New Jersey DWI Attorney Blog

After the landmark decision in State v. Chun, a significant part of DWI defense in New Jersey breath testing cases focuses on how the machine operated at the time of the defendant or accused’s testing. Challenging the “operability” of the machine is different than challenging the “scientific reliability” of the machine or its process. The latter challenge is now precluded by Chun. Now, the questions center on whether the machine was operating as it is expected at or around the time of the defendant’s arrest.

One of the most important assessments of how the machine is working is done through an analysis of the electronic data that is stored in the machine. This discovery or information obtained from the machine is referred to as the “data download”.

The data download is created every six months or so, when a State Police trooper does the bi-annual calibration on the machine, as required now by Chun. A copy of the information is downloaded onto two CD’s. One is taken to West Trenton and will eventually be made part of a statewide database that is supposed to be made available to the public “forthwith”, or immediately after Chun was decided in March 2008. The other disc is left in the local police department and is available for “discovery” by defendants tested on the machine.

State v. Chun is the biggest most important case in New Jersey DWI history, as it now sets the standards for DWI defense and prosecution throughout the state. It has also set standards across the country, since New Jersey was the first and only state, so far, to challenge the scientific reliability of the new breath testing machine in New Jersey, the Alcotest® 7110 MKIII-C.

I feel very fortunate to have been involved in State v. Chun since it began 2005, when New Jersey began to use the Alcotest® statewide. It has given me perspective and information that I would never have been able to learn from reading the case or the studies on the machine.