Legal Question in Criminal Law in Louisiana

Ouachita Parish 4th Judicial Court - IS NOT BEING CIVIL

Long story short....friends went out, had a designated driver that got mad and gave the keys back over to an intoxicated person and got a ride with others - we had a wreck that was faulted on the other vehicle - HOWEVER - one of our drunk passengers broke her back - the faulted driver (other vehicle) was not forced to take a sobriety test even though state law states that it is mandatory in the case of a serious injury! Leaving lots of details out - our driver was forced to take a blood test after refusing sobriety and charged with 1st degree vehicular negligent injury b/c our drunk passenger that was injured's family convinced her that she could sue us b/c our driver was TECHNICALLY drunk! How can a drunk passenger that freely got in a vehicle sue? Can the law enforcement be responsible for mishandling the sobriety testing? This was a very tragic accident, we are now being told that the criminal charges can be COMPLETELY dropped if we come up with an ungodly amount of money - minimum of $75,000 out of our pocket! Our insurance company is trying to settle but it's not enough money for her - WHERE IS THE JUSTICE WITH THAT EXTORTION?


Asked on 3/06/07, 2:07 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Nick Pizzolatto, Jr. Pizzolatto Law Office

Re: Ouachita Parish 4th Judicial Court - IS NOT BEING CIVIL

Sounds like extortion to me. You should report it to the attorney general of the state or the US attorney and see what becomes of it. Of course you can always use as a defense assumption of the risk or comparative negligence. No matter what happened, the passenger must still prove that the driver was in fact negligent and not merely drunk.

Read more
Answered on 3/06/07, 8:16 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Criminal Law questions and answers in Louisiana