Pennsylvania DUI Attorney
Blood Testing
As a general rule, if a facility is approved by the Department of Health and listed in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, then the trial court may take judicial notice that the facility satisfies the requirements of Section 1547.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health
approves laboratories to perform BAC tests. The Department's careful
and thorough methods serve to [e]nsure that test results from an
approved facility are valid and reliable. Approved facilities are
listed in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. Publication in the Pennsylvania
Bulletin and judicial notice thereof satisfy the requirements of 75
Pa.C.S. sec. 1547(c).
Commonwealth v. Demark, 800 A.2d 947, 952-53 (Pa.Super.2002) (citations omitted) (alteration in original).
"It is because a blood alcohol test is basic and routine and, therefore, highly reliable, that the safeguards ordinarily afforded by confrontation and cross-examination are not required." Commonwealth v. Sullivan, 399 Pa.Super. 124, 581 A.2d 956, 958 (1990).
"[A] party who believes that, notwithstanding a lab's state approval and publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, some error in testing occurred, i.e., the improper timing of a test or an equipment malfunction, is free to present evidence of that error to rebut the inference created by judicial notice." Commonwealth v. Brown, 428 Pa.Super. 587, 631 A.2d 1014, 1017 (1993).
"Only specific allegations of testing errors, and not general, boilerplate objections to the admission of the test results, will require the Commonwealth to provide evidence of the test's reliability other than by reference to the Pennsylvania Bulletin." Commonwealth v. Demark, 800 A.2d 947, 953 (Pa.Super.2002)