OWI Meaning: Are DUI Michigan & OWI Michigan the Same?

What’s the Difference Between DUI and OWI? In Michigan the most appropriate legal acronym is “OWI.” This stands for a drunk driving cases of operating while intoxicated when a law enforcement officer arrests a person in Michigan for being a drunk driver. Cases can be made with or without an official chemical testing result, for drugs or alcohol.

But “DUI” is still used as a more general reference to drunk driving, due to this ubiquitous abbreviation being the best-known and most widely used acronym in the United States. At Barone Defense Firm (BDF), within our law office, our Michigan criminal attorneys use either acronym interchangeably. The meaning of a DUI conviction is the same meaning as an OWI conviction.

Police officers make arrests, and our DUI attorneys defend these accused Michiganders. Intoxicated driving cases are a major legal practice area for Michigan criminal defense lawyers in our state. Even a first time DUI-OWI criminal charge threatens the driving privileges of the person charged with a crime of drunken driving or drugged driving.

Not all Michigan DUI attorneys are best-rated DUI lawyers. This is one major reason that our criminal lawyers in Michigan travel statewide to defend such cases for our clients.

DUI vs DWI. DWI is another acronym that was once commonly used, and this abbreviation has various meanings. The DWI meaning of “driving while Intoxicated” is used in Texas, but the same abbreviation stands for is shown as “driving while impaired” (in NC).

Both DUI and OWI are acceptable acronyms for drunk driving in the Great Lakes State. More people in Michigan search for criminal attorneys near me using the D.U.I. acronym. As stated above, DWI vs DUI is just a state’s prerogative for defining their crime for being under the influence of alcoholic beverages or a controlled substance.

Plus, each state must define its “intoxicated meaning.” That type of intoxicated definition may be contained within the body of the drunk driving statute or will be found in a definitions section for that state’s motor vehicle crimes code.

What’s an OWI? Michigan OWI attorneys (including our law firm) build their websites to include both acronyms. As you peruse sites built by Michigan OWI lawyers near me, terms such as “DUI lawyer,” DWI lawyer,” or “DUI attorney” may be interspersed in the web articles.

Is There Any Difference Between OWI and DUI?

The Michigan acronym (OWI) is also used in Wisconsin, Indiana, and other states. Other states opted to use OVI (Ohio), DUII (Oregon), DWUI (Wyoming), OUI (Maine and two other states), yet the same general crime that lawyers learn about in law school is being described in a shorthand manner.

In 1999, Michigan DUI laws were changed to broaden to types of behavior the operator of a vehicle could engage in, and still be “legally” operating a vehicle in Michigan. That year, the state legislature in Michigan changed the wording of our laws on DUI charges, as well as the use of the acronyms used for drunk driving from OUIL and UBAL to OWI. This was done so that one term, OWI, could be used to denote both legal theories available to the prosecutor.

Hiring a MI-DUI-Attorney to Protect Your Driving Record

Now, OWI can be proved when a prosecutor shows, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the person behind the wheel was either operating under the influence of liquor (OUIL) or was operating while having an unlawful bodily alcohol level (UBAL) or being “over the legal limit.”

Decades ago, Michigan legislators thought that these terms were not comprehensive enough, since a person can be OWI in Michigan without the vehicle being observed being driven. So, operating a vehicle while under the influence is criminalized in the State of Michigan. In the next section, our litigation professionals will explore “what is OWI charge” and related information about the impaired driving meaning in Michigan.

Why the Best DUI attorney is needed. For criminal defense attorneys, this criminal law practice area is very active, since citizens from all walks of life are arrested for these driving impaired offenses. Job issues, being able to drive, or even an unrelated child custody battle may be affected by the outcome of these MI OWI cases.

WARNING! MICHIGAN TIME LIMIT OF 14 DAYS AFTER ARREST – If you refused to take a post-arrest breath, blood, or urine test after being arrested for Operating Under the Influence [OWI or OWVI], or another alcohol-related charge in Michigan, your driver’s license may be at risk of being suspended.

Failure to take appropriate action to make a written demand for an administrative hearing, and do that within 14 days after your arrest, you may suffer a very disruptive license suspension. Contact us NOW for more information about saving your driver’s license before it is too late.

Once the person charged with OWI in MI learns about the impact on multiple aspects of their life and their employment, and that jail time is possible, many citizens then call our Birmingham, Michigan office for legal help from our DUI attorneys near me.

What does DUI mean? Driving under the influence (or DUI) is the most widely used abbreviation for intoxicated driving. That abbreviation and DWI are both well-known abbreviations by the public because these two acronyms were the first acronyms to develop nationally, as a short-cut means of describing the crime of drunk driving.

Call Today! FREE Consultation Lawyer and Receive Immediate Attention for Your MI OWI Law Case

Contact us 24 hours a day at the BDF law firm’s easy-to-remember toll-free number, 1-877-ALL-MICH or 877-255-6424, for a free criminal case review. The Michigan attorneys near me at BDF travel the entire Great Lakes State, to help citizens in legal trouble in Michigan for alleged criminal law violations.

Not just any Michigan OWI defense attorney is an expert in OWI defense. When you take advantage of the FREE consultation and legal fees payment plans, you will see a definite difference in our OWI attorneys near me, in how we assess each case.

Our lawyer group is led by veteran DUI book author and highly rated drunk driving lawyer in Michigan, Patrick T. Barone. Super Lawyers has tapped him as being one of the Great Lakes State’s top DUI attorneys since 2007. The law book author and Michigan criminal defense attorney for over three decades put together a skilled group of DUI criminal defense attorneys to travel the State of Michigan to defend those in legal trouble.

Knowing how to attach the dozens of available legal issues in these complex criminal law cases is a source of great pride with each of our attorneys for DUI near me. For your FREE lawyer consultation with a best lawyer Michigan, call today to learn how to protect yourself from a possible unwarranted OWI conviction.

DISCLAIMER: Submitting a contact form, text message or voicemail does not create a contract of employment of an attorney with our office. Since the contact form sends information by non-encrypted email protocol, this possibly is not secure from some monitoring agencies.

Plus, submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship. Our law office provides a confidential initial, free consultation to review the known facts and circumstances surrounding your police encounter and arrest and can provide you with free initial information about protecting your right to drive. However, until and unless you retain our legal firm’s professional services and pay the required retainer, no attorney-client representation in your court proceedings will exist.