OUTLAW UNIVERSITY: Your Right to an Independent Test

Thank you for joining us again at Outlaw University. This is the last in our series on what I would do if I was pulled over for drunk driving. Again, this is a hypothetical situation. Now just to catch you up on the the previous videos, I’ve been hypothetically pulled over for drunk driving. I refuse to answer the officer questions regarding what I’ve been drinking, who I was with, where I was. I cooperated with the officer getting out of the vehicle going to the back of the vehicle. I declined to do the standard field sobriety test. I declined to do the preliminary handheld preliminary breathalyzer test. I did comply when I was at the jail with the intoxilizer 9000 that is I did comply with the chemical breath test.

So what would I do at this point? As I indicated in the last video, you have a right to take an independent test. So I would request that the officer give me the opportunity to take an independent test. Why would I do that? Typically the drunk driving cases that we handle are late at night 11, 12, 1 in the morning, 2 in the morning and the officer is on The Late Shift. The officer is tired and sometimes they don’t want to do that extra thing and give you that opportunity.

So if they don’t give you that opportunity to take an independent test, you might give your criminal defense attorney the opportunity to possibly argue in court and maybe get that chemical test suppressed. However, if you do ask for the independent test the downside as the officer might say, “okay let’s go to the hospital.”

They take you to the hospital they do a blood draw now you’ve got the blood and you can send that to whatever lab you want. Frankly, my experience has been that the blood test a lot of times confirms the chemical breath test but nothing ventured nothing gained.

You asked me what I would do if I was pulled over that’s what I would do I would ask for that independent test. So after I asked for the independent test they either take me to get a blood draw or I get thrown in jail. Generally speaking I’m going to be in jail for the night and they release me the next morning so I would immediately make a call to a criminal defense attorney.

I happen to know a few. I’d probably call somebody in my firm to help me out. They’d get me on the right track they tell me what to do to make sure that my case goes as smoothly as possible. Now that’s a lot of information in this series of videos on what I would do if I was pulled over for drunk driving and and I know it’s different if you’re on the side of the road and you’re In the Heat of the Moment but hopefully if you’ve watched these videos you’ve got some information you have a better ability to defend yourself.

The best defense to these things is to not get behind the wheel of a car if you’ve been drinking, but if you have, give us a call at Hills Law Office. We’ve got a lot of experience handling these types of cases and we can help you.