Rising BAC

In Mississippi it is against the law to have a blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) over .08 when you are driving.  WHEN you are DRIVING.  Not WHEN you are TESTED.  It can often take more than an hour after you are stopped before you are tested.  It almost goes without saying that your BAC will be different when you are tested than when you were driving.  The question then becomes whether your BAC was falling at the time of the test, indicating that you were way over the limit while you were driving, or rising, indicating that it might have been lower than the legal limit while you were driving.

As you know, alcohol is absorbed by your body through your stomach and small intestine, and it doesn’t happen immediately.  And everyone is different when it comes to alcohol absorption, depending on size, sex, body fat, etc.  In general, and depending on how much alcohol and food is consumed, and how fast you consumed them, it takes between 30 minutes and 3 hours for alcohol to be absorbed into your system.  So when someone comes to see me with a BAC of anywhere from .08 to .11, or in that range, I always analyze the timeframe of the stop, and other factors that may support a rising BAC defense.