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Washington State Breath Test

Breathe a Sigh of Relief: Callahan Law is Driven in Defense of Those Who Drive

The Portable or Preliminary Breath Test
A test that may have been administered just prior to your DUI arrest is the preliminary / portable breath test or PBT. The purpose of the PBT is to confirm the officer's suspicion and to establish probable cause for your arrest. The PBT is not an evidentiary alternative to the formal breath test given at the station.

The PBT is a voluntary test and the results are generally not admissible in court; most PBT devices are not sufficiently reliable to meet court admissibility standards. For example, if you had recently consumed gum, cough syrup, mints or used an inhaler prior to taking the PBT, a false positive reading could have given the officer probable cause to arrest you.

A DUI arrest can be challenged if the police officer did not follow proper procedures for administering the PBT. Thats why the lawyers at Callahan Law will scrutinize the evidence the officer relied upon to establish probable cause to arrest you. If the evidence was insufficient, or if the officer made an error of constitutional magnitude, it could unravel the prosecutors case against you.

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