When it comes to drunk driving, there is a range of different punishments that can be given for the offense. It is helpful, if you or someone you know is involved in a drunk driving incident, that you know what sort of punishment you might be up against. For those that are in need of help, great DUI Lawyers at Panella Law Firm can help.
What Constitutes Drunk Driving?
Not all drinking and driving can be counted as drunk driving and can be punished. There is a legal limit, or a blood alcohol amount that you can legally have that is not considered drunk. The legal limit across most states in the United States of America is 0.08% blood alcohol by volume. That means that if a blood sample were to be taken from you, no matter what amount, the total percentage of that sample that is alcohol, would be equal to, or less than 0.08%.
This is a threshold that is put in place to ensure that no one drives drunk and that there is a standard that law enforcement is able to refer to when they make arrests based on drinking and driving. This threshold is what experts have agreed upon in terms of where the person becomes impaired and is no longer safe to be on the road.
What is the Punishment for Drunk Driving?
There is no easy way to answer this question as there is a range of factors that do come into play when determining the overall charge. The basic answer is that you can either get jail time, probation or have your license taken until you get into a program or for a predetermined amount of time.
The first and most common punishment is time in jail while you sober up followed by points off of your license and possible deferral to an alcohol recovery program. There are factors that do make a difference when it comes to the creation of a sentence for drunk driving. The first factor that does come into play is if you caused any damage to property or injury to people when you were drunk driving. This can add other charges to your drunk driving charges like reckless endangerment, property damage, and more.
Another factor that comes into play is how many times you have been in trouble and how many times you have been arrested for drunk driving. The overall amount of alcohol in your system has less to do with the overall sentence as any amount of the legal limit is considered to be illegal. If you are a repeat offender, you might end up getting a harsher sentence.
If you are a repeat offender and you caused property damage or injured another person, your sentence is going to be much harsher than if it is your first offense and you have not done anything prior. You can be sentenced to jail time if the offense is serious enough. You can also be fined; you might have your license suspended until you have completed an alcohol treatment program, or you might be sentenced to community service and parole until such a time that you are deemed fit.
No matter what your overall feeling in the matter are, drunk driving is a very serious offense that can kill people and that can injure you and your property as well. It is important that if you are caught drunk driving, that you do get in touch with an attorney and see what your options are. A drunk driving charge is a bit more difficult to prosecute than you might think and the attorney, judge, and the court do have a bit of work to figure out what is going to work best and how to accurately prosecute and how to accurately sentence the issue based on what information they have and what happened.
When To Hire an Attorney?
Hiring an attorney is a great idea if you are in any legal trouble. Your attorney is going to be able to help you figure out what your possible sentence might be, figure out what you can do and how to proceed. An attorney is going to know what you can do to get your sentence reduced, how to work with the court to figure out how to get the best outcome possible.
Attorneys are also going to be able to help you talk with the court, handle your sentence, and figure out how to best proceed so that you can get past your sentencing. Drunk driving is something that is going to stay on your record and that can make it hard to move on with your life. With the help of a great attorney, you can get past your conviction, and you can work to get better and come to terms with what you have done.
With the help of a great attorney, you can also get the right sentence that is actually going to help you get ahead and is actually going to help you get past your drunk driving charge. Drunk driving is something that can be avoided, but in cases when it does happen, a good attorney is going to be able to guide you through the process, guide you through any possible treatments that you might need and punishments and come out better on the other side.
