In many instances, a person who has been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol for the first time accepts the consequences and does not fight them. This individual pays the fine, completes the required alcohol education program, and deals with license suspension. Drivers generally receive the minimum penalty for this offense unless there are aggravating factors. The person’s behavior during the arrest, for example, can influence how lenient a judge is during sentencing. Other aggravating factors come with additional much harsher minimum penalties. A person charged with operating under the influence of alcohol who has these additional issues affecting the situation would benefit from hiring criminal lawyers in Brockton.
An example of an aggravating factor in a drunk driving incident would be having someone under 15 years old in the vehicle. The legal system generally considers people this age not to have the reasoning capacity to refuse a ride from a drunk driver, especially if that driver is an authority figure. In particular, very young children may not even have the capability of refusing a ride. Some parents bring their little ones to a restaurant and proceed to have several drinks there, then drive home in an impaired state. If this person is convicted of child endangerment, they face a minimum sentence of 90 days in jail.
Another aggravating factor would be causing an accident. A person who drives without liability insurance is already breaking a law, and driving after drinking too much alcohol makes matters much worse. A blood alcohol content substantially higher than the legal limit of .08 percent also comes with mandatory minimum penalties that are steeper than the usual ones for a first offense.
Criminal lawyers in Brockton provide skilled legal representation under these circumstances. An attorney at a firm like the Law Office of Bruce S. Raphel puts forth considerable effort to make sure clients receive as lenient a sentence as possible. Sometimes a lawyer is able to have the charges reduced or dropped altogether.
