DUI/OVI blood/breath/urine tests

October 31, 2015

Marijuana Metabolism And Ohio’s DUI/OVI Laws

Next week, Ohioans will vote on Issue 3: a state constitutional amendment to legalize marijuana for medicinal and personal use*. If marijuana use is legalized in Ohio, more drivers will face charges of operating a vehicle under the influence of marijuana. Ohio’s OVI-marijuana laws raise many questions: How long does a marijuana high last? Does marijuana impair driving ability? Do blood and urine test results correlate with impaired driving ability? Are Ohio’s OVI-marijuana laws Constitutional? This article addresses the first question by discussing the duration of marijuana effects.

August 8, 2015

Drink Driving In Scotland Compared To DUI / OVI In Ohio

by Shawn Dominy

My rental car, brilliantly parked outside our B&B in Portree on the Scottish Isle Of Skye.

I thought they were all drunk: they were driving on the wrong side of the road. But they weren’t drunk, they were just driving in Scotland. And so was I. I drove on the left, sat on the right, and shifted with my left on the endless roundabouts and turns. I navigated all the sheep, stone walls, and cliffs as I drove from the English countryside to the Scottish highlands, so I consider my recent holiday a driving success. The trip prompted me to compare the drunk driving laws of Ohio to the ‘drink driving’ laws of Scotland.

April 10, 2015

Blood Tests Thrown Out In Ohio DUI/OVI Cases When Law Enforcement Fails To Follow Rules

by Shawn Dominy

Sometimes rules are not made to be broken. When it comes to cases of alleged driving under the influence, there are rules for drivers, and there are rules for the government. When a driver breaks the rules, there are consequences. There are also consequences when the government breaks the rules. When the broken rules relate to blood tests, the blood tests cannot be used as evidence.

February 28, 2015

Motorcyclist With No Alcohol In His Blood Waits Five Months Before DUI Charge Is Dismissed

by Shawn Dominy

In September of 2014, CW was driving his motorcycle in northwestern New York and collided with another motorcycle. A police officer responded to the accident scene and reportedly noticed the odor of alcohol on CW. The officer asked CW to take a breath test, and CW refused. The officer ultimately obtained a blood sample from CW and charged him with DWI (known as OVI in Ohio). The officer then sent the blood sample to be tested. The test revealed a blood alcohol content of 0.00. Last week, five months after CW was charged with DWI, the case was finally dismissed, as reported by the Genesee Sun.

January 31, 2015

Forensic Gas Chromatography For Lawyers

by Shawn Dominy

Last week, I completed a short course in gas chromatography. Completing the course reminded me of what Stephen Covey used to say: “To know and not to do is really not to know.” He is so right. It’s one thing to know the law of blood and urine testing. It’s a very different thing to know the science of blood and urine testing. To know the science, you have to do the science, and lawyers typically do not have the opportunity to do the science. Now, however, lawyers get to do the science of gas chromatography in a short course presented by the American Chemical Society.

December 13, 2014

What Is The Irony Of Urine Testing In Ohio DUI/OVI Cases?

by Shawn Dominy

Most states acknowledge urine testing is not an accurate way to measure blood alcohol concentration, and Ohio is one of the few states which still uses urine alcohol testing for DUI/OVI cases. Ohio law makes urine tests admissible in court so long as law enforcement agencies follow state regulations. Some of those regulations address scientific reliability, and some of those regulations address administrative issues. As a result, urine tests are often inadmissible, not because they are scientifically unreliable, but because the government did not follow its own rules.

November 15, 2014

Acid Reflux And Breath Tests In Ohio DUI/OVI Cases

by Shawn Dominy

Somewhere between ten percent and twenty percent of Americans have GERD: Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease. While the advertisements by pharmaceutical companies have made GERD common knowledge, it is no so commonly known that this medical condition can inflate the result of an alcohol breath test. When the defendant in an OVI case has GERD, lawyers and judges find themselves at the intersection of law and science.

October 5, 2014

Unanimous Supreme Court Reinforces Defendant’s Right To Challenge Breath Test Results In Ohio DUI/OVI Cases

by Shawn Dominy

For three decades, lawyers and judges have been misinterpreting the case of State v. Vega. In Vega, the Ohio Supreme Court held defendants in DUI/OVI cases may not attack the general reliability of breath-testing machines. Some lawyers and judges interpret Vega as if it says defendants are not permitted to make any challenge to the breath test result. This misinterpretation of the Vega decision may exist in part because most people have not actually read the decision. It’s like the telephone game where the statement made by the first person in the game is modified drastically by the time the statement is repeated by the last person in the game. A few days ago, the Ohio Supreme Court clarified the holding of Vega in a case which will hopefully end the abuse of defendants’ rights resulting from the misinterpretation of Vega.

August 23, 2014

New Book Provides Readers With Valuable Information About DUI/OVI In Ohio

by Shawn Dominy

It won’t win a Pulitzer Prize, it will not be mentioned with the New York Times best sellers, and it will not be at the top of readers’ ‘wish lists’. In fact, most people may not find it very interesting. If you are charged with a DUI/OVI in Ohio, however, this book suddenly becomes a must-read. I’m talking about the new book: I Was Charged With DUI/OVI, Now What?!

November 23, 2013

Driver’s License Suspended For Inability To Urinate On Cue

by Shawn Dominy

Imagine that you are arrested for DUI (called OVI in Ohio), and the officer takes you to a police station to take a urine test. You want to comply, because you’re sure the test will prove you are under the legal limit, but you don’t need to go. In fact, you can’t go. You drink a bunch of water and wait a while, but you still can’t go. The officer then says you refused the urine test, so your driver’s license is suspended for one year.