Guide to Finding Michigan DUI Lawyer

Michigan drivers who are pulled over for driving while intoxicated are at high risk of strict judicial punishments. Drunk driving charges are more than embarrassing: they are liable to lose you your driver’s license, your job, even your freedom. As soon as you get a DUI-like charge, call a Michigan DUI lawyer right away and figure out what your options are.

Michigan DUI Laws

No matter what state you are living in, it’s illegal to drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol. In Michigan, those accused of doing so may hire a Michigan DUI lawyer. That said, it should be carefully noted that there is no such thing as a DUI charge in Michigan. Those lawyers referred to as “Michigan DUI lawyers” or “MI DUI lawyers” can’t actually help clients fight literal DUI charges. In reality, MI DUI lawyers are familiar with the following laws, which Michigan does have written in its books and which drives can be charged with:

• Operating while Visibly Impaired (OWVI)—If a police offer pulls a driver over because their reckless driving clearly reveals them to be impaired, then that driver can be charged with “Operating while visibly impaired.”

• Operating While Intoxicated (OWI)—This law carries with it more severe fines than Operating while Visibly Impaired. Here, the police officer will have pulled you over for any number of reasons not necessarily related to visible signs of drunkenness, from a broken tail light to improper passing, but will then conclude that a bodily alcohol content test should be administered. Within this law, there are three divisions of seriousness:

• You drove with a bodily alcohol content of at or above .08.

• You drove with a bodily alcohol content of at or above .17.

• Any amount of alcohol or drugs impaired your ability to drive, meaning that you can be legally charged with drunk driving even if you don’t meet either of the legal standards for drunkenness.

• Operating with Any Presence of a Schedule 1 Drug or Cocaine—The DEA groups drugs based on an essentially arbitrary system of schedules. Schedule 1 drugs are said to be those with no accepted medical use, though this isn’t essentially true in some cases. Schedule 1 drugs include heroin, LSD, marijuana, and ecstasy. Cocaine is considered a Schedule 2 drug, meaning that it has some medical uses, but drivers are held to the same standard for driving under its influence as they would if under a Schedule 1 drug.

• Under Age 21 Operating With Any Bodily Alcohol Content—You cannot legally ever have a bodily alcohol content if you are under 21 unless the alcohol was imbibed during a religious ceremony, and punishment is more severe if you are found to have driven after imbibing alcohol.

What does a Michigan DUI Lawyer Do?

Michigan OWI and OWVI cases are difficult to disprove in a court. However, an experienced MI DUI lawyer can help you get the best outcome from this unfortunate circumstance.

In many cases, a breathalyzer test or a Bodily Alcohol Content test is all that is needed in order to prove an OWI or OWVI. However, if both tests are administered and the results conflict, this could be basis for a case dismissal. Furthermore, if test results only show marginal intoxication and the driver was not visibly intoxicated, dismissal is also possible if you’re working with a good Michigan DUI lawyer.

Other defensive avenues open to a Michigan DUI lawyer include linking the driving arrest to a preexisting health condition. If the client was under a legal pharmaceutical at the time, this could confuse the prosecutor’s case. Other conditions such as diabetes have been used in the past by MI DUI lawyers to get OWI cases dismissed. A MI DUI lawyer may also try to confuse the police officer who conducted the traffic stop to prove that there was no legal basis for the traffic stop.

Of course, in many cases not even the best Michigan DUI lawyers could get their clients a not-guilty verdict. For these clients, a MI DUI lawyer may still have proven a great investment because the lawyer managed to decrease their client’s eventual sentence, either through a well negotiated plea bargain or through smart legal reasoning.

OWI VS. OWVI

One of the more common ways that a Michigan DUI lawyer can help their client in fighting a drunk driving charge is getting the charge lowered from Operating while Impaired to Operating while Visibly Impaired. While logic doesn’t necessarily dictate that Operating while Visibly Impaired should be a less serious crime than Operating while Impaired—after all, doesn’t it seem more dangerous to be obviously driving in an impaired manner than to be doing so conspicuously?—the law recognizes Operating while Visibly Impaired as less severe since it doesn’t necessarily imply a bodily alcohol content.

If your MI DUI lawyer gets a charge lowered to Operating while Visibly Impaired, the penalty is still severe: Both carry up to 90 days in prison or 360 hours of community service with several fines. For drivers charged with Operating while Visibly Impaired there is also license restrictions, 2 annual payments of $500, and 4 added points to a license. However, for drivers with Operating while Intoxicated charges, there is a license suspension, annual payments of $100, and 6 added points.

Finding a MI DUI Lawyer

There are plenty of Michigan DUI lawyers ready to help you clear your name in court, but sometimes it takes a little know-how to find them. One resource you may wish to take advantage of is the National College for DUI Defense which is a professional organization for lawyers who specialize in DUI defense. Their website features a directory of members who practice in the state of Michigan.Additionally, a referral service may prove beneficial for your use. These services match callers with MI DUI lawyers based on the client’s needs, including geographic and financial. For a list of referral services available in the state of Michigan.