dui offense
is a Dui a misdemeanor or a felony?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: dui offense
First offense is a misdemeanor. Second in ten years is a gross misdemeanor. After that, the fifth offense can be a felony.
If there is an additional factor with the first offense, it can become a gross misdemeanor: a reading of over .20, a minor child as a passenger in the car, a serious injury - such factors enhance the level of the offense.
Like many of the questions I see here, it is deceptively simple. What kind of crime is a DWI? That depends.
If you have been charged with one of these, you make a serious mistake to try to face it without a lawyer.
Assuming you are doing this without a lawyer: don't you ever dare to come back here with the following question (which I seem to get all the time): "So how long before this drops off my record?" OR "What do I have to do to get this expunged from my record?" The answer to those is: It's on your record for the rest of your life and it can't be expunged.
So face this without a lawyer if you want to, but if you get tired of the consequences of doing that after a few years, you have nobody to blame but yourself. Don't whine about how unfair things are. Too late then.