These felony DUI cases are not to be taken lightly, as they carry a multitude of severe consequences, especially in Los Angeles County, known for its strict DUI laws. The addition of an injured person further complicates the situation, making it even more challenging to avoid the dire consequences.

If someone is seriously injured in a DUI and you're charged with a felony DUI, there's a minimum sentence of 90 days in jail, and you could be facing three years in prison if you get maxed out by the judge. 

In addition, sometimes people get hurt so badly in a felony DUI that, in addition to that charge, the prosecutors can also add an enhancement of great bodily injury. 

If you cause great bodily injury to another person during a felony DUI, not only are you facing the three-year maxed sentence, but you're also facing an additional three years because of the bodily injury allegation, and you'd be facing a strike.

A DUI under California Vehicle Code 23152 VC is a misdemeanor offense. However, some cases may be filed as felony DUI.  If convicted, the legal penalties are severe and could impact your future opportunities for many years.

The punishments include the loss of your California driver's license, huge fines, and incarceration in state prison. There are two scenarios where you could be charged with a DUI as a felony:

• You have three or more convictions for DUI or reckless driving involving alcohol within the last ten years; or,
• You were involved in a DUI accident causing injury to someone person.

Our Los Angeles DUI defense lawyers will discuss this topic in more detail and offer hope for a favorable outcome in your case.

Can You Challenge DUI with Injury Cases?

So, some of the ideas that I have, having handled these cases now for 30 years, are: First, let's look at Vehicle Code 23153(a) VC DUI causing injury because sometimes some of these injuries are inflated to the degree that they really shouldn't be filed as a felony DUI; it should be a misdemeanor DUI. However, it's ultimately up to the prosecutor to decide the severity of the charge based on the evidence presented.

Vehicle Code 23153(b) VC is used to file charges for driving with a BAC of .08% or higher, causing injury. People are claiming injuries that do not rise to severe bodily injury, which is the language they use to determine whether or not somebody caused a felony DUI. 

Let alone great bodily injury, the language they use to put that extra great bodily injury enhancement on you.  There's a fine natural line between serious bodily injury, which is a significant injury that requires medical attention, and great bodily injury, which is a more severe injury that can lead to long-term or permanent damage. 

Sometimes, it's tough to determine if you're a prosecutor, defense attorney, or judge. People often inflate their injuries because they've got an attorney when they were hit in a felony DUI. 

The attorney is trying to get as much money as possible so that the attorney will tell their client to make it sound like the injury is horrific.

Settling Injury Claims Through Insurance Company

One idea is to try to use the insurance company, assuming you have insurance, to settle the personal injury claim before you deal with the criminal element of the case. This involves negotiating with the insurance company to reach a settlement that compensates the injured party, which could potentially reduce the severity of the criminal charge. 

Sometimes, that's difficult because some personal injury claims take forever to settle, and the criminal courts are incentivized to move their cases along as quickly as possible. 

So, if you're facing this type of scenario, you want to get to an attorney like me so we can figure out how to help you best, represent you, and keep you out of jail.

Argument That You Did Not Cause the Victim's Injuries

These are some ideas and angles you must consider when discussing a felony DUI. Another idea is to say that you didn't cause the person's injury. 

The problem in these DUI cases is that if you're driving under the influence of something – alcohol, drugs, prescription medication – it doesn't really matter – and you can't safely operate a motor vehicle, you get in an accident, and somebody gets hurt. They're always going to charge you with a felony DUI.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean that it should be a felony DUI because if we can prove that the person caused their injury – maybe the accident was their fault. 

If the accident was somebody else's fault, you're not going to be held responsible for the injury, and they can't charge you with a felony DUI if your conduct did not cause damage to the other party.

Legal Defenses Against Felony DUI Charges

Our experienced DUI defense lawyers will continuously pursue the most favorable outcome of your case. Perhaps we can get your felony charge reduced to a misdemeanor. There is a wide range of possible defenses we can use on your behalf, such as:

• potential legal errors made by police, and
• any weaknesses in the prosecutor's case,
• insufficient probable cause for the police traffic stop.

If you are charged with a felony DUI due to an accident causing injury, the prosecutor must be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt you caused the accident. Perhaps we can show the other driver who caused the accident.

We can work with our in-house private investigator to document an accident scene with charts and photographs and hire an accident reconstruction expert to establish fault to demonstrate the other driver could have been responsible for the accident.

These are some ideas. I've done this for a long time. Early in my career, I worked for the DA's office. 

I worked for a superior court judge before starting to defend people like you in the early 1990s. I've handled hundreds of these cases all over LA County and surrounding counties.

If you need the best, and I think you probably do, pick up the phone now and ask for a meeting with Ron Hedding. The Hedding Law Firm is located in Los Angeles, CA, and we offer a free case review via phone or the contact form.