in your case is through the Georgia Open Records Act. O.C.G.A. 50-18-70.  This statute may allow you to obtain many types of information such as information about the officer that arrested you or the Roadblock Policy that authorized a roadblock where you were stopped.  

The burden of proof at a motion to suppress hearing in on the State.  The State must show that all of the evidence that has been obtained against you was legally obtained.  If the evidence was obtained illegally, then it must be suppressed from the trial of your case.  For a history of the United States Supreme Court case that made evidence obtained in violation of your Fourth Amendment rights read about Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961).  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapp_v._Ohio