Felony DUI Lawyers

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Driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs in California is generally a misdemeanor crime. Provided that there are no facts that tend to exacerbate the severity of the case (i.e., “aggravating factors”), you will probably face a misdemeanor “simple DUI” charge when facing your first DUI case, second DUI case, or third time DUI case. However, there are situations where an otherwise “simple DUI” in California will incur a felony charge. If you are being charged with felony DUI and need a criminal defense attorney to represent you, turn to our team at Second Chances Law Group.

Being Charged with Felony DUI Instead of Misdemeanor?

There are various ways in which an otherwise misdemeanor DUI can turn into a felony criminal DUI filing. It is important that you act quickly to hire legal defense, as a felony DUI conviction has egregious repercussions that include county jail imprisonment or incarceration, steep fines and fees, and the revocation of your driver’s license or driving privilege in California for many years to come. A felony DUI conviction will have long-lasting and destructive consequences unless an experienced and effective DUI defense attorney represents you and beats the case.

A few examples of circumstances which can lead to a DUI being charged as felony include:

• DUI causing injury or death: If you allegedly drove under the influence of alcohol/drugs and either committed a supplemental California Vehicle Code violation or drove in a manner that was negligent, a California criminal prosecutor can file a felony DUI charge against you.
• Previous DUI convictions: Driving under the influence is a “priorable” offense. This means that a previous DUI conviction will incur more stringent penalties and punishment when you are convicted of a subsequent similar offense, i.e., subsequent DUI conviction.
• Prior felony DUI: If you have a prior California Felony DUI, you will be charged with a felony DUI in your new case. Generally, this situation arises if you sustained a DUI conviction and your previous DUI conviction resulted in the death or injury of a pedestrian motorist and that crime was charged as a felony.