How Bad Is An OUI?

If you’re facing charges for an OUI, you might wonder what penalties are in your future. Ahead of you lay two different processes: A criminal procedure, and an administrative procedure. For the purposes of this post, I am going to focus on the criminal procedure.

The severity of the charges against you will depend upon many different factors. The circumstances of your OUI may aggravate your penalties. Additionally, whether or not this is your first offense will help determine whether you face a misdemeanor or a felony.

How Bad Is My OUI?

The State of Maine takes OUIs very seriously. You could be looking at jail, fines and a suspension of your license. What effects the punishment that you could be looking at?

• It’s your first offense
• It’s your first offense, but you refused to comply with a test
• It’s your first offense, but it was an aggravated OUI (examples: you had an underage passenger, you were criminal speeding, you were eluding police or your blood alcohol level was very high).

The penalties and charges get more stark once you begin to collect multiple OUIs. For example, a second OUI is may still be a misdemeanor; however, you’re now looking at mandatory 7 days in jail and a license suspension of 3 years!

From there it just gets worse. A third offense OUI is a Class C Felony. At this stage you are looking at a mandatory 30 days in jail and a six year loss of license. The quick takeaway in this area of law is that with each OUI, the jail time, fines, and license suspension are going to go up sharply.

What To Do If You Face A Maine OUI

Remember, this is your life. An OUI charge is a very big deal. Once it becomes a conviction, it can cause all kinds of problems in your life, in a variety of ways.

That’s why it’s important to protect your rights – and your future – as best as you can. That includes finding a top-tier OUI specialist to help build a strong case to argue for your innocence.