Greensboro DWI Attorneys Contest HGN tests daily in DWI Trials.

Greensboro DWI Attorneys Contest HGN tests daily in DWI Trials.

 

New developments give us hope.

In 2011 the legislature amended N.C.G.S. 8C-1, Rule 702(a) to conform (mostly) to the language of the Federal Rule 702. Though there was initially some question of whether this made North Carolina a Daubert state, that was put to bed in State v. McGrady when our Supreme Court affirmed such a decision by the Court of Appeals (753 S.E.2d 361) (in a case that, interestingly, began with a trial in front of Judge Albright in Wilkes County).

Though a later section, N.C.G.S. 8C-1, Rule 702(a1) was left unchanged, the fact that it begins with “[a] witness, qualified under subsection (a) of this section and with proper foundation, may give expert testimony” means that the adoption of Daubert likely destroyed previous analyses of the legitimacy of testimony under that rule since the adoption of Daubert is incorporated by reference into that section of the rule. Crucially, the change does not apply only to HGN testimony, but also to anyone delivering an opinion that “a person was under the influence of one or more impairing substances, and the category of such impairing substance or substances” though in the latter case trained and currently certified DREs are explicitly permitted to deliver such testimony (so DREs just became way more important).

The next post, on Wednesday, will show how complex this issue has become, and how it will help top rated Greensboro DWI attorneys Garrett, Walker, Aycoth and Olson to win your DWI trial.