One Of These Charges Soon After A DUI Can Complicate Your Case
Following a DUI arrest, it may be some time before your case goes to trial. This is especially true if you've hired a DUI attorney and have decided to fight what you believe to be an unjust charge. While you're busy preparing your case with your legal representative, you'll want to do your best to avoid another encounter with the police. An arrest while you're awaiting trial for your DUI charge can be problematic, as it will almost certainly be discussed in court. And, if it involves alcohol, it can indicate that you didn't learn anything from your DUI arrest. Here are some charges that can especially be a concern.
Public Intoxication
On its own, a charge for being intoxicated in public can be a problem in your life. However, if you're currently awaiting a court date to fight your recent charge for driving under the influence of alcohol, this subsequent charge has the ability to really derail your DUI defense. You can be almost certain that the judge who is presiding over your trial will express doubt that you learned anything from your DUI arrest, and he or she may suggest that you obviously need a harsher punishment to start taking your alcohol consumption seriously.
Open Container
Being stopped by the police in a vehicle in which you're not the driver can also be problematic, even if you argue you were simply riding along and not doing anything. If you happen to have a container of alcohol in your possession, you're apt to receive a charge for an open container. While you might feel as though this charge is better than a DUI — and, in a sense, you might be able to argue that drinking in the back seat is better than putting peoples' lives at risk by being intoxicated behind the steering wheel — having an open container in your possession is still against the law and can suggest that you haven't learned your lesson about alcohol and vehicles.
Underage Drinking
A DUI arrest if you're under the legal drinking age is extra serious, because in addition to operating a vehicle while intoxicated, you shouldn't have even been drinking in the first place. A subsequent arrest for underage drinking is another serious legal situation in which you don't want to find yourself. It, too, tells the judge that you haven't apparently learned anything from your DUI, as well as the fact that you may have a problem with alcohol.
For more information, talk to a DWI defense attorney.