SFST Practitioner Certification Course

If you defend DWI cases and you have not been through the same Standardized Field Sobriety Testing course your arresting officer attended, you are cross-examining at a deficit.

DUIDLA’s three-day SFST Practitioner Course closes that gap. Built on the NHTSA curriculum used to train law enforcement, the course takes defense attorneys through every phase of DWI detection (from vehicle-in-motion observations through personal contact, pre-arrest screening, and the three-test SFST battery) and ends with the same proficiency examination officers must pass to be certified.

“You leave with a credential the prosecution cannot ignore.”

What You’ll Cover

The curriculum tracks the federal SFST training program in detail:

• ✔DWI detection fundamentals—the three-phase model NHTSA teaches every officer in the country
• ✔Phase I: Vehicle in Motion—the cues officers are taught to look for and the limits of what those cues actually predict
• ✔Phase II: Personal Contact—interview technique, observations, and the documentation officers are trained to produce
• ✔Phase III: Pre-Arrest Screening—administration, scoring, and validation of HGN, Walk-and-Turn, and One-Leg Stand
• ✔Notetaking and testimony—what the officer’s report should contain and why so many do not
• ✔Legal environment—the case law and evidentiary framework SFST evidence rises and falls on
• ✔Trial techniques—defense-specific cross-examination strategy from instructors who do this work

Hands-On Alcohol Workshops

Two alcohol workshops give participants the chance to administer SFSTs on dosed subjects across a range of BACs—the same practical exercise law enforcement officers complete during their certification. There is no substitute for watching the tests perform on real human beings before you challenge their reliability in court.

Proficiency Testing and Final Examination

The course concludes Saturday with proficiency testing and a final examination. Successful candidates earn an SFST Practitioner certification.

Faculty

Greg Willis, Mike Land, and Michelle Behan.

Schedule at a Glance

• Thursday, August 6, 2026 | 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
• Friday, August 7, 2026 | 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. (includes evening alcohol workshop)
• Saturday, August 8, 2026 | 7:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.