Washington Judge Orders Datamaster Software Code
As I reported here regarding a recent Florida case, the quest to obtain the software code behind the curtain of most breath test machines has started to pick up steam. In the Florida case, the deadline for turning over the code passed yesterday, and no code materialized. Accordingly, the defense is moving for sanctions today, specifically requesting suppression of the test results.
In some very welcome news, a Washington state judge has now followed suit and issued a Subpoena Duces Tecum ordering National Patent (manufacturers of the popular Datamaster) to produce the software code inside their machine. The subpoena has already been served on National Patent and a betting pool has commenced on whether or not they’ll comply or challenge the subpoena outright. This is an exciting development here in my home state, and I’ll continue covering the results as they develop.
Of course, if I were a betting man, I’d bet on more litigation before anyone is reading code.
RP
November 25th, 2005 at 9:54 am
Haven’t been abe to locate any specifics of this case. What is the name of case and court presiding? Thanks
December 11th, 2005 at 1:29 am
I don’t have the name of the case handy, but it was in Okanogan County. I spoke with Jon Fox on Friday and he told me that they got what they asked for; the source code is in their hands. They’re trying to arrange for an expert to look it over now to see what the code actually does. I’ll report here on whatever I learn, and will ask Jon for the case and judge.
December 14th, 2005 at 11:04 pm
[…] I reported here recently about a Washington state case in which a court had ordered National Patent to turn over the software source code used in their Datamaster EPROM. I spoke to Jon Fox, a prominent Seattle area DUI lawyer handling the case, and he told me that the company actually surprised him and everyone else by turning over the code! I’ll post here whatever more I learn about this developing issue. […]
February 25th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Any preliminary findings from review of Datamaster source code etc.
Any further insight or resources regarding progression of case would be greatly appreciated!
March 8th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
I haven’t heard an update from the lawyers involved. I’ll ping them and report results here when I hear from them. I’m very interested myself in finding out what they’ve done. The last word I heard from them was that after being surprised to actually *get* the code, they were now in the position of having to figure out what to *do* with it!
April 5th, 2006 at 6:33 am
Is there an update available on this case? Defendant name? I’m a final term law student working on a project and following this issue through a handful of cases across the country. Any info would be greatly appreciated!
April 20th, 2006 at 10:29 am
Sorry for the delayed response, but yes, there is an update of sorts. I’ve spoken with counsel for the defendant in this case and they’ve advised me that forensic software analysis is currently underway but there are no results yet. When I hear the results of the analysis I’ll write up a follow up post. Good luck on your project.
RP