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Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 23 Sec. 1204

  • Alcohol: includes alcohol, malt beverages, spirits, fortified wines, and vinous beverages, as defined in 7 V. See
  • Alcohol concentration: means

  • Drug: means :

  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
  • Person: includes any natural person, corporation, association, co-partnership, company, firm, or other aggregation of individuals. See
  • Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
  • Vehicle: means a motor vehicle as defined in section 4 of this title and, when on a public highway:

§ 1204. Permissive inferences

(a) Upon the trial of any civil or criminal action or proceeding arising out of acts alleged to have been committed by a person while operating, attempting to operate, or in actual physical control of a vehicle on a highway, the person’s alcohol concentration shall give rise to the following permissive inferences:

(1) If the person’s alcohol concentration at that time was less than 0.08, such fact shall not give rise to any presumption or permissive inference that the person was or was not under the influence of alcohol, but such fact may be considered with other competent evidence in determining whether the person was under the influence of alcohol.

(2) If the person’s alcohol concentration at that time was 0.08 or more, it shall be a permissive inference that the person was under the influence of alcohol in violation of subdivision 1201(a)(2) or (3) of this title.

(3) If the person’s alcohol concentration at any time within two hours of the alleged offense was 0.10 or more, it shall be a permissive inference that the person was under the influence of alcohol in violation of subdivision 1201(a)(2) or (3) of this title.

(b) The foregoing provisions shall not be construed as limiting the introduction of any other competent evidence bearing upon the question whether the person was under the influence of alcohol or under the combined influence of alcohol and another drug, nor shall they be construed as requiring that evidence of the amount of alcohol or drug in the person’s blood, breath, urine, or saliva must be presented. (Added 1969, No. 267 (Adj. Sess.), § 4; amended 1973, No. 79, § 4, eff. May 23, 1973; 1981, No. 103, § 5; 1987, No. 244 (Adj. Sess.); 1991, No. 55, § 5; 2017, No. 83, § 161(4); 2019, No. 164 (Adj. Sess.), § 26, eff. Oct. 7, 2020.)