Columbus OVI/DUI Attorney Blog
I was recently interviewed by Steve Sleeper for his ‘Ask a Lawyer’ Podcast. We discussed topics related to my career as a criminal defense lawyer and DUI/OVI defense lawyer in Columbus, Ohio. Steve asked some good questions about OVI cases in Ohio, including the OVI investigation, field sobriety testing, and drug/alcohol testing. We also discussed the court process, penalties, and possible defenses for Ohio OVIs. It was a pleasure appearing on Steve Sleeper’s podcast: he is a good host with a great voice.
The podcast episode can be heard here:
It can also be heard here:
Below is a transcript of the interview.
Ask a Lawyer with Steve Sleeper
SHAWN DOMINY
May 5, 2026
Steve Sleeper: Hi, and welcome to Ask A Lawyer with me, Steve Sleeper. Our guest today is DUI/OVI and criminal defense attorney Shawn Dominy in Columbus, Ohio. How are you, Shawn?
Shawn Dominy: Hi, Steve. I’m good. Yourself?
Steve Sleeper: I can’t complain. Well, hey, Shawn, why don’t we start off by, tell me about yourself and your firm.
Shawn Dominy: Oh, sure. As you mentioned, we’re in Columbus, Ohio. I grew up not far from Columbus, a little town called Lewis Center. And, after graduating from high school there, I went to college and law school at Ohio State and then began practicing criminal defense right after law school. So that’s been, uh, 28 years now.
Steve Sleeper: Wow. Wow.
Shawn Dominy: And as far as my firm, there are three lawyers and one paralegal, and our practice is limited to criminal defense with a focus on DUI defense, which Ohio calls OVI.
Steve Sleeper: Okay. Yeah, right, right. Now, I noticed on your website, you, all three of you spoke at a conference. Do you, do you do quite a bit of that or, tell me about that.
Shawn Dominy: Well, I have over the years, yes. It was not really my intention, but I got involved in an organization called the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. And, when they asked for volunteers to do whatever, I volunteered. And before you knew it, I was speaking at seminars, and then I was an officer, and eventually the president.
Steve Sleeper: Well, shifting gears just a little bit, what should I look for in a DUI OVI lawyer?
Shawn Dominy: That’s a good question. And I think in my mind, what I would look for in an OVI lawyer is the same that I would look for in any type of lawyer. I would say there are three things primarily to look for. Number one is focus. The law, there is so much to know in the area of law generally that I don’t think a general practitioner can really have the kind of expertise necessary in many areas of law, including OVI defense.
So, focus is the number one thing I would look for. And, as I mentioned, that leads to expertise. And I don’t mean that as a knock against general practitioners. I know, particularly in small counties, they have to practice a lot of areas of law because they’re just, those counties are underserved in terms of the legal system.
But expertise would be number two and then experience would be number three. It’s great to have expertise. You can go to all the classes and workshops in the world and get the knowledge, but you have to put that knowledge to use. And in our industry, that means put it to use in the courtroom. So I would look for courtroom experience.
Steve Sleeper: What happens with and after a DUI arrest? Now, I know the police need to have reasonable suspicion to make a traffic stop. You know, kind of, kind of walk us through the whole process.
Shawn Dominy: Oh, sure. Most traffic stops, or most OVI cases, start with the traffic stop. Typically that’s some minor misdemeanor violation of the traffic code. You might be speeding or a license plate light out, something like that, but sometimes it does involve an accident so there’s not a traffic stop and the police just show up to the accident scene.
In either event, police officer gains some evidence that lead them to suspect the driver’s under the influence. And so, from there, the officers typically administer field sobriety tests, and based on those tests and the totality of the circumstances, if the officer believes or that he or she has probable cause to believe the person is under the influence, then the officer arrests the person and charges them with OVI.
Steve Sleeper: Now, do I have to take field sobriety tests in Ohio?
Shawn Dominy: No. I did mention as part of that process: the officer administers field sobriety tests. That’s because they almost always do, and they almost always do because nearly everybody thinks they have to take them. The reality is that a person who is being investigated for OVI does not have a legal obligation to perform field sobriety tests, but nearly everybody does, because they don’t know otherwise.
Steve Sleeper: So I’m arrested. What happens from there?
Shawn Dominy: Once you’re arrested, the police are going to read to you an implied consent form. Because you’re operating a vehicle on the roads of Ohio, you have implicitly consented to give a sample of your blood, breath, urine, or oral fluid if you’re arrested for OVI. So the officers will read you that form and advise you of the consequences of taking or refusing one of those tests. And that, that leads into another issue, what happens if you take or refuse the test, but that is the next step in the process. So then you either agree to take the test or you refuse to take the test.
Steve Sleeper: Will I lose my driver’s license after an OVI?
Shawn Dominy: The answer is maybe. So, as I mentioned, we have this implied consent law. So if you refuse to take one of those tests, not the field sobriety test, but the breath, blood, urine, or, now oral fluid tests, then your driver’s license is suspended by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Typically on a first offense, that’s a one-year suspension, but there could be a separate license suspension if you are found guilty of, or you plead guilty to, OVI. Then there’s a license suspension imposed by the judge, which is part of the sentence.
Steve Sleeper: So you, you started to kind of talk about that, the penalties. Walk, walk us through what the penalties are in Ohio for a first, a second, third offense.
Shawn Dominy: Yeah. Every state is different, and, in Ohio, for a first offense OVI, what we mean when we say first offense is a first offense within 10 years. So, if a person has no prior convictions within the last 10 years, there are three mandatory parts to the sentence. The first is a jail term, which is a minimum of three days and a maximum of six months. The second is a driver’s license suspension, which is a minimum of one year and a maximum of three years. And the third is a fine, which is a minimum of $565 and a maximum of $1,075.
Steve Sleeper: Can I end up going to prison and what I mean by prison is it state prison or …
Shawn Dominy: Well, on, on a first offense, the three-day jail term is served in a local jail. And, actually, judges can allow a person to serve those three days in a driver intervention program. But, if you’re convicted of a second offense, then the penalties increase. So, the jail term, for example, is a minimum of 10 days. And if you accumulate enough OVI convictions within a 10-year period, then it is categorized as a felony and you can serve time in a state prison.
Steve Sleeper: So talk about plea deals versus trial. I suppose, as the penalties get larger, you go to trial, but, you know, on, on average, how many plea out, how many go to trial?
Shawn Dominy: Hmm. Well, you’re, you’re right. Eventually, a case will go one of two directions. Either there’ll be a trial and the jury will decide if the evidence proves the defendant’s guilt, or the defendant and prosecution will reach an agreement, a plea bargain. In OVI cases in Ohio, I understand that about 5% of the cases go to trial, the other 95% are resolved with the plea agreement, which may mean the person is pleading guilty to OVI, or the prosecution is reducing the OVI to a lesser charge.
Steve Sleeper: Okay, DUI or OVI can be reduced to a lesser charge? And talk about that, and can it be dismissed?
Shawn Dominy: Absolutely. The responsibility of reducing or dismissing charges is the prosecuting attorney’s. And so prosecutors always start with the default position, “We are not reducing or dismissing your client’s OVI charge.” That’s because there’s a lot of political pressure on them not to reduce or dismiss OVI charges. So, what I’ve found is typically what we need to do is convince the prosecutor that there is a reasonable chance that if we have a trial, our client will be found not guilty. If we’re able to do that, that’s typically what leads a prosecutor to reduce the OVI to something lesser which is not an OVI.
Steve Sleeper: Talk about discovery. What it is and what you get and what you’re looking for to defend your client with discovery.
Shawn Dominy: Sure. In a criminal case, including OVIs, there’s a, a rule. In Ohio, it’s Criminal Rule 16, which talks about discovery, the exchange of information between the prosecution and defense. In Ohio, the prosecution has to provide us nearly everything in its possession. And so we look through what we receive from the prosecutor, which will include police reports, witness statements, records regarding the machine used to test the person’s breath, blood, urine, or oral fluid, and, probably most importantly, the videos from the law enforcement officers’ cruiser and body cam.
Steve Sleeper: Medical conditions, do those play into a defense strategy?
Shawn Dominy: They certainly can. If, if a client has a medical condition, the symptoms for which mimic the symptoms of alcohol intoxication, that definitely can be raised as a defense. There are other medical conditions which may affect a person’s ability to perform field sobriety tests, and that can lead to a defense. And finally, there are some medical conditions which may affect the results of a chemical test for alcohol and/or drugs. And so that, that can form a defense as well.
Steve Sleeper: With a chemical test, I guess I’m probably talking about blood, I guess it could be urine too, if, if that’s a deal. Are there any, in Ohio, any chain of custody issues that kind of allow you to get a, client’s charges dismissed?
Shawn Dominy: Yes, there are. Actually, Ohio’s legislature has delegated the responsibility for those issues to the Ohio Department of Health. So the Ohio Department of Health has written several regulations which determine what must be done for a chemical test to be admitted as evidence. And so what we do is look through the records from the crime lab for a urine test. We do, Ohio’s one of the few states that uses urine testing still. So, for a urine test or blood test, we get a packet of information from the crime lab, which is typically four to 400 to 500 pages, and we review those records to see if, in fact, all of the regulations have been followed, including a regulation regarding the chain of custody.
Steve Sleeper: Talk about the training that you get. Do, do you, do you know the mistakes the officers make? I mean, just, just talk about that in general.
Shawn Dominy: We do. All three lawyers in my firm have been through the same training which officers complete for what is called DWI investigation and standardized field sobriety testing. That training is provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and it is possible for attorneys to complete that same training. We’ve also completed what they call ARIDE. It’s advanced training for officers, and I’m also certified to instruct officers on that training. So, yes, we will, we will certainly recognize when we review the written materials and the video evidence, we will recognize if the officers have made mistakes in the field sobriety test and in any area of the investigation.
Steve Sleeper: Let’s say a case goes to trial and you put the officers on the witness stand. Do they ever lie? Do you ever catch them or catch them, you know, in mistakes or things like that?
Shawn Dominy: I’m reluctant to call any officer a liar. Uh, yeah. Certainly, in trial, they have to really earn it. <laugh> But I do think officers are human beings. They make mistakes, and I think sometimes they say things that they believe to be true, you know. If you think about the fact that … And I’ve heard many officers say, “You know, after midnight, the only people on the road are cops and drunks, so your client must have been <laugh> drunk”, you know. And, and, really, if you approach your job like that, you’re looking for evidence to confirm what you already believe to be true. And so I think that does affect what they see. The eye sees what the mind expects. And, yes, we certainly uncover that. When we see that, you know, their, what, what we see on video is inconsistent with what they have written in their reports or what they have said in their testimony.
Steve Sleeper: How long will an OVI stay on my record?
Shawn Dominy: In Ohio, it stays on a person’s record indefinitely. There is no expungement or sealing for traffic convictions in Ohio.
Steve Sleeper: And there’s nothing I can do about that, huh? There’s nothing, an attorney can’t get me an expungement or anything like that?
Shawn Dominy: No. Once a, once an OVI conviction is on a person’s record, it is there to stay.
Steve Sleeper: Wow.
Shawn Dominy: Absent a pardon from the governor of Ohio, which is pretty unlikely for an OVI case.
Steve Sleeper: There you go. Yeah. I, you, you’ve written some books and you got publications and you’re, you’re prolific with that. Tell us about it and, you know, tell us about your books and what publications you’re in and all that.
Shawn Dominy: Sure. I did not really intend to be an author, but, you know, we get these frequently asked questions, and I know how, how important it is to prospective clients to have those questions answered. So I did write what is called the ‘Ohio OVI Guide’, and it does cover things like the different types of OVI charges, the consequences for convictions, what evidence officers are looking for, our defenses, and the court process. So I made it, it’s available technically for sale online, but really you can download it for free on my website. And that’s what I encourage people to do, because I want people to be educated before they’re making decisions about how to handle their cases.
Steve Sleeper: It’s an electronic then?
Shawn Dominy: Yes. You can, you can order a paperback if you, if you really want a physical copy of it. But most people just, just download it from my website.
Steve Sleeper: Yeah, a friend of mine uses it. He, he’s, he’s not an attorney. He’s a salesman, you know, one of those guys standing on the street corner with his hat in his hand. But he wrote, he, he, he wrote a book on how chiropractors -he works a lot with chiropractors- and he wrote a book on how chiropractors could get more business. And he had all kinds of ideas in there that nobody had ever thought of, you know, it was pretty … But what he does is, he goes into a market and walks around to all the chiropractors and gives him a book and a card and, uh, <laugh> and then call me if you’re interested. And he gets, he gets calls off of that. So it’s a nice soft sales method, you know? So I’m always interested in books, you know, and how to use them.
Shawn Dominy: It. Yeah, it is, it is a marketing piece as well. So, I think, honestly, it serves two purposes. Well, more than that, actually. It, it helps people educate themselves before making decisions and, and, for me, it also avoids having to answer those questions repeatedly.
Steve Sleeper: Right.
Shawn Dominy: And hopefully, I guess, as being the author of the book, maybe it gives me some credibility with prospective clients because in Columbus, there are dozens, if not hundreds of attorneys who will handle OVI cases. And it’s hard to tell one attorney from another in terms of their qualifications and expertise.
Steve Sleeper: And years and experience I’m sure play into that.
Shawn Dominy: Yes.
Steve Sleeper: Now, I thought I saw some publications online. Did I, am I correct, or did I just make that up? <laugh>
Shawn Dominy: No, no, you didn’t just make that up. I did, I, I have written, a number of articles for our state publication, called ‘The Vindicator’, and I have had an article published in the National Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers’ magazine. And there is a book, which is kind-of considered the Bible of DUI defense. It’s called ‘DUI Defense’, and I did write a section for that book.
Steve Sleeper: Well, there you go. That’s, that’s gotta help with the cred, you know?
Shawn Dominy: I’m not sure, I’m not sure what weight people give that, but, again, it’s kind of like the organization involvement I was talking about earlier. It wasn’t really an intention. I just, when they said, “Hey, we could use help with this”, and I said, “Oh, I can do that. ” And someone said, “Well, we’d like to have an article on this”. “Oh, I can do that.” And the more you do that, I guess, the more, the more you get asked to do, and the more responsibility you’re given, which is great because it’s also a way to give back. But, in terms of whether, whether it gives me credibility with prospective clients, I’m not sure. I would think so, but I’m not sure.
Steve Sleeper: Okay. Okay. Now, you got a couple of other attorneys in, in the firm. Are they primarily OVI defense? Talk about them a little bit.
Shawn Dominy: Yes. I have two other attorneys. The first one is Bryan Hawkins, who’s been practicing for about 14 years. And the second is Abby Bentley, who’s been practicing for just about two years. They both handle criminal, criminal defense exclusively, with a focus on OVI. And I would estimate that they each handle about 80% OVIs and 20% criminal defense.
Steve Sleeper: Which seems to be par for the course nationally. I get that number a lot, 80 / 20.
Shawn Dominy: Okay.
Steve Sleeper: Yeah.
Shawn Dominy: Yeah. Yeah. It’s not that once we focus on OVI defense, we forget how to do all of the other areas of criminal defense. It’s just that, with more expertise in an area, we get asked to do that more, so it leaves less time to handle the general criminal matters.
Steve Sleeper: Shawn, go ahead and give us your phone number and website so folks know what’s, what the deal is.
Shawn Dominy: Sure. Yeah. So it’s, the name of the firm again is the Dominy Law Firm and the website address is Dominylaw.com. So D-O-M-I-N-Y-L-A-W.com. And our office phone number is 614-717-1177.
Steve Sleeper: Shawn, thanks a lot. I appreciate it.
Shawn Dominy: Thanks for having me on, Steve. It was a, it was a pleasure.