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Field Sobriety Tests

The roadside balance, coordination and eye-movement exercises an officer uses to build probable cause for an impaired-driving arrest - usually voluntary, and never the same thing as the chemical test that follows.

Informational only - this is not legal advice. These definitions explain general legal vocabulary in plain English. They are not advice about your situation, reading them creates no attorney-client relationship, and the law differs from state to state and changes over time. For advice you can rely on, speak to a lawyer licensed in your state.

Looking for a lawyer rather than a definition? Skip to the state-by-state list of DUI-DWI law firms.

What it means

Field sobriety tests are the physical exercises an officer asks a driver to perform at the roadside during a suspected impaired-driving stop. The standardized battery used across the United States has three parts: an eye-movement test in which the officer watches for involuntary jerking as the eyes track a moving object, a walk-and-turn along a line, and a one-leg stand. The officer scores "clues" - a missed heel-to-toe step, using the arms for balance, starting too soon - and the total is what the officer relies on, together with driving behavior, speech and odor, to decide whether there is probable cause to arrest.

The tests are not a measurement of alcohol. They are a screening tool with a documented error rate, developed to correlate with a blood-alcohol level, and they are affected by age, weight, injuries, footwear, the road surface, the weather and nervousness. That is why, in most states, a driver may decline them: unlike the chemical test after arrest, the roadside exercises are generally not covered by the implied-consent law, and refusing them usually carries no administrative penalty - though the refusal may be described to a jury, and the officer can still arrest on the other evidence. A preliminary breath test at the roadside is a different instrument with its own state rules.

At trial the tests are attacked on how they were given as much as on the result. The standardized battery has prescribed instructions and scoring, and an officer who deviated from them, or who administered a non-standardized exercise such as reciting the alphabet or touching the nose, has produced evidence that a court may limit or exclude. The dashboard or body-camera recording is usually the most important exhibit.

Where this comes from

The standardized battery and its administration and scoring are set out in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's DWI Detection and Standardized Field Sobriety Testing curriculum, a training standard rather than a statute. Whether a driver may refuse the roadside tests without penalty, whether a refusal is admissible, and what weight the results carry are matters of state statute and case law and differ by state. The implied-consent rules that govern the chemical test after arrest are a separate body of law and are covered under that entry.

When people hire a lawyer for this

The decision at the roadside is made without a lawyer, which is why it is worth knowing the general rule in your state beforehand. Afterwards, a lawyer's first request is the recording, and the case often turns on whether the exercises were administered and scored the way the standard requires rather than on how the driver performed them.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

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Related terms

Entries on the same subject:

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

CDL DisqualificationThe federally defined list of offenses that take away a commercial driver's license - including offenses committed in a personal car, and a lower alcohol limit than applies to other drivers.
Contesting a Traffic TicketWhat a moving violation citation actually is, the difference between an infraction and a traffic misdemeanor, and the procedures - hearing, written defense, traffic school - for answering one.
Driving Record PointsThe system most states use to score moving violations against a driver's record, with a license suspension when the total crosses a threshold - and an interstate compact that makes an out-of-state ticket count at home.
Event Data Recorder (Vehicle Black Box) EvidenceThe crash data a modern vehicle records about itself in the moments before an impact - what the federal standard requires it to capture, who owns it, and who may retrieve it.
Hours-of-Service Rules (Commercial Trucking)Federal limits on how long a commercial driver may drive and work, and the electronic records that show whether those limits were kept.
Leaving the Scene of an Accident (Hit and Run)The legal duties every state imposes on a driver involved in a crash - to stop, to exchange information and to help anyone hurt - and the separate criminal offense of driving away instead.
Lemon Law and Warranty RightsRules that entitle a buyer to a refund or replacement when a new vehicle has a defect the manufacturer cannot fix in a reasonable number of attempts.
Negligent Entrustment (Lending a Vehicle)The claim against a person who lent a car to someone they knew, or should have known, was unfit to drive it - the owner's own negligence, separate from the driver's.
No-Fault Car InsuranceA system in which your own insurer pays your medical bills after a crash regardless of who caused it - used in a minority of states, and it limits when you can sue.
Odometer Fraud and the Odometer DisclosureRolling back or replacing an odometer to hide a vehicle's true mileage is a federal offense, and every transfer of a vehicle must come with a written mileage statement the buyer can sue over if it is false.
Permissive Use (Insurance Follows the Car)Which policy pays when someone drives a borrowed car with the owner's permission - the omnibus clause, the exclusions that defeat it, and the owner-liability statutes some states add.
Policy LimitsThe maximum an insurance policy will pay - and usually the real ceiling on what a claim is worth, whatever the injury.
Rideshare Accident Insurance (App Periods)Which insurance applies when a rideshare vehicle is in a crash depends on what the driver's app was doing at that moment - the three periods state transportation network company laws define, and the gap that personal policies leave.
Salvage and Rebuilt TitlesThe title brands a state applies to a vehicle an insurer has declared a total loss, what a rebuilt brand means, and the federal database built to stop a branded title being washed clean in another state.
SR-22 and Financial Responsibility FilingsThe certificate an insurer files with the state to prove a high-risk driver is carrying the required liability coverage - what triggers it, why it is not itself insurance, and what happens if the policy behind it lapses.
Tire Defect Claims (Tread Separation and Blowouts)Injury claims after a tire fails, where the question is whether the tire was defectively made or designed, was too old or was recalled, rather than only how the driver reacted.
Total Loss and Diminished ValueWhat happens when an insurer decides a damaged vehicle is not worth repairing - and the separate claim for a repaired car that is now worth less.
Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist CoverageCoverage on your own policy that pays when the driver who hurt you had no insurance, or nowhere near enough - and it is the coverage people most often discover they declined.
Used Car Buyers Guide (FTC Used Car Rule)The window sticker a dealer must display on every used vehicle offered for sale, stating whether it comes with a dealer warranty or as is - and why the sticker overrides the contract.
Vehicle Safety RecallA manufacturer's federally supervised obligation to notify owners of a safety defect and fix it free of charge - and the rules on what a dealer may sell with a recall still open.

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Part of the LawyerLand plain-English legal glossary. Definitions are written from primary sources - statutes and court rules - and each entry states the authority it rests on, or says plainly when the doctrine is state law with no national rule.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, civil legal aid programs provide free help with many of these problems: civil legal aid programs by state.

Related free reference tools: statute of limitations for a personal-injury claim, by state, quoted from each state's official text - part of LawyerLand's legal reference tools.