Blood Tests

After you have been arrested for a Ventura County DUI, you have the right to choose to take a blood test to determine your alcohol content. If you choose to take a blood test, the officer will take you to one of the local hospitals (usually the Ventura County Medical Center), and a nurse will draw your blood. The officer is supposed to label the vial of blood with your identifying information on it, and book it into evidence at either the officer’s agency’s station, or at the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Crime Lab. Regardless of where the vial is initially booked into evidence, the Crime Lab will eventually test your blood. Initially, depending on the circumstances of your case, the test will be performed for alcohol only. If the test comes back above a .08%, then it is unlikely that they will test your blood for any other substances that it might contain. However, if the alcohol level is less than a .08%, it is possible that your blood will be tested for drugs other than alcohol. Whenever the facts of a particular Ventura County case call for it, we can have our client’s blood tested by an independent laboratory.