Court Opinion

ID: 9624442
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:03:03.88924+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:46.571151
License: Public Domain

Ruffin, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
Although I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion, I cannot agree with the majority’s decision to overrule and disapprove of several cases, including Kahl v. State,9 relating to the timing of the Georgia implied consent notice.10 In Kahl, we followed prior precedent in noting that “ ‘under ordinary circumstances, the implied consent warning must be given at the time of the arrest, or at a time as close in proximity to the instant of arrest as the circumstances of the individual case might warrant.’ ’’11 Based on this principle, we found valid an implied consent notice read just seconds before a DUI defendant’s formal arrest.12 In so doing, we rejected the defendant’s argument that such notice is proper only if read to a defendant after the formal arrest.13
I agree with the majority that the implied consent notice given to Bryan Handschuh in this case was invalid. A notice read six days before the arrest cannot be characterized as given “at the time of arrest” or close in proximity to the instant of arrest. Such result does not conflict with Kahl. Moreover, the majority correctly finds that, pursuant to our Supreme Court’s decision in Cooper v. State,14 the “serious injuries or fatalities” language in OCGA § 40-5-55 (a) no longer authorizes chemical testing without probable cause.
But, despite reaching these fully supported and dispositive conclusions, the majority goes further. It elects to unnecessarily overrule Kahl and other cases that support the proposition that, in certain circumstances, an implied consent notice read at the time of arrest — but before the moment of formal arrest — is valid. Given the facts of this case, I see no reason for this attack on our precedent. And I cannot agree that the legislature intended the rigid result advocated by the majority, which would invalidate an implied consent warning given only seconds before an arrest.

 268 Ga. App. 879 (602 SE2d 888) (2004).

 See OCGA § 40-5-67.1.

 Supra at 881.

 See id.

 See id.

 277 Ga. 282-283, 290-291 (587 SE2d 605) (2003).