Chemical tests measure blood alcohol content at the time the test was taken — not when you were driving.
California law is strict when it comes to driving under the influence. If you are arrested on suspicion of DUI and your blood alcohol content (BAC) is .08 percent or greater (lower if you are under 21 or have a commercial driver’s license), the police will take a chemical sample of your breath or blood to prove that your BAC was above the legal limit.
It seems simple: if the test says that your BAC was a certain percentage, then you must be guilty. But the science behind how our bodies process alcohol means that your blood alcohol content can actually rise after you have stopped drinking — meaning that your BAC might be higher when tested than when you were driving. A skilled DUI lawyer in Tustin, California may be able to help you prove that rising blood alcohol led to a false positive result.
What The State Has To Prove
To convict a person of driving under the influence in California, the prosecutor must show that a person was driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and that their impairment led to an inability to operate a vehicle with the care or caution of an ordinarily sober person. The rising blood alcohol content defense targets the first prong of that proof: that you were intoxicated while driving.
How Our Bodies Process Alcohol
Our bodies process alcohol by absorbing it in our stomach and small intestine. From there, it travels into our blood and throughout our body. Our livers are responsible for metabolizing alcohol, eliminating it from our bodies. However, our livers can only metabolize so much alcohol at any given time. As a result, some of the alcohol remains in our blood, which shows up as our blood alcohol content.
As we consume alcohol, our BAC rises until it reaches a peak. After that, it begins to fall. It can take up to two hours to reach this high point, especially if a person has food in his or her stomach. As a result, our BAC continues to rise even after we have stopped drinking.
Consider this scenario: you go to happy hour with some colleagues after work, where you consume a few appetizers and two alcoholic beverages. You stop drinking, and get ready to go. You’re pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving, and taken to the police station for a chemical test. At this point, it has been an hour since you last had a drink. Your BAC is over .08 percent according to the test — but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it was at that level when you were driving. Because it takes time for your blood alcohol content to rise, especially since you had some food, and because it took time for you to be arrested, transported to the police station and tested, it is entirely possible that your BAC rose over .08 percent during this time — and that you were well under the legal limit while driving.
The Rising BAC Defense
As long as the chemical test was administered within three hours of your arrest, there is a presumption that you were driving while intoxicated. That means that it is on you to prove that your BAC was under the legal limit while you were actually driving.
A skilled DUI lawyer in Tustin, California can gather evidence from the arrest report and use expert witnesses, including scientists such as a toxicologist, to establish that rising blood alcohol content was a factor in your case. Other witnesses could testify as to how much you drank, what you ate, and when you stopped drinking. Your attorney could get the charges dismissed using this information, or potentially have the charges reduced. If the case goes to trial, this evidence could be presented to show that you were actually under the legal limit when driving.
If you have been arrested for a DUI in Tustin, California or the surrounding areas, contact the Chambers Law Firm today to schedule a free initial consultation about your DUI case at 714-760-4088 or dchambers@clfca.com. We will fight for your rights and freedom, and will put together the strongest possible defense to the charges against you.
