Carolina Criminal Defense & DUI Lawyer UpdatesNorth Carolina treats a driver under 21 who has alcohol in the system very differently from an adult. For an adult, the question is impairment or a 0.08 reading. For anyone who has not turned 21, N.C.G.S. § 20-138.3 makes it a crime to drive on a highway or public vehicular area while consuming alcohol, or at any time while any previously consumed alcohol or controlled substance remains in the body. The State does not have to show impairment. The presence of alcohol is the offense.
People search for this as underage DUI or underage DWI, and the terms are worth sorting out before anything else. North Carolina’s formal name for the adult offense is impaired driving under N.C.G.S. § 20-138.1, and neither acronym of DUI nor DWI is referenced within statute. It does refer to driving “while under the influence of an impairing substance,” which many folks understand as “DUI.” The underage charge (N.C.G.S. § 20-138.3) is a separate offense with its own name, driving after consuming under 21, and it is not technically an impaired driving charge at all. That distinction is not academic. The two offenses are proven and punished in different ways, and the difference works in real cases.
intimidation, and coercion, allowing judges to apply the law faithfully rather than bending to public opinion or private pressure.
the United States government and the foundation upon which legal rights, public institutions, and constitutional safeguards depend.
moments that followed. What he carried and what he chose to say changed the way I view my work as a criminal defense lawyer.
about strategies. We dissect rulings. We joke, sometimes darkly, because it keeps the walls from closing in. The emotional cost of criminal defense, the weight we carry, the doubt we swallow, the sorrow we sit beside, is something most of us keep to ourselves.
tests, and standardized field sobriety tests.
operations in North Carolina are on the front lines helping people during trying times.