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DUI Blood Tests
When Do Police Take Blood in a Colorado DUI?
There are only a few DUI arrest situations in which officers will collect a blood specimen.
1. the arrested driver declines a breath test, but consents to a blood draw.
2. the officer does not offer a breath test- only asks for blood, and the driver consents. These are usually cases in which the officer suspects
the impairment to be caused by some drug other than alcohol.
3. the driver is unconscious, cannot refuse, and the officer takes blood
under the Colorado Express Consent law. This commonly happens
when a driver is in the hospital after a crash.
4. the blood is taken without consent, but by the authority of a search
warrant or a statute allowing blood to be taken in serious DUI cases.
Under most any other circumstances, a Colorado DUI lawyer should be able to suppress the blood result.
What can Jim Medley Do About the Blood-Alcohol Test Results?
People often ask, "They got my blood. I had a lot to drink. What can you really do for me?" Prosecutors love to have a blood lab result with a big ugly number for alcohol concentration. High blood-alcohol numbers strike fear in the hearts of many defense lawyers; the numbers on a piece of paper look like unquestionable proof of a Colorado DUI Per Se. This law allows courts to convict a driver of DUI even if there is little evidence of impairment.
The ability to successfully challenge blood alcohol evidence is one of the areas of DUI defense that really separates the winners and the losers. Even the mediocre DUI lawyers can find some random wins based on an illegal stop or insufficient probable cause for arrest. Extraordinary dismissal results happen when a defense lawyer can critique the forensic processes behind a blood test result.
Master of Science in Forensic Toxicology
Attorney Jim Medley has been an expert toxicologist for over 15 years. In addition to DUI sobriety testing and breath testing, Attorney Medley has extensive expertise in forensic blood testing for alcohol and drugs. In earning his masters degree in Toxicology, Jim studied the forensic standards for analyzing blood for the presence and concentration of potentially impairing substances, including alcohol and THC.
Laboratory Training in Blood Alcohol Analysis
in 2012 DUI Attorney Medley completed a hands-on training course in both the scientific theory behind blood alcohol testing, and the hands on use of a gas chromatograph and the process of blood sample preparation. This practical experience added huge value to the theoretical expertise Jim already possessed after his forensic studies at the University of Florida a few years earlier. These skills have played a vital role in many of the hundreds of DUI cases Attorney Medley has gotten dismissed since 2012.
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