Why DUI Blood Draw Warrant Questions Come Up
A blood draw involves a needle and a sample of the body. Courts treat it as a search, so it needs a legal basis. DUI blood draw warrant questions ask whether officers had valid consent, a warrant or another basis the law accepts.
Implied consent is part of the answer. Yet it is not the whole answer in every case, because constitutional limits also apply.
What Implied Consent Covers
Vehicle Code section 23612 says a driver lawfully arrested for DUI is deemed to have consented to a chemical test of blood or breath for alcohol. For drugs, consent covers blood, with urine if blood is unavailable.
A driver who refuses faces DMV action and possible court consequences. However, refusal does not mean officers may simply take blood by force in every situation. That is where warrants come in.
When Officers Seek a DUI Blood Draw Warrant
Officers may ask a judge for a warrant to draw blood, often by phone or electronic request. Then the judge reviews the facts the officer gives, since the warrant must rest on probable cause.
Lawyers later review that request. For example, they look at whether the facts supported the warrant and whether officers followed it.
Unconscious Drivers
Section 23612 says a person who is unconscious or otherwise incapable of refusal is deemed not to have withdrawn consent. Whether that statutory rule alone justifies a draw in a particular case is a constitutional question. Courts have looked at that issue closely.
So a lawyer will examine the facts around any draw from an unconscious driver. For instance, the lawyer may ask how long a warrant would have taken and why officers did or did not seek one.
Challenging a Draw
A defendant may ask the court to suppress evidence from an unreasonable search. Penal Code section 1538.5 sets out that motion. It covers warrantless searches and searches with a defective warrant.
The article on DUI suppression motion practice explains how such a request works in court. If a court grants the motion, the blood result may stay out of the trial, although other evidence can remain.
Records to Request
A DUI blood draw warrant case depends on documents. Ask for these through discovery:
- The warrant request and affidavit
- The signed warrant and its time stamp
- Draw records naming who performed it
- Lab chain of custody forms
In addition, the guide on DUI blood sample handling explains the chain of custody side. Together those records show whether each step of a DUI blood draw warrant process had the needed legal basis.