What is Drunk Driving and What Are All Those Letters (DUI, DWI, OMVI, OVI) About?

Drunk Driving. It has been called DUI, DWI, OMVI, OVI. The name changes whenever the Ohio Legislature wants to change the law, which happens often. Right now the offense in Ohio is called OVI.

If you get charged with OVI and you took and failed the test, you are charged with two different OVI offenses. But take heart, you can only be sentenced for one of them if found guilty.

The first offense you will be charged with is OVI Per Se. To be convicted of OVI Per Se, the government must show a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that you were operating a vehicle with a concentration of alcohol within your blood, breath, or urine which is .08 or over. You can put on all the evidence in the world that .08 had no effect on your driving. It does not matter. If you test over .08 and the prosecutor gets the test results in, you are done.

The second offense is called OVI Impaired. To be convicted of OVI Impaired, the government must show that you operated a vehicle with some concentration of alcohol in your blood, breath, or urine, no matter how much or how little, so long as it appreciably impaired your ability to drive. This is the charge the prosecutor will pursue if you refused the test, if the test has been thrown out, or if you passed the test but still showed some alcohol in your blood, breath or urine, even if it is under .08.