If you are charged with a DUI (driving under the influence), you need to worry about temporarily losing your license, spending time in jail, and paying high fines upon conviction. If you are charged for a DUI with injury, the potential penalties you are facing will be drastically escalated. In many cases, Alabama law considers a DUI with injury a felony that could include several years’ imprisonment, several thousand in fines, and a court order to pay restitution to the injured party.
Factors of the car accident that could make a DUI with injury a felony include:
- Actual extent of injuries to all parties
- Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) record at time of arrest
- Other traffic violations related to the accident (speeding, reckless driving, etc.)
- Your driving and criminal records
Defenses to DUI with Injury Charges
If you were in a devastating car accident, you can’t argue that you weren’t. Despite the added circumstance of someone else sustaining a serious injury, your defense is still going to revolve around whether or not you were intoxicated at the time of the collision. You can consider contesting BAC level results in numerous ways, such as uncalibrated breathalyzer devices or indigestion before testing.
Looking at the situation from another vantage point, you might be better off not arguing that you were sober at all. Instead, you can try to prove that liability for the accident was entirely off your shoulders, even though you were drunk behind the wheel. For example, if you were rear-ended at a red light intersection that you were lawfully stopped at, your BAC shouldn’t matter at all when it comes to liability. This might not be ideal because you could still face conviction for a DUI, but that is much better than a DUI with injury conviction.
Choosing how you approach your DUI with injury defense is crucial and is in no way a simple feat. Be sure to analyze every option carefully, as your future wellbeing, freedom, and driving privileges depend on it. To help avoid serious mistakes, contact Tidwell Law Group, LLC to retain the services of our Birmingham DUI attorney with more than a decade of experience.
