Michigan DUI – What Happens after a Blood Test in the Metro-Detroit Area
This article will cover how long DUI blood test results take and what happens after a blood sample is taken following a Michigan DUI arrest, particularly in the Metro-Detroit area, including Macomb, Oakland and Wayne Counties and the surrounding counties. Instead of a long, overly-legal analysis of the scientific protocols required of such tests and the results they produce in a drunk driving case, we’ll keep things short here and focus on what you can expect early on.
We’ll also look at how (and why) Detroit-area drinking and driving cases involving blood tests take longer to make it to court than those involving breath tests given at the police station. In our practice as Michigan DUI lawyers, “When will we hear something?” is about the most common question we are asked after a DUI arrest with a blood draw.
For most people who’ve had their blood taken, the days following a drunk driving arrest are quiet. Sure, you’ve been told that you’ll be contacted, but when? How? Will the police come knocking at your door or show up at work?
Thankfully, the answer is “no.” We have never had that happen in any DUI case we have handled, but one thing that does occur sometimes is that the police (or the court) do NOT follow through with any kind of notification, and upon inquiry our office learns that a new client has an outstanding warrant for a DUI charge despite having checked his or her phone and mail carefully ever since the arrest.
To be sure, this is not the norm, but it does happen, and when we are retained in a DUI case where the client has had his or her blood taken, our office promptly notifies the court, and sometimes the appropriate person at the arresting police agency, as well, so that our client won’t miss any notification.
A big part of the problem here is timing. If you go to the police station and blow into the breathalyzer machine, your BAC results are printed out immediately. If your blood is taken, it can take weeks (usually, in the Tri-County area, about four weeks, give or take) before the DUI blood test results make it back to the police, who then must forward everything to the prosecutor. Blood from a DUI arrest is sent to the Michigan State Police Toxicology Unit in Lansing, which handles blood alcohol testing for the entire state.
There is a lot to understand about how the blood must be collected, packaged, sent and tested, but discussion of that falls beyond the issue of timing that we’re examining here. And for all of the science you can apply to DUI blood tests, none of it really matters a bit until the results come back. If you’ve been arrested for a Michigan DUI and had your blood taken, a good and general rule of thumb (at least in the Detroit area) is that DUI blood test results take about a month to come back.
And while it used to be that blood tests were almost exclusively given in cases where a person refused to take a breath test, more local police agencies are having them done right out of the gate, instead of breath tests. We have had cases in Oakland County where the person was driven right to the hospital from the scene of the arrest, and other cases in Macomb County where someone like an EMT has been at the police station to take blood right away.
Another important facet to any case where blood has been taken after a person refuses to take a breath test at the police station is what happens to his or her driver’s license. Anyone who refuses a breath test is subject to having (and likely to actually have) his or her license suspended for one year, or two years for a second refusal within seven years, under Michigan’s implied consent law. This is something you learn about in driver’s ed, and it boils down to you agreeing that, by accepting a driver’s license, you will provide a breath sample upon request of a law enforcement officer.
If you refuse, you are given a form called “Officer’s Report of Refusal to Submit to Chemical Test.” This is, for the time being, your temporary driver’s license. The form contains instructions for requesting a hearing to challenge the conclusion that you refused the breath test, and the hearing request form can be mailed or submitted electronically. If you do nothing, meaning specifically that if you do not, within 14 days, request a hearing as explained on the form, your license will automatically be suspended, per statute.
If you do send in the form, a hearing will be scheduled before a hearing officer with the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office of Hearings and Administrative Oversight (OHAO). These officials are essentially administrative law judges, and not the examiners who work in branch offices and review bad driving records. The legal issues involved in an implied consent hearing are a subject in their own right, and, like the law and science of blood testing, beyond the scope of this article.
The upshot, however, is that if you request a hearing, in our experience there is about a 10% chance that the police officer won’t show up and your license won’t be suspended. That alone makes it worth the price of a stamp. If you do request a hearing and you lose (the likely outcome if the officer does show), or, if you do nothing and your license is suspended automatically, you can still go to court and request that it be reinstated.
We handle these appeals regularly. The process is rather formal and can vary somewhat from county to county. It requires filing a petition in the circuit court for the county in which you were arrested and serving it upon the Michigan Attorney General’s office. Our firm has handled these appeals throughout our more than 30 years in practice, and we can explain what to expect in your county.
There is, of course, life after a blood draw. It may sound more complicated or serious, but in the final analysis, it’s still a DUI case, and knowing what to expect takes a lot of the fear out of it. About the biggest thing you need to know is that if you’ve had blood taken, for whatever reason, it will be about a month until your case really starts.
If your blood was taken because you refused the breath test, you should promptly file for a hearing, and no later than 14 days after you receive the officer’s report. And if you are looking to hire a lawyer for a DUI and your case is pending in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, or one of the surrounding counties, we can help.
Do your homework. Read articles, such as our guide to what not to do after a Michigan DUI arrest, then call around. Whether you are still waiting on DUI blood test results or already have them, we offer free, confidential phone consultations, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., at 586-465-1980, and an after-hours answering service takes calls when the office is closed. You can also reach us through our contact form or the chat box on our website. To learn more about how we handle these cases, visit our Michigan DUI defense page.