Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: ouil

Under "Heidi's Law" (which has been made law in many states now), a new OWI/OUIL/DWI (or whatever you want to call a drunk driving case) can be charged as a felony Third Offender if the person has 2 or more drunk or impaired driving convictions in the lerson's lifetime. Heidi's Law removed any date range.

Before Heidi's Law went into effect, felony OWI 3rd required the two prior convictions to be within 10 years before the new case occurred. Now, the priors could be decades old ... although prosecutors can exercize charging discretion to charge lower levels of OWI if the prior convictions are very, very old. For example, if the person had prior convictions in 1965 and 2005, the prosecutor might just charge OWI 2nd, citing the 4-year old case, and ignore the 44-year old case. but under the law the prosecutor could charge OWI 3rd (felony).

Re: ouil

Yes. it used to be within a 10 year period but that's long gone, but doesn't always mean that the prosecutor will charge the felony. It depends on the County you're in, the age of the prior convictions, etc.. We refer to this as "Heidi's Law".

Daniel Hajji

248.865.4700