Your Virginia Legal Team

Receiving Medical Attention After a DUI in Alexandria

Any time a person is encountered by the police and appears to be in any kind of medical distress, the first thing that should happen is that they receive medical attention before they are placed under arrest, or immediately after they are to be taken to receive that treatment. If a person is arrested for DUI and appears to be in some kind of difficulty because of drugs or any other circumstance, medical attention must come first.

With that said, the ways in which law enforcement officers and the individual themselves handle the need for medical attention can provide important evidence for either party. An attorney can best help determine how to process the use of medical attention in an Alexandria DUI case.

Failure to Receive Medical Attention

It is important to know if a person should have received medical attention in Alexandria, but did not because of the failure of the police to give medical attention to someone who is in need of it, this can affect the evidence in a DUI case. For example, behavior that might be interpreted as being intoxicated behavior may simply be the need for medical care. If there has not been medical care, it may offer an alternate explanation of the behavior of the accused.

Use as defense

If someone does not receive medical attention but should have, it can be used as a defense in a DUI case if it can be shown that the failure to give medical attention contributed to the person appearing to be under the influence, or caused the symptoms or actions that the person took to be worse and more intense.

Determining the Need For Care

Police have basic first aid and medical training, and are instructed and taught to look for any signs of distress, such as if the person is having trouble breathing, trouble remaining conscious, or seems to be in any kind of distress. If that is the case, then an officer should summon EMTs or medical rescue personnel to evaluate whether that person is in fact in need of further medical care. If the person is determined to be in need of medical care and does not refuse it, then they will be transported to a hospital to receive that attention.

Refusal of Care

A person has an absolute right to refuse medical attention in an Alexandria DUI case. Medical care cannot be forced upon an individual. If a person is unconscious or is not able to make that decision for themselves, it will in some cases be made for them. However, a refusal of medical care must always be respected.

However, one of the ways that receiving medical attention in an Alexandria DUI case can hurt a case is if a person has refused the breath test or has refused the blood test, they may nevertheless be taken to a hospital where they are going to have their blood drawn in the course of receiving medical treatment. That blood draw and the results of it can actually be subpoenaed by the government and used in the course of a DUI case.

Role of an Attorney

If there is any indication at all that a person is in medical distress, then an attorney will recommend that they should get checked out by a doctor. Nothing that happens in the course of a DUI case or any other kind of case is more important than a person’s health. An attorney’s advice in an Alexandria DUI case is always going to be to seek medical attention and to deal with whatever consequences come afterward.

If an individual received medical attention in the course of their DUI case, there may be important evidence that is going to exist as a consequence of that. In these instances, an individual is going to need the help of a lawyer, not only to retrieve the evidence but also to interpret it. There are also particular defenses and approaches that might be taken in such a case that the individual is going to need the help of experienced counsel to fully utilize.

Contact Us

Do not send us confidential information related to you or your company until you speak with one of our attorneys and get authorization to send that information to us.

Designed & Developed by