Most jurors in Orange County DUI arrest cases view blood sample test results as being very convincing evidence that you were intoxicated at the time of your arrest. Science has an aura of infallibility, and when jurors picture your blood sample being analyzed, they most likely picture a scientist looking through a microscope and using his or her knowledge and training to come to an expert opinion.

In reality, blood sample analysis is automated, and many times, the analyst conducting the test isn’t even in the room at the time. This may be a subject your Orange County DUI attorney wishes to explore during cross-examination.

Many attorneys are unfamiliar with the exact process by which blood samples taken from suspected drunk drivers are tested, so an analyst under cross-examination may at first try to shade the truth about how little hands-on involvement they actually had with your sample. Enough well-placed questions about the process should eventually get them to admit that their involvement with the testing was minimal.

A blood sample “analyst” is really just the person who operates the gas chromatograph machine that does the actual analyzing of the sample. Everyone knows that technology doesn’t always work as it should, so an Orange County DUI attorney can score points with the jury by emphasizing that the expert analysis wasn’t done by a human at all, but just a machine.

Jurors may also be surprised to learn that the machine processes large batches of samples at the same time. It wasn’t just your blood that was tested in one run of the machine, but the blood of maybe 40 other people. Added to that, the machine typically takes about two hours to complete testing, and the analyst may have been out of the room for some or all of this time.

Through skilled cross-examination of the witness, your Orange County DUI attorney can dissuade the jurors in your case of the notion that your blood sample was analyzed by a scientist who devoted his full attention to the task. This will go a long way towards making them question whether the test results should really be given much weight at all.

If blood test results are a factor in your drunk driving arrest, contact Orange County DUI attorney Tom Wallin at (888) 444-7210 to learn how he can help you counter this evidence in trial.