The One Leg Stand test (also sometimes known as the one legged stand) is a
standard field sobriety test that is considered scientifically valid if
administered correctly. It's also true that many people simply cannot pass this
test under any circumstances.
You administered a one-leg stand exercise?
During this exercise, you had my client with one foot elevated off the
ground?
You don’t know what his normal level of balance is, do you?
You don’t know if he is physically capable of performing these tests?
You did not give my client an opportunity to practice balancing on one
leg before you scored him on this exercise, did you?
You would agree that you have to follow a standardized scoring procedure.
You can’t make up the rules as you go along, can you?
While you were administering instructions for this one leg stand
exercise, you told him to watch his extended foot?
If he was busy watching his elevated foot, he can’t look out at the
horizon for purposes of maintaining his balance, can he?
You didn’t let him focus on a vertical point of reference to assist him
in maintaining his balance, did you?
You noticed that he swayed during your administration of this OLS
exercise?
You didn’t tell him not to sway, did you?
You would agree that all human beings sway, even when standing on two
legs?
And he was balancing on one leg, wasn’t he?
You don’t know how much he might sway under normal circumstances, do you?
As a police officer, you spend a lot of time on the street, don’t you?
You’ve seen people standing at a bus stop waiting for a bus?
You’ve never seen people balancing on one leg while waiting for a bus at
a bus stop, have you?
You would agree that balancing on one leg is not a normal activity?
People normally stand on two legs, don’t they?
Officer, when NHTSA validated the One Leg Stand exercises, they validated
them in a laboratory under controlled conditions, didn’t they?
You did not administer this exercises under controlled, laboratory
conditions, did you?
According to NHTSA, the one leg stand exercise is 65 percent accurate.
Assuming that figure is correct, that means that your One Leg Stand
conclusions will be erroneous 35% of the time, doesn’t it?
