Getting Your Test Results in a New Jersey DWI Case

Attorney Answer

You are entitled to those results — but in a New Jersey municipal court you have to ask for them in writing, and you ask the municipal prosecutor, not the police.

A DWI in New Jersey is a motor-vehicle offense tried in municipal court, so discovery runs under N.J. Ct. R. 7:7-7, not under the Superior Court criminal discovery rule people usually have in mind. Under R. 7:7-7(b), on written request to the municipal prosecutor the defendant shall be provided with copies of all relevant material, including item (4), "results or reports of physical or mental examinations and of scientific tests or experiments made in connection with the matter or copies of these results or reports, that are within the possession, custody or control of the prosecuting attorney." That covers your breath test result and the laboratory report on your blood.

Two things about that rule explain why nothing has happened so far. Municipal court discovery is not automatic — unlike Superior Court, nothing arrives on its own, so waiting produces nothing. And the obligation runs to the municipal prosecutor, so requests made to the police department are being made to the wrong office.

One more point worth knowing, because it is the opposite of most states: New Jersey does not run a separate motor-vehicle-agency case alongside the DWI charge. There is no administrative hearing you can miss and no separate agency deadline here — the licence consequence, if any, comes from the municipal court judge on a conviction. Everything happens in the one case.

On your second question, about your child's father: in New Jersey "domestic violence" is not itself a criminal charge. The criminal case is charged as the underlying offense — simple assault, for example — while the domestic-violence label does its work in the separate restraining-order case in the Family Part. So a charge that reads "simple assault" does not mean police declined to treat the incident as domestic violence.

What you can do

1. Send a written discovery request to the municipal prosecutor for the municipality where your case is listed — not to the police department — citing R. 7:7-7(b)(4) and asking specifically for the breath test result printout, the laboratory report on your blood, and any related scientific test reports. 2. Keep a dated copy of the request and proof of how you sent it. 3. Ask the prosecutor's office what, if anything, it charges for copies, so a fee dispute does not stall you. 4. Bring the request and any response to your first court date and tell the judge you have not received discovery. Adjournments for outstanding discovery are ordinary and expected. 5. Ask the prosecutor which theory the State is proceeding on. A 0.00 breath reading with a negative blood screen means the case is not about alcohol concentration, so you need to know what it is about before your court date.