DWAI / Driving While Ability Impaired

“A good question that's come up with a lot of my clients is what happens if you're not quite at that 0.08, but you have some alcohol in your system. With the DMV, the way that they are set up, if you are below 0.08 they're not gonna revoke your license. Now, that doesn't mean that you're not gonna have issues with the criminal justice system. That's a completely separate entity, but for the purposes of the Department of Motor Vehicles, initially, if you're below that 0.08, they're not gonna revoke your license.”

“The common misconception, though, is people think well, if I'm under that 0.08 then I'm fine. For the DUI you are, but the problem is in Colorado we also have what's called a DWAI, that's driving while ability impaired. For DWAI, it's not where you're driving so that you're so impaired that you can't maybe function, or get home to the level you are at a DUI, but driving while ability impaired means that you're impaired to the slightest degree. And that's still a crime here in Colorado. So, driving with any kind of impairment whatsoever is not a great idea, let's just put that out there. But legally if you are at a 0.05 to a 0.08 you can be criminally charged for driving while ability impaired.”

“So, misdemeanor world you have DUI alcohol, DWAI alcohol, and then you have DUI with THC, that five nanograms, and technically the district attorneys can also file charges for you to have a DWAI for THC if it's under the five nanograms. Now that is a little bit of a stronger case for us because we can combat that a little bit with research that's come out from Boston, Massachusetts and a couple of other places. But those are what you're looking at for misdemeanor levels.”

“So it's not just DUIs gotten here in Colorado, it's DUIs nationwide, anytime. The other issue is, is they include everything. They include DUIs, they include DWAIs, and some judges will even consider a deferred sentence DUI as that necessary threshold to prove a prior driving under the influence offense and they can use that to get you on a DUI felony offense.”

“driving while ability impaired means that you're impaired to the slightest degree. And that's still a crime here in Colorado.”

“okay let's look at the two most common types of cases that have therapy involved so duis and domestic violence cases dui cases you're going to have to go if you are convicted or take a plea for anything that is an alcohol related offense if it's the dui if it's a dwai even if it's what we call a wet reckless if you have any of those please you have to do alcohol treatment and therapy on the other hand if you have a domestic violence charge and you have a plea of some kind or you have a deferred sentence you're going to have to do domestic violence classes now in both of these cases the way that they're set up especially in el paso county is before you're sentenced so you take a plea agreement in front of the judge you enter your plea of guilty but then before your sentence on a dui you have to go through an evaluation”