What’s relevant? Everything.

With the passage of time, memory fades; we forget things, that’s normal.

So, write it out right now, today.

Write out what?

Everything that happened when you were arrested.

Devote a lot of time to this, include every conceivable comment and event, no matter how minor, and write it down.

You wont get it all down in writing on the first occasion, or even the second, but over a couple of days snippets of information will trickle back into your mind.

When they do, drop what you’re doing and write them down or type them as a note in your mobile phone and include them in your written account later on.

Keep adding to that account.

Don’t worry about including things that you think might be irrelevant: that’s something for your lawyer to disregard if they choose to.

The Judge may ask themselves:

“If this person really was as

intoxicated as the Gardai say

they were, how could their

memory of events be so detailed?”

Remember: the Gardai must prove that you were intoxicated to such an extent that you were incapable of having proper control of a vehicle in a public place.

This is something they must prove to the Judge’s satisfaction beyond a reasonable doubt.

In layman’s terms, that you were drunk.

Being drunk usually means that our memory is not good because of the impact that alcohol has had on it.

Most of us are familiar with this.

But if your account of what happened on the night you were arrested is extremely detailed and textured, that is a massive help.

To you.

Because it conflicts with the Prosecution’s contention that you were drunk.

The Judge may ask themselves: “If this person really was as intoxicated as the Gardaí say that they were, how could their memory of events be so detailed?”

Everyone’s memory fades over time.

The Gardaí made notes of what happened when they arrested you.

They’re entitled to refer to their notebooks in court to refresh their memory.

What notes have you made?

Or will you just be relying on your memory of an event that happened months ago?