Southaven DUI Defense Lawyer

Blood and Breath Analysis for Mississippi DUI

The analysis of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is one of the most complex areas of DUI law. It involves technical, scientific language, with phrases like “gas chromatography” and “infrared spectroscopy.” But it can also be unreliable, filled with operational mistakes, mis-calibrations, and false positives. If you’ve submitted to a BAC test and are facing a DUI charge in Mississippi, a Southaven DUI lawyer can challenge those test results.

BAC is a measure of the amount of alcohol in your bloodstream at the time of arrest, according to the breathalyzer or the blood test. A reading of .08 or greater is a legal presumption of intoxication in both Mississippi and Tennessee. Many people think that a .08 or greater is indisputable evidence of guilt. After all, it’s a machine. It’s science. You blow into the thing, and it gives you this nice, neat number. But they are wrong. BAC readings are not open and shut cases. They can be challenged.

A good Mississippi DUI lawyer will know how to fight a BAC test. It could be through any one or more of the following factors:

•An improperly calibrated breathalyzer

•Gastroesophagal reflux disease

•A false positive triggered by a legal substance already in your body

•The presence of mouth alcohol during a breath sample collection

•The method of procuring the blood sample

•The storage, transportation, or preservation of the blood sample

Do not automatically assume the word “guilty” if you took a blood or breath test in your DUI case. Contact Patrick Stegall, a Southaven DUI defense lawyer, to learn more about how you can challenge the government’s science and maybe walk out of the courthouse a free man or woman.

Click here to read Southaven DUI Law Articles on Field Sobriety Testing