Can you pick blood or urine in a Bucks County DUI case? I was discussing a similar case with a Quakertown DUI Lawyer and we both agreed that the law is well-settled.
There are a multitude of cases that all say the same thing -- you do not have a choice between blood or breath. You must agree to whatever the officer decides (or face the civil penalties of a refusal, which includes 1 year loss of license).
So, if you have a Bucks County criminal lawyer, make sure you confirm that they know this standard. This is a different standard than whether they Commonwealth can get both blood and breath which we wrote about earlier in the month.The driver does not have the option of choosing the test, although he does have the right to have his own physician administer [an additional] breath, blood or urine chemical test. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Traffic Safety v. Bartle, 93 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 132, 500 A.2d 525 (1985); 75 Pa. C. S. § 1547(h). This case does not violate the mandate of the Supreme Court in Department of Transportation v. McFarren, 514 Pa. 411, 525 A.2d 1185 (1987), where the court held that in order to justify a second intrusion, the police officer must establish circumstances which support its reasonableness. Here, there was no initial intrusion, so that it was unnecessary to show that the request for a blood test was reasonable. Furthermore, the request actually was reasonable since the breathalyzer test was inoperative [emphasis added]. Commonwealth, Dep't of Transp., Bureau of Driver Licensing v. Quinn, 114 Pa. Commw. 621, 623 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 1988)