Expert Witnesses in California DMV cases
The use of experts is extremely important in California Department of Motor Vehicle licensing cases. Since the DMV will rely upon live testimony and written documents in deciding whether to suspend a person's California driver's license or privilege to drive, it is critical to have individuals who possess specialized training and experience to testify as to why suspension isn't appropriate. Experts from a variety of disciplines can testify on a variety of topics, but their primary purpose is to support a set aside of the DMV suspension action.
Medical Experts: Physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, optometrists and other medical professionals are often necessary to establish that a medical condition is stabilized and is not likely to create a danger to other motorists. People, who have lost consciousness, suffer from diabetes, or other medical conditions are a concern to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. It is necessary to have these professionals provide written reports or testify to satisfy concerns of the DMV Driver Safety Hearing Officers.
Chemical Tests: Expert forensic toxicologists can discuss flaws in breath and blood testing, such as that the breath machine is not properly calibrated or fermentation occurred with the blood and a higher alcohol reading resulted. Additionally, there are a variety of other ways an expert can attack chemical tests.
Field Sobriety Tests: Experts can use a person’s performance on so-called field sobriety tests (FST’s) to support the opinion that the citizen accused of DUI was not under the influence at the time of driving. If the FST’s are performed well, experts may use this to establish that there was no physical or mental impairment. Mental and physical impairment are very important concepts because mental impairment always precedes physical impairment.
Alcohol Level at time of Driving vs. Alcohol Level at time of Testing: Experts are often called upon to rebut the presumption that if a person had a blood alcohol level of 0.08% at the time of the chemical test they must have been so at the time of driving. Since the chemical tests are always given several minutes to several hours following driving, the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is usually not the same at the critical time of driving. Oftentimes, this can be good for the licensee's case because under certain circumstances the defendant’s BAC is higher at the time of the test than at the time of driving. This is a technical subject area requiring expert testimony to raise reasonable doubt as to whether the licensee was over the legal limit at the time of driving.
Accident Investigation: It is often necessary to have an accident investigator respond to the area where the collision occurred, review accident reports prepared by the police and take photographs in order to establish the licensee was not the party most at fault in an accident.
Accident Reconstruction: Sometimes it is necessary to have an expert in the field of accident reconstruction. An accident reconstructionist will help explain how an accident occurred.
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