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The Ambien® Defense: Using Intoxication to Defend your DWI !

Posted: August 5, 2011

ABC NEWS NIGHTLINE AMBIEN STORY WITH RICHARD R. USLAN

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I AM THE NJ DWI ATTORNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR CONCEIVING THIS DEFENSE

My name is Richard R. Uslan and I am a New Jersey DWI Defense Attorney.  I have personally represented thousands of DWI clients successfully throughout New Jersey for almost 40 years, and in New York State, where I am also admited to practice law.  My law firm is located almost directly across from the Somerset County Court House in Somerville, New Jersey.    While I am admitted to the Bars of NJ and NY,  I am also available for sponsorship for admission to your State, for your particular case,  pro hac vice by your local attorney (i.e. I would appear with you in your local court).  Alternatively, I can serve as a consultant to your locally retained lawyer.

“ATTORNEY RICHARD USLAN SUCCESSFULLY USED THE FIRST AMBIEN DEFENSE TO GET HIS CLIENT OFF… [and] CREATED THE AMBIEN DEFENSE.”

(quoted from ABC TV NEWS “NIGHTLINE” August 14, 2012)

Many of you have heard of incidents or watched TV broadcasts involving people who were “sleep-driving”.   Perhaps you saw me on TV or heard me on national radio discussing this subject.   I appeared as an expert Legal Analyst on a national TV broadcast of ABC News “Nightline” to discuss this important and complex subject.   You may also have read about me online or in the newspaper.  The Ambien/Sleep Driving Defense has helped many people who have been arrested for DUI, only because they had taken the medication as directed by their prescribing physican and drove their car.

My client had a .10% blood alcohol concentration — over the legal limit — and was under the influence of two prescription medications, one of which was Ambien.   Her 2006 arrest spawned the creation of a new legal defense, which utilizes intoxication to defend the DWI or DUI.   Here is a TV feature of the case broadcast by WCBS-TV  New York:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrsyh_c3Puo

        “THE MOST DIFFICULT DWI CASE EVER WON IN NEW JERSEY”

I am available as a paid legal consultant to discuss whether or how this potential defense may assist you.   Attorneys, expert witnesses, such as physicians,  not only in New Jersey, but throughout the country, have consulted with me about how to apply this defense to their cases.   While discussing the first occasion when I used this defense, a professor of a renown Law School who teaches Drunk Driving  Law called my case “the most difficult DWI case ever won in New Jersey” and I was invited to make a presentation for his students.  Another Law School, the Duquesne University School of Law, referred to the case in its Criminal Law Review.  It has been described in Marie Claire Magazine as the seminal case in the development of the “Ambien” Defense.   I received an invitation to attend an international convention of Addiction Medicine Specialists in Milan, Italy, to discuss the impact of my unique, Drunk Driving defense.  Throughout my 30 year career as a New Jersey DUI Defense Attorney, I have successfully helped several thousands of clients in most of the 500 municipalities of New Jersey; appearing in almost 500 municipal courts,  where all Drunk Driving cases in New Jersey are tried.

THE DEFENSE IS COMMONLY REFERRED TO AS THE “DWI AMBIEN DEFENSE” OR THE “DUI  SLEEP DRIVING DEFENSE”

That’s right!  Certain medications cause innocent people to get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, and engage in behavior as complex and difficult as driving a car, without even realizing they were doing it!   It was apparent to me that when the Drunk Driving laws were first passed, the legislators could not possibly have foreseen that taking a prescription medication under doctor’s orders could cause this.    It was one of several legal arguments which ultimately culminated in the acceptance of the defense which, using legal terminology, I named: “Common-law Pathological Intoxication”.  This defense is also commonly referred to as the “DWI Ambien Defense” or the “DUI Sleep Driving Defense”.   Some people call it the “Drunk Driving Sleeping Pill Defense”.    The essence of this defense is that I utilize the fact that my client was intoxicated as a defense to their charge of Driving Under the Influence!

If you have experienced unusual symptoms from drugs or medications while driving, and as a result, have been arrested for Driving While Intoxicated, even if you combined those pills with alcohol, consult with me, Attorney Richard R. Uslan, without further delay.  I am acknowledged throughout New Jersey as having created the judicially-accepted legal defense of “common-law pathological intoxication”, which I successfully applied as a Somerset County Drunk Driving Lawyer in Hillsborough Township, and has become a state-wide defense that I can argue in any one of the 21 counties in New Jersey, including North Jersey, Central Jersey and South Jersey.

NEW JERSEY HAS ONE OF THE TOUGHEST DRUNK DRIVING LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES, SO YOU NEED AN EXPERIENCED AND SUCCESSFUL DWI ATTORNEY WITH PROVEN RESULTS

In New Jersey, you aren’t entitled to have a Jury hear and decide your case.  Only the Judge determines your guilt or innocence.  You have to convince the Judge that the facts — and more importantly in these situations — that the law is on your side.  You can’t even plea bargain cases of Driving under the Influence in New Jersey.   In New Jersey, Driving While Intoxicated is a strict liability offense.     Even if you did not intend to drive your car  intoxicated, once the police observed you operating it, you still must be found guilty – that is, until my defense first became judicially accepted and recognized.   The defense I developed was so effective in that particular case that:

MY  CLIENT WAS FOUND NOT-GUILTY BY THE JUDGE, NOT  ONLY AFTER HAVING BEEN SLEEP-DRIVING ON AMBIEN AND SEROQUEL®, BUT ALSO, WHILE BEING OVER THE LEGAL  LIMIT  OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONSUMPTION,  TOO!

Ironically, my law firm is located in the very shadow of several pharmaceutical companies that make these pills.  For instance, Sanofi-Aventis, the manufacturer of Ambien® and Ambien CR® , is located on the same road as the courthouse where I represent clients as a Bridgewater DWI attorney, two miles from my office.   Bridgewater is also the home of King Pharmaceuticals, the maker of Sonata®.   Valeant Pharmaceuticals is in the next county over, where I have appeared often as a Morris County Drunk Driving Attorney, specifically, in the Madison Joint Municipal Court.  Valeant produces Dalmane®.   Abbott Laboratories, which manufactures Placidyl® and Prosom®, is where I practice as a Middlesex County DWI attorney, specifically, as a Cranbury Driving While Intoxicated Attorney.   Abbott Labs has other offices in the township where I appear as an East Windsor DUI Lawyer and more generally, as a Mercer County Drunk Driving Lawyer.

All of these New Jersey-based medications I have mentioned are the focus of revised labeling because they can cause sleep-driving.    Still other products with revised labeling that can cause sleep-driving are produced outside of  New Jersey and include:  Butisol Sodium, Carbrital®, Doral®,  Halcion®,  Lunesta®, Restoril®,  Rozerem®  and Seconal®.

New Jersey is the home to several other well known drug companies that have produced and will continue to produce hundreds if not thousands of drugs, the side-effects of which may still not be fully known, and therefore, can potentially trigger use of my common-law pathological intoxication defense in the future, depending upon what effect it may have on any given defendant’s knowledge and intent to operate a motor vehicle.   Merck & Co., in the Whitehouse Station section where I appear as a Readington DUI Attorney, is just minutes away from another court I appear at regularly as a Raritan Township DWI Attorney.  They are all in Hunterdon County.   I am a Hunterdon County DWI Attorney.

Johnson & Johnson is located in the same town where I have argued Drunk Driving cases as a Raritan Borough Drunk Driving Lawyer.  I have also successfully argued cases as a New Brunswick Driving While Intoxicated Lawyer, a city where Johnson & Johnson also has offices.  Not only does that company have a large pharmaceutical facility in the New Brunswick area, I often travel near another one of its facilities to handle Driving under the Influence cases as a Morris Plains Driving while Intoxicated Lawyer, and yet another office is near the court where I have appeared with clients defending Hopewell Township DUI cases.

Bristol Myers-Squibb, another international drug company, has offices near the court where I often appear as a Montgomery DUI Attorney, and produces medications in facilities located in the same towns where I defend clients as a Princeton Drunk Driving Attorney, a Lawrenceville DUI Lawyer and a Hamilton Driving While Intoxicated Lawyer.  Bristol Myers-Squibb (BMS) has a large presence in our State.  I have been called upon by clients on numerous occasions to appear as a Plainsboro DWI Attorney and as a New Brunswick DUI Defense lawyer, two municipalities where BMS also maintains offices.

MANY PHYSICIANS AND PHARMACISTS NEGLECT TO VERBALLY EXPLAIN TO PATIENTS THE SEVERAL POTENTIAL SIDE-EFFECTS OF AMBIEN OR OTHER MEDICATIONS THEY PRESCRIBE.

Another important aspect of this highly technical and complex defense is that the specific, pathologically intoxicating effects of Ambien® were not in the literature accompanying the medication when my client took it, and my client was not informed of it by the pharmacist or medical doctor.  Even today, many physicians and pharmacists neglect to verbally explain to patients the several potential side-effects of Ambien or other medications they prescribe.

As you could imagine, sleep drivers are usually not operating their vehicles safely, and when they are pulled over by the police, are in a dream-like trance.   These individuals usually do not remember that they either started the car or drove the car.  They may not even remember having been arrested!  They are suffering from anterograde amnesia unintentionally caused by taking the very drugs, in the proper dosages, which their doctors prescribed to them, most often to help them sleep.

I am a Somerset County Drunk Driving Lawyer, so  I often appear in court as a Bridgewater DWI Attorney, a Bedminster Drunk Driving Attorney, a Bernards Township DUI Attorney, a Bound Brook DWI Attorney, a South Bound Brook DUI Lawyer, or a Manville Drunk Driving Attorney.  They are all in Somerset County and close to my Somerville office.   Hundreds of clients each year from Somerset County and all over New Jersey, or clients who were arrested in New Jersey but live out-of-state, have sought my advice to combat the humiliation, stress and embarrassment of being arrested for Driving While Intoxicated.

I AM A FORMER PROSECUTOR

I am a former Essex County Prosecutor in Newark,  a Springfield Municipal Prosecutor & Denville Municipal Prosecutor.   After that tenure, and using my familiarity with those areas and courts, I have defended numerous cases as an Essex County DUI Attorney, a Union County DWI Lawyer and a Morris County Drunk Driving Attorney.  I have had law offices in Springfield and Linden, both of which are in Union County.

IF  YOU HAVE ANY UNUSUAL SYMPTOMS FROM DRUGS OR MEDICINE THAT YOU WERE TAKING WHEN YOU WERE ARRESTED CONSULT WITH ME

If you have any unusual symptoms from drugs or medicine that you were taking when you were arrested for drunk driving, DWI or DUI, even if you combined alcohol with those pills, consult with me, the attorney with over thirty years of experience successfully handling thousands of these cases throughout New Jersey.  I will use my knowledge and experience not just in the law, but in Sciences, to expertly and personally handle your case.

DON’T LOSE HOPE!

DEFENDING YOU IS MY BUSINESS!

IDFENDU® AT WWW.IDEFENDYOU.COM.

 

 


Category: DWI In New Jersey