NO ONE GIVES YOU A FILING CHECKLIST WHEN INTERLOCK IS ORDERED BY A JUDGE… unless you read this! Here is what happens. When the ignition interlock device is ordered by the Judge and installed on your car, you leave the court house with case number and with a time frame to start a program and you get a print out with some info on your case. In approximately month 3 something goes wrong with your monitoring. It might be a missed calibration, it might be some test reading flagged as a violation that was disputed and never even a question asked about it, or even worse your monitoring authority starts to ask lots of questions about your compliance. You start to frantically look through your e-mails from past few months and go through receipts that you kept for proof that you had completed a task on time and in good faith. However even the best of us can miss a calendar date for rescheduling of calibration.
The interlock device is monitoring your behavior while you are driving. The information collected by the interlock device and the vendor of the interlock device as well as the state is their property. On the other hand, your documentation of your driving and the interlock device is your property. In many cases this information will not support the information that the vendor and state have collected about your behavior.
The documents that actually matter
I know of a few pieces of documentation that will hopefully be of use to new and existing interlock users alike. They are obvious really, but when installed with an interlock, lots of people have a tendency to dump tons of stuff in a storage closet and never look
- Installation confirmation paperwork. The date, the service center, the device serial number. If your program start date is ever questioned, this is your anchor, the fixed point everything else rotates around.
- Every calibration receipt. Keep physical copies and photograph them. Calibrations are typically required every 30 to 60 days depending on your state, and a missed appointment is a violation whether or not you knew you were running late.
- Service center communication. Emails, text confirmations, appointment reminders, any of it. These matter enormously if you ever need to demonstrate that you showed up on time and the vendor dropped the ball, not the other way around.
- Monitoring authority correspondence. Letters, emails, notices, anything from your court or DMV. Keep these in a single folder, dated and in order, like a small archive of your own legal life.
A woman recently told me that she had a “violation” flag put on her driving record because her interlock was calibrated 4 days late. She had rescheduled the service appointment because a huge storm had hit the area and the service center where she got her interlock was closed. She had emails that supported her late calibration, and the flag was removed. I still remember this story because the woman did a Gmail search and found the emails in a matter of seconds. How would her situation have ended if she didn’t have those emails to support her late calibration?
Disputed test results: why your own notes matter more than you’d expect
False positives do occur with the interlock device from time to time. The interlock can sometimes pick up the residue from certain foods, some mouthwashes, or even some of your prescribed medications. These readings are typically short-lived and could result in an elevated reading that would be recorded as a violation. The recorded violation would then be sent to your monitoring authority as a potential violation until the interlock service provider can investigate the matter further.
This is a pet peeve of mine when a monitor seems to be wrong in apparently counting a “violation” and thereby apparently wrongly penalizing a license holder in an interlock program. Interlock programs are apparently for people who have been convicted of a DUI offense for which they apparently were unable to drive safely while they were intoxicated with alcohol. And so, apparently, they had a problem with alcohol and, through their DUI case, were forced by a judge to have an interlock system put on their car(s) or cars in order to regain the right to drive. The interlock system must track all of the test results from the device(s) and all of the calibrations of the device(s).
Log all unusual circumstances or practices that could affect your readings. Write down the date and a brief description of the event. The time to write this down is only 30 seconds after the event. An example of unusual circumstances to record would be taking sugary energy drinks prior to morning tests or having a dental procedure.
(There’s also something psychologically useful about the habit of a log. For some reason, keeping track of your interlock tests makes you more aware of when you have eaten sugary food and drink. This in turn makes you more aware of when you’ve taken any new medicine and even when you have had a dental procedure. The log in itself is probably a waste of time (after the first month or so), but the habit of keeping a log is probably worth something.)
Program-specific requirements vary more than you’d think
Different programs have different expectations for what documentation you will need. The Virginia interlock program—such as the VASAP interlock in Harrisonburg, Virginia—is run by the state’s alcohol safety program, VASAP (Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program). As with many such programs, there can be considerable variation in practice between different service centers, case managers and local courts. Even in the same city different people will have very different ideas of what documentation you will need to bring to a check-in and so it is always a good idea to check with your local case manager and also with the service centers to find out what they will need. It is always better to err on the side of caution and seek extra documentation if you are unsure whether you have enough.
| Record type | What it protects against | How long to keep it |
| Installation paperwork | Disputes over program start date | Entire program duration, plus one year after |
| Calibration receipts | Missed or late service allegations | Entire program duration |
| Test result printouts | Disputed violations or false positives | At least six months after each result |
| Correspondence with monitoring authority | Miscommunication or missed notice claims | Entire program, plus two years after |
| Personal daily log | Context for unusual readings | As long as the program runs |
Start organizing before you need to
Start a folder for the paperwork as soon as you install the interlock device. Make it a file folder on your desk, or a computer folder on your computer, whichever you prefer. Start filling it with all of the papers as soon as you receive them. Many of the papers will be thermal printed papers. The ink in these types of papers can fade quickly. Within a few months the ink may fade so much that the information on the papers will not be readable. Take a photo of these papers with your cell phone as soon as possible to preserve the information. In addition to the above, be sure to scan copies of any paper receipts to your computer as well.
I cannot stress enough to those that have allowed months to go by without keeping track of their interlock’s maintenance to go back to the service providers for the past calibrations and retrieve records for the service provider. Most interlock service providers are able to access a calendar view of a device’s maintenance for the last 6-12 months, provide records of past calibrations, and even download a log of a vehicle’s interlock usage. It is so much easier to get these records when there is no sense of urgency or being asked to retrieve such documents under duress.
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What records can’t do, and what they can
Keep in mind that records cannot remove violations from your driving record. Records may be able to explain violations; therefore, it is very important to keep accurate documentation to reference during uncertain times when you are a program participant. The biggest danger in this area of interlock compliance is that records become a participant’s “passport” to avoiding any trouble.
However, good documentation can be very helpful in the rare instance where a dispute arises with your monitoring authority. In many interlock programs, the line between being in compliance and not in compliance can be very fine. So having good documentation of your compliance can prove to your case manager that you are complying with the terms and conditions of your interlock program, and that your monitoring authority incorrectly flagged you for a violation.
