One of the most common bad practices of the police is to take away the license of a driver who either refused to take a drug test but gave blood and urine samples, or whose drug test was a false positive. This practice is not only abusive, but also unlawful. This is because, in such cases, the law is clear: the results of the blood and urine samples are decisive for the decision to revoke a driver’s license. In other words, before receiving a positive result from these samples, police officers have no right to proceed with the revocation of a driver’s license.
This thesis has been defended consistently in practice by lawyers from Sole law firm Sylvia “Silvia Petkova” , as the same has been consistently accepted by the courts, resp. it has reached to multiple won cases for revocation of license for false positive test for drugs before receiving the result of the blood test. It is precisely about such a case that we are reporting in today’s publication.
Revocation of license for false positive drug test – case.
Ivaylo* was stopped for a routine check in Sofia by officers from the Traffic Police Department of the Sofia Directorate of Internal Affairs. No violations were found during the inspection of the driver’s and vehicle’s documents. The police officers asked Ivaylo to take a test to determine whether he had used drugs or their analogues. Since he had never used any drugs, he agreed to be tested. To his surprise, however, the test came back positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (marijuana). He was detained for 24 hours and then released.
As a result of this test with the Dreger DrugTest 5000, the police officers removed the license plates from Ivaylo’s car, detained him for up to 24 hours, and issued an order revoking his driver’s license.
Since Ivaylo did not agree with the test result, according to which he had been driving his car after using marijuana, he requested to be given the opportunity to provide biological samples (blood and urine) to prove that he had not used narcotic substances. The police officers accompanied him to the Military Medical Academy, where Ivaylo provided samples.
After his release from the police station, Ivaylo contacted the law firm with the aim of filing a lawsuit to challenge the detention order, the order to remove the license plates, and the order to revoke his driver’s license.
Interesting! At the time of publication of this article, the order for the detention of Ivaylo is also under appeal the order for the detention of Ivaylo has also been revoked by the court with the assistance of the specialists of the law firm.
* With a view to preserving attorney-client privilege, the name has been changed.
Revocation of license for false positive drug test – decision of court.
Within the statutory 14-day period from the date of delivery of the order for the revocation of the license, a detailed legally substantiated appeal was filed, in which we claimed that the order was unlawful. During the proceedings, Ivaylo’s sister was questioned, whom he had called immediately after the check to ask her to pick up his car. He told her on the phone that his drug test was positive for marijuana, expressing his disagreement with the result and informing her that he was going to the Military Medical Academy to provide biological samples to prove that he had not used any prohibited substances.
His sister also points out that her brother never used drugs, as the positive result shows that he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the accident. a7> has used drugs, and his positive result is a surprise even to her herself.
With detailed reasoning, the court overturned the order as unlawful. The main argument of the court was that during the proceedings, Ivaylo refuted the test results by appearing at the Military Medical Academy to provide biological samples to establish the use of narcotic substances, and the expert report prepared in this regard showed that neither marijuana nor any other drug was found in his body.
The decision is final and not subject to appeal.
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You can find other interesting cases from the firm’s practice, as well as some of the cases we have won, in the “News” section.
More information regarding protection against unlawful acts of the Traffic Police, including and unlawful confiscation of license you can find in the section “Administrative law”.
More information regarding the specifics of different types crimes and the possibilities for protection is available in the section ” Criminal law”.
Silvia Petkova Sole Proprietorship Law Firm is a specialized criminal law firm with highly qualified and experienced lawyers working in the field of criminal law and administrative penalties.
Contact:
Working hours: Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 18:00
Address: Sofia, 2 Tri Ushi Str., 3rd floor
Tel: 0885 47 77 57
email: office@petkovalegal.com
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