Please note that this is a draft version, dated January 17, 2014.
Driving while impaired and several related criminal offenses involving the consumption of alcohol or other impairing substances are categorized under North Carolina law as implied consent offenses. When a person is charged with or arrested for an implied consent offense, the officer may require the person to undergo chemical testing for purposes of detecting the presence of alcohol and other impairing substances and measuring their concentration. If a person refuses to submit to such testing, the person’s license may be administratively revoked and the refusal may be considered as substantive evidence of his or her guilt of the underlying criminal charges. This chapter reviews the statutory scheme governing the chemical analysis of a person’s breath or other bodily fluids in an implied consent case as well as the legal theory of implied consent.
Faculty Coordinators
