Articles Tagged with DUI Lawyer in Columbus Ohio

Water-bottle-in-car-300x200Ohio may need a new acronym for impaired driving.  Our state has used various drunk driving abbreviations in the past.  There was ‘DUI’ for Driving Under the Influence and then ‘OMVI’ for Operating a Motor Vehicle Intoxicated.  Now that Ohio law does not require the vehicle to be motorized, we use ‘OVI’ for Operating a Vehicle under the Influence.  In the future, the acronym may be ‘OVD’ for Operating a Vehicle Dehydrated.  A study published in Physiology & Behavior suggests dehydrated driving is similar to intoxicated driving.

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Accident-investigation-tire-in-lab-300x213Cases of Vehicular Homicide and Vehicular Assault often involve testimony regarding accident investigation and accident reconstruction.  Accident investigation is the collection of evidence at the crash site, and this activity is typically not considered the domain of expert testimony.  Accident reconstruction is the use of scientific methods to determine the cause of the accident, so testimony on this subject is ordinarily considered expert testimony.  A recent Ohio case illustrates the expert nature of accident reconstruction testimony.

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Police-at-convenience-store-300x200There are many different ways somebody can find themselves as the subject of an OVI/DUI investigation. The most common is when an officer witnesses a driver commit a traffic offense, initiates a traffic stop, and then conducts an investigation based on their observations of the driver. Other times, an officer will conduct the traffic stop after receiving a tip from someone that a particular driver may be impaired. How precise do these tips need to be to justify a traffic stop? How much corroborating evidence does an officer need to corroborate the tip? The Ohio Supreme Court recently weighed in on these questions in State v. Tidwell.

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Powerpoint-300x168There has not been a live DUI defense seminar in Ohio for over a year.  The Premier Ohio DUI Defense Seminar, hosted by the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (OACDL) is typically held in March.  This year, with the hope of having participants present in-person, the seminar was postponed until June.  The postponement paid-off, and the 20th annual seminar was not only live (with reduced capacity), but was also live-streamed to lawyers across the state.  It wasn’t held at the usual time, but it had the usual high quality.

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3-300x271When a defendant appeals a DUI conviction (called ‘OVI’ in Ohio), the defendant often claims the judge made an erroneous ruling regarding a motion to suppress. The appellate court then reviews the suppression issue decided by the judge to determine whether the judge’s decision was erroneous. When the issue involves a ‘finding of fact’ by the judge, the appellate court evaluates whether the finding was supported by competent, credible evidence. Two recent Ohio cases illustrate this appellate evaluation with opposite outcomes. Continue Reading

Officer-on-steps-of-DC-building-1-275x300Qualified Immunity, a defense used by police officers in civil rights lawsuits, is a topic not typically discussed in this blog.  However, as a criminal defense lawyer, I have been asked about Qualified Immunity due to recent events in the United States.  In addition, an individual who files a lawsuit based on a false OVI arrest may encounter this defense.  Accordingly, I have asked attorney Eric Hollway to provide a guest article on Qualified Immunity.  Mr. Holloway, a civil rights lawyer who represents clients in false arrest claims, prepared the remainder of this article.

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Urine-sample-250x300When people think of a DUI charge (called ‘OVI’ in Ohio), most think of drunk driving. This is where the bulk of the money and effort have been concentrated to raise awareness:  think of the “Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving” or “Over the Limit, Under Arrest” advertising campaigns. However, with more states legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational use, more people are finding themselves charged with OVI stemming from alleged marijuana impairment. This is a trend we have been following for some time. For people charged with a Marijuana OVI, a frequent question is: How long is THC detectable in your system?

 

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Datamaster-and-evidence-ticket-300x228A police officer discarded evidence that a DUI suspect blew under the ‘legal limit’. According to WCNC, the suspect was involved in a one-car accident and pulled her vehicle into a gas station parking lot. An officer went to the gas station and had the suspect perform field sobriety tests. The officer took the suspect into custody and administered multiple breath tests. The officer obtained two evidence tickets with results from the breath tests. The officer threw-out the evidence ticket with a result ‘under the limit’, kept the evidence ticket with a result ‘over the limit’, and charged the suspect with DUI (called ‘OVI’ in Ohio).

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Bruce-Springsteen-Better-Days-300x210

The reporting of Bruce Springsteen’s DUI arrest shows that, even if a person is presumed innocent in court, they can still be convicted in the press.  In addition, Jeep’s publicized decision to pull The Boss’s Super Bowl commercial was an over-reaction.  The media coverage and cancel culture are not the only problems.  The evidence made public so far brings into question the propriety of Springsteen’s prosecution.

 

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