How An OWI Can Impact Your Life And Finances
If you get an OWI in Milwaukee, it can certainly have a major impact on your life moving forward. It can harm your finances in more ways than you may have realized, along with having an impact on your personal relationships, your employment status and much more. It’s important to carefully consider the long-term ramifications when determining how you want to proceed.
Our attorneys can help here at Laster & Associates. We are an award-winning firm with more than 25 years of experience. Our lawyers offer aggressive representation when presenting a defense against OWI charges, and we also offer free consultations to our clients. If you’d like to get started and learn what we can do for you, just give us a call today.
What Happens If You Get An OWI?
The first thing that will likely happen is that you will be arrested and booked. You may be held for just a few hours or released to someone else so they can take you home. But this is just the very start of the process.
If you are convicted on those OWI charges, there can be significant penalties. For even just a first offense where your BAC level is between 0.08% and 0.119%, penalties can include:
- Total fines and fees of over $900
- A license revocation for six months
- The need to go through an alcohol assessment and driver safety course
The penalties then escalate if you have a higher BAC. For instance, if your BAC is over 0.15%, then you may have to pay over $1,000 in fines and it may be mandatory for you to use an ignition interlock device (IID) on your vehicle. This comes with a $50 surcharge and you have to use the IID for the next year, meaning you have to pass a breath test just to start your car.
Ramifications can be more severe if there are other aggravating factors, such as aggressive driving, an extremely elevated BAC, having a minor in the car with you or a prior record.
Additional Ramifications
Beyond the sentence that you receive from the court, you may also see increased insurance premiums, meaning you’re paying for that OWI annually. If you spend time behind bars, you could lose wages, which could be significant, especially if you are serving a sentence of six months or more. Many people even lose their jobs entirely, either because they’re missing work due to their sentence or because they can’t get to work with a revoked driver’s license.
Moreover, having a permanent record can make it harder to find alternative employment in the future, even after you have completed your sentence.
Contact Us For A Consultation
If you’re in this position, it’s likely that you’re worried about the future. Just give us a call at Call For A Free Consultation or use the online contact form to set up your free initial consultation today.