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Driving Under the Influence of Drugs

California has strict laws when it comes to driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Drugs, as defined by California law, include anything other than alcohol that may affect a person’s brain, muscles or nervous system. It is considered driving under the influence if a drug, prescription or otherwise, affects your ability to drive like a sober person.

The District Attorney may file criminal charges for driving under the influence of prescription drugs, over the counter drugs or illicit drugs. This is often surprising to my clients when they come to me with proof of a legal prescription. What I explain to my clients is that just because you have a doctor’s prescription to take a certain drug, that does not make it ok to drive while you are under the influence of that prescription drug. There are many types of medication that have an affect on our thinking, seeing and motor skills. For this reason, people are advised not to drive when taking certain types of medication.

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Defending a DUI in Orange County is a specialized field of law, which requires an experienced defense lawyer. Understanding the science associated with blood alcohol testing, as well as understanding evidentiary law, combined with criminal and constitutional law, is of key importance when defending someone who has been charged with driving under the influence. Equally as important, is understanding the rules and guidelines that the Orange County law enforcement agencies must adhere to when stopping and ultimately arresting someone.

An attorney who possesses these qualifications will have a good understanding of how to uncover the weaknesses in the evidence and in the prosecution’s case. Every arrest and every DUI case is different, but an aggressive DUI defense lawyer will always strive to minimize the impact that a DUI has on a person’s life, in every case. The focus should always be to attempt to reduce the charges or have them dropped altogether.

While some DUI cases are fairly simple and straightforward, there are those that are more complicated and require review and examination by a good DUI defense attorney in order to determine what, if anything can be done to minimize the negative impact that the arrest, and potential conviction, may bring.

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When you hear the word “enhancement”, it sound like a good thing. But when you are talking about enhancement as it relates to a DUI sentence, it means that the potential sentence may be enhanced, meaning additional penalties.

An enhancement adds additional penalties to a dui penalty due to some other factor associated with the dui incident. Here are some situations, which may cause an enhancement:

  1. If you refuse to submit to a blood alcohol test after you have been arrested, the District Attorney may add an enhancement, which could result in additional jail time or higher fees and fines.
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There is an interesting case out of Livingston County where a man was arrested and charged with DUI and then the case later dismissed.  According to the article, the man was involved in an accident and asked to take a breathalyzer test at the scene.  This, after the officer at the scene said he smelled alcohol on the man’s breath.  The man refused and was arrested, taken to the police station, booked and blood drawn.  Apparently, in Livingston County, once someone is arrested and the case submitted to the District Attorney, they must go ahead and file formal charges.  This is unfortunate for the individual in this situation because, even though it was later proved that he was not DUI, he now has an arrest on his record and a history of having a DUI filed in Court.   It is the right of any individual to refuse to take a roadside breath test and to refuse to submit to a field sobriety test.  However, when someone refuses, it usually results in being arrested and taken to the station where you are then required by law to submit to blood, breath or urine testing.  So as is the case with this individual, his blood results did prove that he was not DUI, but he was then faced with having the arrest and charges on his record.

In California, and more specifically Orange County, the District Attorney will usually wait until the results of the blood test are available before deciding whether or not to file charges.  This seems to make much more sense.  For the DA to file charges just based on the police officer’s opinion that the individual was, or may have been under the influence, doesn’t seem to make much sense knowing that if they wait for the results, they will have scientific proof one way or the other.

For someone to refuse to take a roadside breath test or submit to a field sobriety test, may make the individual look guilty or give an officer a reason to doubt sobriety.  So why would someone, who knows that they are not under the influence, refuse to submit to such roadside tests?  There are some who feel that the roadside hand-held breathalyzers are unreliable and may produce false results.  There are those who may refuse to submit to field sobriety tests merely due to the fact that they have balance issues and know that they will be unable to pass the test.  So there are legitimate reasons that people refuse these roadside tests, and as mentioned above, it is their right to do so.

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Recent statistics have shown that there are approximately 13,000 DUI arrests in Orange County alone, out of nearly 200,000 in the State of California. In some years, more than 90 percent of Orange County DUI arrests result in conviction.

A conviction of DUI carries severe and long lasting effects on a person’s life. An experienced DUI defense attorney can help to minimize the consequences of being arrested and charged with driving under the influence.

DUI, or driving under the influence, charges are typically charged as misdemeanors. However, some DUI’s can be charged as felonies. A DUI that is charged as a Felony DUI, usually involves DUI manslaughter; DUI causing serious injury; 3rd DUI conviction within 10 years; and 4th DUI conviction at any time. Drunk drivers who cause injury, or DUI with injury is sometimes referred to as a “wobbler” charge, which means that it can be charged as either a felony or misdemeanor. However, prosecutors typically pursue the charge that carries the most punishment. An experienced criminal defense attorney, or DUI defense attorney, will have the knowledge and experience to determine the likelihood of getting the felony reduced to a misdemeanor. A conviction of felony DUI carries a much more serious punishment than a misdemeanor DUI. A misdemeanor first offense DUI can be punishable by up to six months in the county jail, whereas a felony DUI can carry a year or more in state prison sentence.

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Could A New Law In Colorado Make 3rd DUI’s In California A Felony?

There is a proposed new law being considered in Colorado, which would make a third DUI a felony. Representatives of Weld County are reintroducing a bill that would make a third offense for driving under the influence a felony. If this law passes, and the results prove to be beneficial to the public in reducing DUI’s, it could have an impact on other states, including California. The proposed law would allow prosecutors to seek class 4 felony charges for people charged with their third DUI within seven years or their fourth during any time period. If passed, the bill would also lengthen the time period convicted drunk drivers are required to have interlock devices installed in their vehicles. Rather than one year, it may be as many as five years.

It appears that Colorado is cracking down in a serious way on people who drive while intoxicated. California, Orange county specifically, is extremely strict when it comes to DUI and thus, may be watching Colorado carefully to see how this all plays out. Orange County is continually trying to come up with new ways to seek out and crack down on individuals who drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

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Orange County Cracks Down on Driving Under the Influence Drivers

Orange County continues to reinforce their commitment to crack down on individuals who drive under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.

As they do every year, Orange County law enforcement agencies began their “Avoid Campaign” during the holiday season with their DUI task forces out in full force. It began on December 15, 2014 with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department searching out high risk DUI offenders with outstanding arrest warrants. Individuals who either failed to show up for their court date or who had violated the terms of their probation were sought out and arrested.

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Consequences Of DUI With Passenger Under The Age Of 14

In California, if you are arrested for driving under the influence and you have a passenger in your car under the age of 14, Vehicle Code section 23572 states that any sentence/punishment associated with the conviction of DUI may be enhanced. The enhancement depends upon whether it is your first, second or third offense for driving under the influence. For a first offense, the enhancement would be an additional 48 hours in jail and up to 90 days in jail for multiple offenses. This is in addition to your sentence for the underlying DUI charge.

So what this means is that when the District Attorney is filing their case, they may or may not include the enhancements for having a child under the age of 14 years. This often depends upon the circumstances of the arrest such as, the blood alcohol level of the defendant, the driving pattern, the age of the child, and the officer’s observations of the defendant during the initial stop.

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In California, when a driver is arrested for driving under the influence, they are given a temporary, 30-day license from the Department of Motor Vehicles. On that notice, it states that the license is good for only thirty days and that after that time, the driver’s license will be suspended unless an Administrative Per Se hearing is requested. This request must be made within 10 days of the date of the arrest. The following is a list of situations for which the DMV may suspend your license:

  1. Driving with a blood alcohol level of .08% or higher;
  2. Refusing to submit to a chemical test or, if under 21 years of age, refusing to submit to a PAS test;
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Driving Under The Influence And Hit & Run In Orange County

Under California law, anyone who is involved in an accident is required to immediately stop at the scene, provide the other party involved with contact and insurance information, and to assist anyone who may have suffered injures. Failure to do any of these requirements can result in being charged with hit and run. More seriously, being under the influence of alcohol at the time of the hit and run, will result in multiple charges and potentially serious consequences.

DUI at the time of a hit and run usually involves several offenses and may result in one or more of the following charges:

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