Denver DUI lawyer / is it a felony?

One of the most common queries people use to find my Denver DUI lawyer website is "is a DUI a felony" or some variation of that. The short answer to that is "no." A DUI is a misdemeanor. The longer answer to that is "why does it matter?" As any Denver DUI lawyer will tell you, the distinction between a felony and a misdemeanor is pretty arbitrary. Under the United States Constitution, any crime punishable by more than a year in prison is considered a "felony." This matters in terms of certain constitutional rights, like your right to a jury and right to have an attorney provided. In terms of what actually happens in the end, it means very little.

In many cases, even with felonies, the jail sentence is "suspended." That means the defendant only serves part of it or no time at all. The rest of it is waived if he fulfills certain conditions of probation. So for certain felonies, especially when non-violent in nature, could have minimal or no jail time.

By contrast, certain misdemeanors can carry more severe consequences than felonies. That's particularly the case where drugs or alcohol are involved. Some misdemeanors for disorderly conduct can even result in sex offender punishment, but that's a different story! DUIs fall within this category. Additionally, DUIs have more severe consequences because they involve cars. Cars are pretty dangerous in any case, and cause a large number of deaths nationally. That danger is made worse by the presence of alcohol. A third issue making DUIs particularly severe, and particularly difficult for Denver DUI lawyers to fight, is that they are a recent priority of prosecutor's offices. The plea bargaining policy of prosecutors makes it very difficult to
get the deputy district attorney on your case to agree to a more favorable plea than a DWAI (in Colorado anyway.

On top of the prison and fine sanctions, the impact on your license makes DUIs even more severe than many other misdemeanors. Your license can be immediately suspended, in certain cases for up to a year. Additionally, there is the cost of the SR-22 license, the increased cost of insurance, and possibly points that will go toward an additional suspension for further citations. So if your question is whether a DUI is a felony, the short answer is no (at least in Colorado). The long answer is it's still pretty damn serious.