My newest article “The Admissibility of Post-Accident Drug and Alcohol Screens” has been published in the Fall 2016 edition of the Alabama Defense Lawyers Association Journal. The article addresses federally-mandated drug and alcohol testing for motor carriers and commercial drivers following certain motor vehicle accidents, and the methods by which the results of those screens may or may not be admitted as evidence in litigation.

Collisions involving commercial motor vehicles are commonly significant enough to trigger the requirement, under certain circumstances, that a post-accident drug or alcohol screen be undertaken by the commercial driver. The question may later arise whether the results of the federally mandated drug and alcohol screen are admissible as evidence during litigation. It is therefore incumbent on defense counsel to know under what circumstances urine drug and alcohol screen results can either be put into or kept out of evidence, and even if admissible, what the results mean.

The full article can be read at the ADLA website, here (p. 40-43).