First Time Offender

[princymelba]

Hello everyone. I just need some advise. So my friend live in Georgia and he was out Sunday night to celebrate his friends birthday. he hadn't eaten all day but had about 4 beers at the bar. Thinking he was OK,he drove home and got pulled over. The officer made him to take a sobriety test, which he passed, then a blow test. he blew a .09 and he arrested him and charged him with a DUI, he have never been arrested before and have always maintained a clean record, He is 23 by the way. Is there ANYWAY he could get this reduced and keep his license?? he needs to go to school and work full time and can't afford to have a lawyer... he was thinking about taking some DUI courses before his court date. What do you guys think about it??

[drwelfare]

Expect a fine, some probation that will have a monthly fee, required DUI classes which will cost money, license suspension and reinstatement which will cost several hundred, increased insurance rates.

He will end up paying out a lot of money regardless.

[StaeleAilar]

I don't know about in America, but in Australia if it can be proven that a license MUST be held for work/school purposes, the person charged can apply for it however they are put on a strict probation of only being able to drive to and from work or school, any detours and they will have it revoked.

[Deleted]

Even if you have eaten 2 minutes ago you should not drive after having 4 beers, your friend is a retard and hopefully gets the max.

[Deleted]

I'd expect him to get his lisence taken away and a fine

[vrsick]

Why does he deserve to have it reduced? He was over the legal limit and driving. If anything, punishments should be worse for drunk drivers.

[Terridon]

Eatin doesn't really influence how much you can take.
It's stil around 0,25 pr beer you take regardless what you do. Just like you can't run it out of your blood as others think. Also takes a good deal more than one hour to get it out of the system, unlike main belief that it's just one hour. Some even go for 2½ hour for one beer.
Takes pretty exactly 1½ hour for me to get rid of one beer, have alchometer in the car, and common sense
Your friend should have read up on it, but still a bit of shame for him. You're more strict than us, allowing 0,5 in DK. Used to be 0.8, untill some 10-13ish years ago.
You will always get the blame in an accident though, if you have alchohol in the blood,regardless of it being legal, which is a kinda weird way to do it, i think :P

[Duronos]

Had 3 beers the other night, I asked my friend to drive my car home with me in it while my other friend followed behind in his truck. 3 beers isn't very much but I'm not driving on it that's for damn sure.

[Orlong]

He needs to take his lumps and learn from his mistakes and not try to weasel a way out of the consequences. He broke the law and knew he was breaking the law. He is just lucky he didnt hit someone and get a murder charge as well. Personally I dont think he will be punished enough. For doing something so dangerous, stupid, and easily preventable, he should lose his license for 10 years, have his car impounded, and get at least 1 year in jail and a $10,000 fine

[Speaknoevil]

When you drink and drive you deserve to be punished.

If you were just risking your own life it wouldn't matter.

[Duronos]

He needs to take his lumps and learn from his mistakes and not try to weasel a way out of the consequences. He broke the law and knew he was breaking the law. He is just lucky he didnt hit someone and get a murder charge as well. Personally I dont think he will be punished enough. For doing something so dangerous, stupid, and easily preventable, he should lose his license for 10 years, have his car impounded, and get at least 1 year in jail and a $10,000 fine

Jesus man calm down, he fucked up. Yeah he'll get punished but my god that's just evil there.

[Deleted]

Jesus man calm down, he fucked up. Yeah he'll get punished but my god that's just evil there.

Well he isn't wrong, it only takes 2 seconds of not paying attention and suddenly someone is left a mangled corpse

[Duronos]

Well he isn't wrong, it only takes 2 seconds of not paying attention and suddenly someone is left a mangled corpse

But he didn't, the law isn't about assumption. I could do the same thing sober.

The harshness of some people, it's just a bit weird.

[Deleted]

But he didn't, the law isn't about assumption. I could do the same thing sober.

The harshness of some people, it's just a bit weird.

The point is more, he was doing something that easily have killed someone.

[Speaknoevil]

But he didn't, the law isn't about assumption. I could do the same thing sober.

The harshness of some people, it's just a bit weird.

How? He was willing to take that unnecessary risk purely out of convenience. It is loathsomely selfish.

[Deleted]

Actually, and I don't know if this has ever been proven, but if I'm going to be out with work colleagues I eat cheese before going to stop alcohol from hitting me fast. Only food I know that MIGHT mitigate the effects but it's still in there. Being Scottish means you drink, and if you don't you're a freak.

On-topic - it's illegal to drink and drive at a certain limit, and it's strongly discouraged below that. Your friend has to have known that he had to drive to get home and he drank anyway. Things like "first offender" don't really work in crimes that could have cost someone's life - in this country if you are stopped and breathalized then you will get minimum of points on your licence. That's probably about the minimum you could expect if the US system is at all similar.

[Woceip]

Don't have statistics, but drunk drivers kill an awful lot of people, and due to the way the alcohol interacts with their reactions (aka, they don't tend to tense up) they almost always survive when the sober people don't. Not a lot of sympathy here. Everything has a price. It's time for your friend to pay the debt.

[Zavri]

He should get a lawyer so he can get it reduced to a different charge. The amount he blew is easy enough to fight in court, he could easily get the prosecutor to cut him a deal that isn't a dui charge.

What to expect if he actually gets stuck with the dui #1 charge?
( From my state of VT )
~ 90 days minimum license suspension
~ 1-2 years probation
~ Has to check in with probation once per month either in person or on the phone ( if approved )
~ Monthly probation dues ( 10-30 bucks a month depending )
~ SR-22 form filed with your insurance carrier ( Results in higher insurance costs for at least 2 years )
~ 6 hours of a DUI victim impact panel
~ 6 hours of alcohol counseling

A lawyer is well worth avoiding all that headache shit. Trust me on that one.

[cashzilla]

i know of a guy who drove down to visit a buddies university for some partying in another town, and when he drove home the next morning at around 10am he was pulled over for speeding. for whatever reason the cop decided to give him the breathalyzer and he blew over the legal limit. ended up being arrested and charged with a DUI that basically ruined his life for however long.

so he's basically screwed

[Deleted]

Best thing your friend can do is take it as a lesson not to drink and drive and think it will be okay for future references.