A person can always receive medical attention after being arrested for a DUI if it offered by a police officer, or the person reasonably appears or reports to need medical attention. However, there is no law on when an individual can or does receive medical attention during the course of a DUI arrest.
It is essential for a seasoned DUI lawyer to learn that a person did not receive medical care when they should have during a DUI investigation if the lack of medical attention potentially affects the evidence that will later be used to attempt to prove that the driver was intoxicated. Certain physical and mental ailments can dramatically skew the interpretation and results of impairment tests such as field sobriety tests and breath tests. Police officers are not qualified to diagnose, treat, or sometimes even inquire about medical issues, such that their effects can be reliably calculated or recognized by arresting officers.
Read below to learn more about medical attention following a Prince William County DUI.
The primary ways that a police officer will determine if a person needs medical treatment are by observing the person’s external appearance, symptoms, and behavior, or by receiving requests or complaints relating to the individual’s internal symptoms or conditions.
When a person does not receive necessary or warranted medical attention, the effects on a person’s appearance, demeanor, and actions can mimic indications of drug or alcohol impairment in certain ways. Therefore, a Prince William County attorney may use the fact that a person did not receive medical attention as part of a defense to challenge the propriety or accuracy of reported evidence of intoxication, such as a person’s balance, speech, eye movements, or comprehension skills during a DUI investigation.
If someone is injured, they should seek medical care. A person’s own health should be their priority. However, a person can refuse medical treatment if they are reasonably conscious and aware of their physical health at the time of refusal. However, if officers deem medical attention necessary to save a life or render someone healthy enough to undergo arrest and incarceration, they can force medical care upon a person even if the individual is refusing.
Sometimes the receipt of medical care will result in more intoxicants being metabolized in one’s body due to the time medical attention takes before one is subjected to a breath or blood test for their suspected intoxicants. Usually, this will help a person’s blood alcohol content (BAC) evidence. Another favorable affect of receiving medical attention is if other chemical substances are administered to the person which would interfere with or override the previous level of intoxication one might have had before such chemicals were administered. Finally, when blood tests are administered by non-law-enforcement medical personnel during the provision of medical attention, there are more evidentiary hoops that must be met at trial to show that the blood test was done in compliance with statutes in a way that it can be trusted as accurate and reliable. These extra hoops can sometimes frustrate, complicate, and delay the prosecution’s ability to prove a particular blood BAC at an eventual trial. Consult with an accomplished lawyer for more information.
The receipt of medical attention usually helps or hurts a person’s DUI case evidence rather than not having any effect whatsoever. Any substantial factor in a case that increases or decreases the favorability of anticipated criminal evidence at trial is something that should be promptly communicated to one’s DUI lawyer in order for an effective defense strategy to be constructed.
Contact an experienced attorney to learn more about medical attention following a Prince William County DUI.