Clients are given blood tests under a few circumstances. Either the police officer will decide to start by offering this chemical test and the client will agree, or the client refuses the breath test, and is forced to give blood via a search warrant. If an accident is involved, a blood test will most likely be used instead of a breath test.
- If you were taken to the hospital and given a blood test, do you remember giving consent to the withdrawal of blood?
- Was the blood test taken at the request of a police officer? Or by the hospital staff for medical treatment purposes?
- Are you a diabetic or hemophiliac who may refuse to consent to a police request for a blood draw?
- If the blood sample was withdrawn by a nurse, was he or she acting under a physician’s direction?
- Was your arm swabbed with alcohol before the withdrawal of blood?
- Did you notice if any powder (e.g., an anticoagulant) had been added to the blood sample? Was the blood sample immediately refrigerated?
- Was the blood sample analyzed by the hospital or did the arresting officer send it to the state crime lab in Lansing?
- Did you ask for a second blood sample for your own testing?
- Did anyone tell you what your blood alcohol level was?
