The DUI Officer Can’t Hold You Down While They Jab a Needle Into Your Arm (at least not without a warrant)

Missouri v. McNeely has been decided. We can all breath a sigh of relief that the United States Supreme Court has affirmed the judgment of the Missouri Supreme Court. The case holds that in a DUI investigation, “the natural dissipation of alcohol in the bloodstream does not constitute an exigency in every case sufficient to […]

Volume Not Met “Refusal” on Florida’s Intoxilyzer 8000

James G. Wigmore, the author of Wigmore on Alcohol: Courtroom Alcohol Toxicology for the Medicolegal Professional, has an interesting blog with articles on a host of issues related to DUI breath testing. His most recent blog post discusses the relevancy of forced vital capacity on the ability to provide a breath sample. Click here to read […]

Status of Florida’s DUI “No Refusal” Policy at Sobriety Checkpoints / Roadblocks

    SB 1790 prohibited any state or local law enforcement agency from conducting a “no refusal” DUI checkpoint where a judge is present on site to issue a warrant for a blood alcohol test without the driver’s consent. On May 7, 2011, the Florida legislatures’ Senate Bill 1790 (SB 1790) died in the judiciary […]

Flow Sensor Calibrations: Why the Intoxilyzer 8000 Used for Florida DUI Breath Tests is Unreliable

Matthew Malhiot recently published an informative article discussing the Intoxilyzer® 8000: Flow Sensor Problems in Florida. The article describes how Florida never bothered to develop any procedure for testing whether the Intoxilyzer 8000 instruments could accurately measure the amount of air blow into the machine. As a result, the instrument may have produced unreliable breath […]

Florida’s DUI Refusals: FDLE Covers Up Faulty Intoxilyzer 8000 Breathalyzers

What happens when you attempt to submit to the DUI breath test in Florida and the breath test operator tells you that you were not breathing hard enough? The arresting officer will count that as a “refusal.” The allegation that you refused to take the breath test carries with it additional penalties including a one […]

Volume Not Met (VNM) Flag on Florida’s Intoxilyzer 8000

Recently I’ve seen an unusually high number of cases in which someone blows into the Intoxilyzer 8000 after a DUI arrest here in Tampa, Hillsborough County, FL, with a “VNM” flag. In many of these cases, the person arrested for DUI will report that they tried to blow into the machine as hard as they […]

The Problem with “No Refusal” DUI Checkpoints in Tampa, Hillsborough County, FL

The news has been filled with stories recently about the new “No Refusal” DUI Checkpoints coming to Tampa Bay. Other counties in Florida have already experimented with forced blood draws after stopping someone for DUI during a checkpoint or roadblock. Could these types of checkpoints be coming to the Tampa Bay area? Update: Since I […]

No More Tampa DUI Video of Breath Testing

Tampa DUI Lawyer discusses DUI video tapes and cameras at the central breath testing in the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office jail and the jail commander’s new policy of not allowing cameras to be installed in the newly built DUI breath test unit.

Florida Administrative Driver License Suspension After a DUI Arrest

Arrested for DUI in Tampa, Hillsborough County, FL? You only have ten (10) days to request a formal review hearing to contest the administrative suspension of your driver license.