DUIs With Injuries – The Basics Every California Driver Needs To Know

Any accident is serious, doubly so if someone was injured. But the nightmare scenario for most clients is being accused of causing the accident. If the police believe you may have been drunk or on drugs and responsible for the accident, their wrath, and the wrath of the criminal justice system will be swift and terrible, and you will soon be under arrest.

Even if you are deeply remorseful about what happened, it is important to protect your rights and freedoms after such an arrest. If you are under arrest right now in Marin County or anywhere in California, you should immediately call (415) 520-6815 to reach DUI defense lawyer Aaron Bortel. If you just want to learn more about California’s laws and punishments regarding DUIs with bodily injuries, keep reading, and you will soon see why it is so important to get an experienced lawyer on your side quickly.

What Difference Do Injuries Make During A DUI Arrest?

Any criminal conviction is quite serious, but the possible consequences for a DUI are far more severe if you caused an accident with injuries. The exact consequences, from the loss of your license to the criminal penalties, will depend on what (if anything) you are convicted of.

What Can You Be Charged With If Your DUI Accident Caused Injuries?

When the DA’s office decides on your charge, and when the cops decide what to arrest you for at the scene of the accident, two of the main things they look at are your state of sobriety/impairment and the injuries involved in the accident.

Typically, in accidents with serious bodily injury, if the DA can prove the elements of the case against you, then you are probably looking at a charge of DUI with bodily injury. Depending on the details and circumstances, this can be a felony or a misdemeanor charge.

Is A DUI With Bodily Injury A Felony Or Misdemeanor Charge In Marin County?

Whether a DUI with bodily injury is considered a felony or misdemeanor charge is up to the District Attorney. In Marin County, the DA’s decisions usually depend on the severity of the injuries involved.

For instance, I have seen many cases charged as misdemeanors where the injured parties only had soft tissue injuries and minor cuts. However, when the injuries get more severe, they almost always charge the DUI as a felony. It doesn’t take much for the DA’s Office to re-book a case and change the charging decision from a misdemeanor to a felony.

Now, just because you are charged with a felony by the DA’s Office doesn’t mean you will always be convicted of a felony. Your DUI defense attorney can sometimes get that charge or its penalties reduced. There are also other factors involved, such as your background, your record, and what you do in the many months (sometimes years) between the incident and the conclusion of the case.

How Much Jail Time Can I Get For A DUI With Injury In Marin County?

The amount of jail time you may face for a DUI with injury in Marin County depends on the details of your case.

If the injuries involved were minor, like a soft tissue injury or a small cut, and the charges remain in the misdemeanor range, you will typically be looking at no jail time (though if you do face jail time, you will only face a maximum of one year).

If the DUI with injury leads to felony charges, then you may be looking at jail time, but how much time depends on the exact charges involved, how serious the injuries were, and whether or not you are convicted.

For instance, if someone dies because of the accident and you wind up convicted of second-degree murder, you will likely be facing a jail term of 15 years to life. However, most DUIs with injury come with lower sentencing, though there is the potential for additional sentencing enhancements. If multiple people were injured, for example, there is the potential for up to three years of additional time tacked on (which is known as “multiple victim enhancement”).

There are many layers that go into deciding what the maximum sentencing will be for a case like this, and even more into determining how much jail time you actually receive.

What If The Person Injured In The Accident Was My Passenger?

It is important to remember that you can be charged for a DUI with bodily injury if the person injured in the accident was your passenger.

Generally, the DA will not charge you with a more serious DUI if you were the only person who was injured in the accident. However, if anyone else was injured, whether it was a driver/passenger in another car, or a bystander, or even someone else in your car, then they likely will charge you with the more serious DUI with bodily injury.

For example, if you have three passengers in your car, they are all injured, and the injuries are serious enough, you could be charged with three multiple victim enhancements. It should be noted that multiple victim enhancements stop at three: even if there were five people seriously injured in the accident, you would only get three years of additional multiple victim enhancement sentencing.

What Will Happen To My Driver’s License After A DUI With Injury Arrest?

As part of the process of being arrested for any DUI, including those with injuries, the DMV will usually suspend your driver’s license. In cases involving at least one serious bodily injury, the suspension usually lasts for a minimum of a year. The suspension can last longer, depending on many different factors.

What If I Need To Drive To Work Or Care For My Family?

Even in many felony cases these days, there is also a possibility that the DMV will not suspend your license and will instead opt to install an ignition interlock device in your car. This was not the case in the past, but the law has eased up.

The legislature in California changed the law because they understand that even if someone loses their license, even if they have no license at all, they are probably still going to drive. It is just an unavoidable truth that in many parts of California; you need to drive in order to survive.

With the interlock device, we can at least ensure that when someone drives, they will be sober.

Of course, ignition interlock devices cannot account for drugs, but they do dramatically decrease the amount of driving a person can do while drunk. It is understood that someone is a lot more likely to drive sober if they have an interlock device installed, as a reminder and an enforcer not to drink and drive.

As such, the law has really opened up and allowed even people with multiple DUI convictions or felony DUI convictions to retain their license so long as they install an ignition interlock device.

However, they don’t decide to do this for everyone. The Court has discretion here; they can just as easily decide to suspend a person’s license for a long period of time, or even indefinitely. In cases with severe injuries, we have seen the Courts simply ban defendants from driving for 5 years or even 10 years. This is a huge amount of time to be without a car, especially if you live somewhere where public transportation is not an option.

Every case is different. However, the more severe your case, the more likely you are to have a longer suspension of your license and/or installation of an ignition interlock device.

Whatever the circumstances of your case, if you were in a DUI accident that caused an injury, you absolutely need to get the best Marin County DUI defense lawyer you can find. Taking this step will be a big help in reducing the duration of your license suspension and in getting the lightest sentence possible if you do get convicted.

For more information on Accident With Serious Bodily Injury In Marin County, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling San Rafael, CA (415) 520-7182 | San Francisco, CA (415) 520-6815 today.