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If you have been charged with driving under the influence, you need all the help you can get – which is where the services of a Maryland DUI attorney can help mitigate the damage.

Are you aware of your rights under the law if charged with driving under the influence?

If This Is Your First Offense . . .

Under new Maryland drunk driving laws that took effect on 1 October 2009, if you are convicted of drunk driving for the first time and your blood alcohol content (BAC) level was over .08, you could be sentenced to a jail term of up to a year and fined as much as $1000. If you were transporting a minor at the time of the offense, these penalties can be doubled. In addition, your driving privileges will be suspended for a minimum of six months.

Subsequent Offenses

Fines and jail sentences increase substantially after the first conviction. After a third conviction, the offender faces a $3000 fine, three years in jail and loss of driving privileges for a minimum of eighteen months. If however, the offender was transporting a minor at the time, jail terms and fines are increased by one-third (so, $4000 and four years). The greater penalties also apply if injury or death is involved – in addition to any criminal or civil penalties.

Stricter Standards

Minors and commercial drivers are held to much stricter standards when it comes to driving and alcohol.

In the state of Maryland, it is illegal for persons under the age of 21 years to possess or consume alcoholic beverages. Therefore, a minor can be charged and convicted for drunk driving if any amount of alcohol is found in the system; a BAC level of .02 carries a $500 fine. In addition, the individual faces minor-in-possession charges.

Because of their responsibility for public safety, commercial drivers are also subject to lower BAC limits; .04 is sufficient to warrant conviction on a drunk driving charge.

Other Things to Know

Although the Constitution states that one is innocent of a crime until proven guilty in a court of law, Maryland’s Implied Consent law provides for what amounts to a legal exception when it comes to drunk driving offenses. If stopped on suspicion of drunk driving, you have the right to refuse to submit to testing (blood, breath or urine); however, your driving privileges are automatically revoked for a period of four months for the first refusal and one year for subsequent refusals.

Contacting a Lawyer

DUI and DWI cases are handled on the county level, and procedures vary from one county to the next. It is therefore important to get counsel from a legal professional who is familiar with the courts of the county in question.

A DUI lawyer may be able to get your driving privileges restored under certain conditions; for example, you may be allowed to drive to and from work if you install an interlock (a device that disables a car’s ignition if alcohol is present in the driver’s system). You may also avoid jail time for a first offense by enrolling in an alcohol treatment program.

Impaired driving contributes to a large portion of auto accidents, and, while it is only one of many forms of impairment, drunk driving is involved in nearly 40% of all auto accident fatalities. DUI laws have become much stricter in recent years, and the number of fatalities has gone down, but that drop seems to have hit a plateau. Even with the strict penalties we now have, drunk drivers continue to drive while impaired even after they are caught and punished. Repeat offenders account for about one-third of DUI convictions.

Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is usually the primary piece of evidence relied on in drunk driving cases. All states have adopted a legal limit of .08 or less for adults. Some drivers, such as commercial drivers and minors, must adhere to a much lower legal limit.

Criminal vs. Civil case

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in an accident caused by a drunk driver, you will be pursuing a civil lawsuit. In most cases there will also be criminal charges against the drunk driver. Although restitution payments may be ordered in the event of a criminal conviction, the civil and criminal cases are separate.

Conviction, in a criminal case, requires a much higher standard of proof than what you will need to establish in a civil lawsuit because a civil lawsuit does not put the defendant at risk of serving jail time.

Even though the cases are separate, a criminal conviction can lend credibility to your civil case, and some of the evidence collected for the criminal case may be available for use in your civil suit, such as BAC.

Responsibility

Proving responsibility is the key factor in any civil suit. Many types of impaired driving, such as fatigue, can be very difficult to prove. Drunk driving is the easiest type of impairment to prove. Unfortunately, because drunk drivers are often repeat offenders or minors, they are often uninsured, meaning that even if found responsible, they simply do not have the money to compensate you for your injuries and losses.

However, in certain cases, the drunk driver is not the only responsible party. Under certain circumstances responsible parties may include:

· Bars, restaurants, or liquor stores that sold alcohol to an already intoxicated person

· Adults who provided alcohol to a minor

· Employers who required or allowed an employee to operate a vehicle for company purposes while intoxicated

About the Author:

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in an auto accident caused by a drunk driver, in Maryland, Virginia or Washington DC, please contact a skilled auto accident lawyer at Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. before you settle with an insurance company.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Drunk Driving Accidents