What is the implied consent law?
Implied consent means that a person agrees (consents) to some action or agreement through their actions and the facts and circumstances of a particular situation, instead of through a written or verbal statement.
In California the implied consent law means that if a person drives a car in the state and is lawfully arrested for DUI, that person has given his or her implied consent to chemical testing for blood alcohol content (BAC).
Two parts of the California implied consent law are most important. The first is that you cannot refuse “chemical testing”, this does not apply to a field sobriety test. Before a California DUI arrest can be completed, an officer must prove probable cause for the DUI arrest. To establish probable cause for the DUI arrest, a field sobriety test is administered. It is important to note that a field sobriety test is not a “chemical test”.
The second important part of the California DUI implied consent law is that a person must lawfully be arrested for DUI before the California implied consent law is applied. Please note that if any hand-held breathalyzer is used by the arresting officer, this does not count as a “chemical test”. These hand-held alcohol breath test units are known as Preliminary Alcohol Screening (PAS) devices and they are not proper breathalyzers in the eyes of the court.
Once a California DUI arrest is completed and a person is brought back to the police station they will be required to take a chemical test in the form of a true breathalyzer, a blood test or sometimes a urine test.
What chemical tests are used to determine blood alcohol concentration through the California DUI implied consent law?
Once a person driving a car in California is lawfully arrested for DUI there are three possible chemical tests that they must utilize.
The California DUI implied consent law states that you have agreed to blood alcohol concentration testing through your blood, breath or urine. Blood alcohol testing through urine analysis has been shown to be somewhat inaccurate so urine testing for blood alcohol content is only used if breath alcohol testing and blood alcohol testing measures are not available.
When dealing with the California implied consent law, breath alcohol tests are tested using a full sized breathalyzer machine. These full sizes machines are the only breath alcohol testing measure that can be used in California DUI court. The full sized breathalyzer uses a more accurate scientific method than the hand held breathalyzer units called Preliminary Alcohol Screening devices.
The third type of blood alcohol testing that applies to the California implied consent law is blood analysis. For this type of chemical test a sample of blood is taken from a person arrested for DUI in California and the blood is sent to a lab to determine the blood alcohol concentration for that sample.