My rental car, brilliantly parked outside our B&B in Portree on the Scottish Isle Of Skye. I thought they were all drunk: they were driving on the wrong side of the road. But they weren’t drunk, they were just driving in Scotland. And so was I. I drove on the…
In the last couple weeks, two school bus drivers were suspected of being under the influence while driving a bus full of students. Both drivers were arrested for DUI, and both drivers now face serious consequences. These incidents raise the question of what happens if a school bus driver is…
It won’t win a Pulitzer Prize, it will not be mentioned with the New York Times best sellers, and it will not be at the top of readers’ ‘wish lists’. In fact, most people may not find it very interesting. If you are charged with a DUI/OVI in Ohio,…
This summer, I had the honor of being shadowed by Japanese criminal defense lawyer Yaeko Hashimoto, who recently completed an LL.M. program at the O.S.U. Moritz College of Law. In our conversations, it became clear there are differences between DUI/OVI laws in Ohio and DUI/OVI laws in Japan. Yaeko agreed…
What should we do with repeat DUI/OVI offenders? On one hand, we want them to be rehabilitated, and we want them to be employed, which usually requires driving. On the other hand, we want to punish them and protect the public from the risk of harm they create. In…
An Ohio DUI / OVI sentence has several parts. There is mandatory jail time (or a driver intervention program for a first offense), a mandatory fine, and a mandatory license suspension. For a first offense, the license suspension is a minimum of six months and a maximum of three years,…
I recently represented a client for a DUI / OVI in a juvenile court near Columbus, Ohio. The case went to trial, and I was sharing my experience with a colleague. The colleague happened to be coordinating a DUI / OVI seminar for the Columbus Bar Association, and he asked…
Race car driver Al Unser, Jr., two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, recently pled guilty to his second DUI, as well as Racing on a Freeway, according to the Albuquerque Journal. The judge in Albuquerque, New Mexico sentenced Unser to 90 days in jail, but one day was credited for…
In July of 2011, state Representative Jarrod Martin was driving his children in his pickup truck in Jackson County, Ohio. He was pulled over by a state trooper for a marked lanes violation after his truck drifted left of center. The trooper asked Martin to perform field sobriety tests, and…
“Shawn, it’s Joe Smith. You’re not going to believe this, but….” I believe it, because I’ve received this call more than once. My client has a D.U.I. (O.V.I.) pending, we’re scheduled to go back to court soon, and the client is charged with a second D.U.I. This recently happened in…