Reliability of Blood Testing After DUI Arrests

When your blood is taken for testing after a DUI arrest, it’s properly labeled and taken care of, right?  That’s what’s supposed to happen with your blood sample.  It’s labeled with your name by lab professionals and the chain of custody is supposed to keep samples from getting mixed up before, during, and after testing.  With these procedures in place, test samples should never get mixed up.  That sounds good in theory, but the truth is that samples do get mixed up and it results in innocent people being prosecuted for and convicted of driving under the influence.  There are many things that can go wrong with that small vial of blood drawn from someone who has been arrested for driving under the influence.  When you’re at the lab for testing, one of the first mistakes that can be made is mislabeling of the sample.  If a lab professional grabs the wrong label, your name can get attached to the sample of someone who actually did exceed the legal blood alcohol content limit.  Another mistake that can occur during the testing process is that your sample can be assigned the wrong result.  This happens because it is much more cost-effective to test all of the samples in batches using a mechanical process.  The machine is loaded with a batch of samples, they are tested, and results are assigned.  If the machine somehow gets off-kilter, your sample could be assigned an incorrect result and you could be charged with driving under the influence.  Despite the many problems with the reliability of blood testing after DUI arrests, no major changes have been made in the testing process and blood tests continue to be used as integral pieces of evidence in DUI cases.  If you believe a lab error was responsible for your failing blood test result, contact a San Bernardino DUI lawyer to find out your options.