What Is the Legal Limit for Alcohol in Georgia?

By: Bubba Head, Veteran Atlanta DUI Defense Attorney with Over 48 Years Experience

What Is the Legal Limit for Alcohol in GA?

Georgia law stipulates different legal limits for alcohol based on the age and license type of the driver.

For drivers over 21, their blood alcohol concentration (BAC) legal limit is 0.08 percent. Drivers 21 and under require only 0.02 percent BAC to be charged with DUI in GA. Those operating a Commercial Motor Vehicle (CDL license holders), like a school bus or a big rig truck, only need a 0.04 percent BAC result to be arrested for driving under the influence in Georgia.

This “legal limit” is another way of saying your “blood alcohol content limit,” or BAC, which is a number that shows how many grams of alcohol (ethanol) are in a deciliter (dL) of your blood.

For example, a BAC of 0.10 (one tenth of one percent) means there are 0.10 grams of alcohol for every dL of your blood.

Another name for BAC is blood alcohol level, or BAL. You can use our BAC calculator to estimate your BAC or BAL before you drive.

How BAC Is Measured and What Affects It

Your BAC can be measured by a breathalyzer: either a portable breath test that the Atlanta Police and the Georgia State Patrol use during a roadside DUI investigation, or the post-arrest Intoxilyzer 9000.

Your current blood alcohol content depends on several variables, like how much you weigh, if you are male or female, how much alcohol is in each drink, how many drinks you had, and how long ago you drank them.

The only thing that can lower your BAC is time. None of the popular myths on beating a breathalyzer work.

What Is a DUI Charge in Georgia?

A Georgia DUI charge can result from driving with a BAC over the legal limit, known as a DUI Per Se charge.

But in Georgia, you don’t have to be over the legal limit to get a DUI.

You can also be charged with “DUI Less Safe” if the officer determines you are impaired enough based on observation of erratic driving behavior like swerving or failure to maintain lane, physical characteristics that make it look like you were intoxicated such as bloodshot eyes or stumbling, or performance on one of the three Standardized Field Sobriety Tests.

If a police officer determines that you are impaired enough to be driving less safely, even though your BAC may only be 0.03, you will be arrested, taken to the Atlanta City Detention Center on Peachtree Street downtown, and charged with a DUI Less Safe.

The officer can charge you with both and will often charge you with DUI Less Safe first, as the BAC levels won’t be as easily obtainable right away.

If you refuse to take the breathalyzer test, an officer can arrest you for DUI Less Safe. This “DUI refusal” is part of Georgia’s Implied Consent Law and can result in automatic license suspension for one year.

Since an Atlanta prosecutor cannot use your BAC results from a breath test or blood test as evidence in Atlanta Municipal Court, DeKalb County Municipal Court, or State Court of Fulton County, the State will try to prove you were guilty of DUI Less Safe by relying on the arresting officer’s sworn testimony.

The officer will tell the judge about your erratic driving, slurred speech, or smell of alcohol as proof of your intoxication.

Defenses Against a DUI Charge Based on the Georgia Legal Alcohol Limit (DUI Per Se)

Defending against a DUI per se charge, which is based on your blood, breath, or urine alcohol concentration, often comes down to attacking the State’s breath test evidence. The two most common strategies or filing a motion in limine before trial to challenge the reliability or admissibility of the result, or filing a motion to suppress the breath test based on legal violations.

Inaccurate Breathalyzer due to improper maintenance. Our DUI defense attorneys may be able to challenge the inaccuracy of the post-arrest Intoxilyzer 9000 test. In Georgia, this breath test machine has to undergo quarterly calibration and maintenance checks to ensure accuracy. We can look at these logs, and if they are missing, or not properly maintained, may be able to have this evidence not admitted into trial.

Contamination of the breathalyzer device. In Georgia, you’re required to be observed continuously for 20 minutes before taking the post-arrest breathalyzer test. This is to ensure you don’t eat, drink, burp, or have anything in your mouth that could ‘contaminate’ the breath alcohol test. If this observation period is not followed correctly, the breath test result may be challenged as unreliable.

Two breath samples differ significantly. Georgia law only requires one valid breath sample. However, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation best practice dictates that two be collected to ensure accuracy. But, if these two test results are not within 0.02 d/L of each other, they may not meet the scientific reliability standards.

Thus, our DUI defense attorneys may have this evidence excluded before trial.

The police officer isn’t certified to operate the breath test machine. Georgia police officers must have current GBI certification in order to properly operate the Intoxilyzer 9000. We can look at the training records of the officer, and if that officer is not current, we may be able to challenge this evidence.

Your Independent BAC Test disputes Intoxilyzer result. In Georgia, you are entitled to have an independent BAC test done after you agree to take the State’s post-arrest breathalyzer test.

This test must be done at your own expense and you can choose which type of test you wish to have taken (either a blood, breath, or urine test). The officer must also reasonably accommodate you in taking this test.

Because time has passed between the two tests, the BAC levels may differ. That difference can be used to challenge the accuracy of the Intoxilyzer 9000.

Facing DUI Charges Based on the Legal Alcohol Limit? Call an Experienced Georgia DUI Attorney

If you’re facing a DUI conviction that’s based on blood or breath alcohol evidence, our top Atlanta DUI lawyers understand how to fight it. We’ve been defending Georgia drivers accused of DUI and other charges for almost 100 collective practice years. In fact, Georgia DUI lawyer Bubba Head is an expert on Georgia’s official breathalyzer test, the Intoxilyzer 9000.

Call our DUI Defense firm today at 404-567-5515, or fill out our no-obligation online case evaluation form. Either Bubba, ex-Cobb County police officer Cory Yager, or highly-rated Atlanta DUI attorney Larry Kohn will sit down and review your case with you. The Call is FREE, the consultation is FREE. Meet with the DUI lawyers who wrote the book on GA DUI laws in 2024.