The East Central Illinois Criminal Law & DUI Weblog

Is it possible for the State get the medical records of a person arrested for DUI?  Yes.  A recent Illinois Appellate Court case from the Fourth District, People v. Popeck (.pdf), addresses this situation.  In Popeck, the DUI defendant was involved in a car accident and transported to a hospital.  The State wanted to subpoena the defendant’s medical records for the treatment he received on the day of the accident.  The Appellate Court stated that there was statutory authority for the hospital to release the information sought by the State.  Having decided this, the Court went on to decide “whether the State’s request for all of defendant’s medical records for the day he was treated for injuries acquired in the accident was overly broad.”  The Court, in a divided opinion,  decided that the subpoena by the State “was sufficiently limited in scope” to avoid being overly broad.  It suggested that a request for all of the defendant’s medical records would have been overbroad.  The dissenting justice thought that the subpoena was overbroad.

Jeremy Richey