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.

In Ohio, driving drunk is a first degree misdemeanor. That means that it is punishable by six months in jail and up to $1,000.00 in fines, plus court costs. Most OVI defendants do not get the maximum sentence for their first offense. But if you start getting second and third offenses, you can start accumulating real jail time and serious fines.

You can even be charged with a felony on your fourth OVI. That means prison time.

How Much Will Attorneys Fees be for Defending a Drunk Driving Charge – DUI?

Our firm charges $1,500.00 for a first offense, and $2,500.00 for second offense. Third Offenses are $3,500.00. If other charges (beyond traffic offenses) accompany the OVI charge, it may be more. We take credit cards.

How Long Will They Suspend My Driver’s License for a DUI?

It depends upon your situation. On a first OVI, if you took the test and flunked it, the BMV will automatically suspend your license for 90 days. If you are found guilty then most judges will impose a six month driver’s license suspension, but it will be retroactive to the date you were pulled over. Your attorney can apply for Limited Driving Privileges during any suspension except for the first 15 days after you were pulled over and flunked the test.

If you refused the test, then your license will be suspended by the Ohio BMV for one year. You will have to wait 30 days for the before you can apply for Limited Driving Privileges.

What Can I Use for ID While My License is Suspended?

Your Limited Driving Privileges Entry will be a piece of paper with the Judge’s signature on it, so it will be useless as photo ID. Most people use their passport. Don’t get a state ID, because at the time of this writing, it means that when you reapply for your driver’s license, you will have to take all of the tests again. But that is not the case if you just wait out your suspension and then reinstate.

Can the State Take My Car for Drunk Driving?

If you are convicted of a third OVI in six years, the State of Ohio can institute forfeiture proceedings and take your car.

Are the DUI Limits Different Depending Upon Age?

Yes. If you are over 21, your limit is .08 under the Per Se statute. But if you are under 21, then your limit is .02.

How Much Can I Drink Before I am Over the DUI Limit?

That depends upon various factors. Your body weight is a big factor, the larger you are, the more alcohol it takes to intoxicate you. Different people also have varying tolerances to intoxication based upon how regularly they drink and how much. But tolerance has nothing to do with the level of alcohol in your system. Over .08 will still get you a guilty verdict whether it affects you or not. It also depends upon the duration of the drinking. Eight beers will get you pretty darned drunk in one hour. But eight beers over two days might not. A good rule of thumb is that your body processes and eliminates the alcohol from one drink per hour. But everyone is different.

How Does a DUI Breath Test Work?

Accordingly to Boyles Law, the amount of alcohol in a liquid (like your blood) is the same as the amount of alcohol in the air hovering just above your blood. There is only one place in the universe where air hovers just above your blood, and that is deep in your lungs where there are structures called alveoli.

When you blow into the straw connected to the breath testing machine, you are blowing air from your lungs into a chamber within that machine. Once enough air gets in there, the machine shines a light through the air from your lungs. There is a photo cell on the far wall of the chamber that measures how much light comes through the air and how much is blocked by the alcohol in your breath. The more light that gets blocked, the higher the concentration of alcohol the device will read.

Can Putting a Penny In Your Mouth Beat the DUI Breath Test?

No. They tried it on Mythbusters and it had no affect.

Can Anything Affect the DUI Breath Testing Machine?

Yes, and unfortunately for you, it affects it in the wrong direction. Because we are measuring very small amounts of alcohol (we’re talking hundredths of a percent here people) diluted in a very great amount of blood, any pure alcohol that gets blown into the machine will inflate the reading astronomically.

But how would pure alcohol get into the machine while you are blowing into it? The answer is mouth alcohol. When you drink the vast majority of the beverage goes to your stomach, sits there for a while depending upon how much you ate, and then works its way through your small intestine. Lining the walls of your small intestine are structures called villi which absorb nutrients from food and alcohol from your beverage of choice. That alcohol then gets diluted into your bloodstream and goes throughout your body, with some of it hitting your brain and affecting your coordination and response times.

But there is a small amount of alcohol in your mouth which does not get diluted with anything but a little bit of saliva. If that gets blown into the machine, that small amount of pure, undiluted alcohol will spike the readings on the machine. That is why the Ohio Director of Health has a rule that the police have to observe you for 20 minutes before the test because that is the time that it takes for mouth alcohol to dissipate.

And alcohol can be in your mouth from things other than beer, wine, or liquor. Most all mouth washes have alcohol in them to kill the germs in your mouth. Many breath fresheners with liquid centers have some amounts of alcohol in them. Burping can put alcohol that was in your stomach back in your mouth. While these are small amounts, the important thing to remember is that the machine is basing its calculations on the assumption that only diluted alcohol, not pure alcohol is going through the machine.

So when you read about people that test .046 (which is near legally dead), the real story is that the guy likely had some mouth alcohol running around in there during the test.

What is RFI and Why Is It Important?

One other thing that can affect the read out is Radio Frequency Interference. Radio waves are a form of light, and can affect the amount of light that is shone through the sample in the breath testing chamber. So it is important for law enforcement personnel to not transmit during the testing phase, and to have a breath testing machine that knows that it is supposed to cut off during the testing phase and return an invalid result if radio waves are detected.

How Are DUI Breath Testing Machines Calibrated?

The Ohio Director of Health has mandated that breath testing machines must be calibrated every seven days and must be found to be accurate to within .005. The Director requires that a mixture of air and ethyl alcohol at a known concentration (marked on the side of the bottle) be put through the machine (you just squeeze the bottle) after hooking it up to the machine. If the result is over or under .005, then the calibration officer has to pull another bottle off the wall and test the machine again (of course, you only get one shot when you test). If the machine fails again to read within .005, then the machine must be taken offline, serviced, and then tested when it is returned to make sure that it has been fixed properly.

How Much Does It Cost to Reinstate My License After My Suspension Is Up?

Unless your attorney gets your ALS (Automatic License Suspension) lifted because of some legal issue, the Ohio BMV is going to charge you $425.00 to reinstate.

Should I Drink and Drive or Should I Take a Cab?

Hmmm. All moral issues aside, a cab ride is going to cost you $15.00. A drunk driving conviction is going to cost you $1,500 in legal fees, and likely a $1,000.00 more in court costs, fines, and other fees before the whole thing is done, not to mention missed work (if you still have a job after the conviction).