Subpoena for Medical Records in a DUI Investigation

What should you do if you receive a letter in the mail putting you on notice that a prosecutor with the State Attorney’s Office in Hillsborough County wants to subpoena your medical records during a pending DUI investigation?

You might get this kind of letter if you were involved in a traffic accident that resulted in a trip to the hospital. During your medical treatment after the car crash, a nurse at the hospital likely took your blood.

Your medical records show your blood alcohol concentration and the presence of any controlled substances.

An officer might have questioned you at the hospital. The officer might have asked you to submit to a legal blood draw so that the sample could be sent to the crime lab for analysis.

Even if you didn’t submit to the legal blood draw, the nurse might have told the officer that your medical records showed your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was over the legal limit of .08.

Based on that information, the officer might turn the case over to the State Attorney’s Office to get your medical records and initiate crime charges.

If the prosecutor does not submit a legal blood sample to the crime lab, then the next best thing is that notation in your medical records of the BAC level.

The prosecutor can attempt to use that notation in the medical records as evidence that you were driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol or drugs.

Many of these cases involve an additional allegation that your driving caused or contributed to a crash causing property damage, non-serious personal injury, serious bodily injury, or even death.

Hospital and medical records are documents that routinely reflect profoundly personal and sensitive data. Your medical records are confidential.

For this reason, any intrusion into your privacy by obtaining your medical records can only meet constitutional muster when the state can demonstrate a “compelling state interest.”

If you were served with a Notice of Issuance of Subpoena Duces Tecum for Medical Records or the proposed Investigative Subpoena, then act quickly to file an objection within the 15-day period.

If you miss that 15-day deadline, the state will have a much easier time getting your medical or hospital records and using them against you.

Seek out the services of an experienced criminal defense attorney who can help you fight the 15-day objection. An attorney can help you file the objection within the 15-day deadline and raise the appropriate substantive and procedural issues.

Once the objection is received by the prosecutor with the State Attorney’s Office in Hillsborough County, FL, the prosecutor will schedule an evidentiary hearing in front of the judge (often called the “Hunter Hearing”).

An attorney can also represent you at this hearing with the goal of getting the judge to deny the prosecutor’s request for the subpoena.

Attorney to Fight the Request for a Medical Records Subpoena in Tampa, FL

If you received a “Notice of Issuance of an Investigative Subpoena for Medical Records” or a “HIPAA 15-day letter for Blood Alcohol Content” then contact an experienced DUI defense attorney in Tampa, FL, at the Sammis Law Firm.

We can help you file an objection to the subpoena showing all the reasons why the prosecutor’s request should be denied. We can also represent you at a “Hunter Hearing” or any appeal taken by the state if the judge denies their request.

If the judge grants the request after the hearing, we can also help you appeal that decision to a higher court.

Over the years, we have represented clients successfully in many “Hunter Hearings” throughout Hillsborough County, FL, and the surrounding areas including Hernando County, Pasco County, Pinellas County, and Polk County.

We have also represented clients when the state appealed the trial court’s decision to deny the request for a subpoena.

Winning the Hunter Hearing is an important step toward preventing the prosecutor from being able to file criminal charges against you.

Depending on the facts of the case, those criminal charges might include a misdemeanor DUI, DUI with property damage, felony DUI with serious bodily injury, or even DUI manslaughter. If you received a notice, act quickly.

Our DUI defense attorneys in Tampa, FL, are particularly experienced in fighting these types of DUI cases involving a blood test reading showing the presence of alcohol or controlled substances in the body.

Call 813-250-0500 today.