Michigan Breath Test Defenses

In Michigan, it is against the law for drivers over the age of 21 to operate a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration, or BAC, of .08 percent or higher. In order to determine your BAC, a law enforcement agent may ask you to take a breath or blood test, with a breath test being the most commonly utilized.

A preliminary or portable breath test (PBT) is typically used to establish probable cause for a DUI/OWI arrest, while the official BAC test is performed by a DataMaster machine at the police station or detention center.

If you have recently been arrested and charged with driving under the influence after failing one or more of these breath tests, you should contact an experienced defense attorney as soon as possible. Attorney Patrick T. Barone has completed a 24-hour certification course by the manufacturer of the DataMaster, and is quite familiar with machine’s flaws. He will thoroughly analyze the toxicology evidence that is being used against you to determine if the test was administered properly or if there was a problem with the machine.

As mentioned above, the PBT is used to determine probable cause for your arrest. However, if the PBT is not administered correctly, the results are known to be very unreliable. If your attorney can show that the arresting officer administered the PBT incorrectly, or was not trained sufficiently, he or she may be able to challenge your entire case due to a lack of probable cause. If the machine itself was not calibrated or maintained properly, the breath test evidence may be inadmissible.

Your attorney will also investigate the BAC results from the DataMaster. Because the results from this breath test are used as official evidence against you, it is crucial that any mistakes that were made during the administration of the test are brought up in court. Was the machine calibrated properly? Were the maintenance logs kept up-to-date? Was the breath test operator certified to operate the machine? If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” the validity of the BAC results may be thrown into question.

If you are interested in discussing possible Michigan Breath Test Defenses, contact the Law Offices of Patrick T. Barone. The attorneys at this firm are familiar with the breath-testing devices and will investigate your case thoroughly.

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