The refusal of a person to submit to a test of the alcohol or drug concentration in the person's breath under RCW 46.20.308 is admissible into evidence at a subsequent criminal trial. The refusal of a person to submit to a test of the person's blood is admissible into evidence at a subsequent criminal trial when a search warrant, or an exception to the search warrant, authorized the seizure.
RCW 46.61.517
Refusal of tests—Admissibility as evidence.
Applied in 15 court decisions — leading case 105 Wash. 2d 278 - State v. Whitman County District Court (1986)
Most recently applied in City of Fircrest v. Jensen (October 2006)
2017 c 336 s 10; 2001 c 142 s 1; 1987 c 373 s 5; 1986 c 64 s 2; 1985 c 352 s 21; 1983 c 165 s 27.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.