You can talk to a lawyer before you take the test. Here's exactly what that right covers.

What the officer has to tell you

Before a breath test, Minnesota law requires the officer to read an implied-consent advisory. The statute spells out what it must say, including this:

"that the person has the right to consult with an attorney, but that this right is limited to the extent that it cannot unreasonably delay administration of the test."

Minn. Stat. § 169A.51, subd. 2(3)

The advisory also tells you that Minnesota law requires you to take the test, and that refusing a breath test is a crime.

Where the right comes from

In Friedman v. Commissioner of Public Safety (1991), the Minnesota Supreme Court held that the state constitution gives a driver a limited right to a reasonable amount of time to try to reach a lawyer by telephone before deciding whether to submit to testing. The court said the right is honored when you are given a telephone and a reasonable time to use it. Whether the time was "reasonable" depends on all the circumstances, not a stopwatch — courts have treated roughly twenty to thirty minutes of genuine effort as typical, but that is a pattern, not a rule.

What it means in practice

• Ask clearly. "I want to talk to a lawyer before I decide." Say it before you answer the test question.
• Use the time to call, not to argue. The right is to try to reach counsel. Sitting with the phone and not dialing counts against you.
• The Blue Pages is beside the phone for this moment. Featured attorneys in this directory list numbers that are answered around the clock. Find one by county.
• If you can't reach anyone, you still have to decide. The officer can end the attempt after a reasonable time and require an answer. Refusing a breath test is itself a crime (Minn. Stat. § 169A.20, subd. 2); blood and urine tests generally require a warrant, and refusing a warranted test is also a crime.
• Say nothing about the facts. The call is privileged. What you say to the officer, in the squad car, or on a recorded jail phone is not.

What the right is not

It is not a right to have a lawyer present. It is not a right to delay the test until a lawyer arrives. And it applies to the implied-consent decision — it is not a general right to counsel for everything that follows, which has its own rules.