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Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
Michigan Firearm Rights Restoration After a Felony: What Changed in 2026
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Proximate Cause in a Michigan DUI Causing Death Case
Short Answer
In a Michigan DUI causing death case, the prosecution must prove more than intoxication and a fatal collision. Michigan law formally calls the offense OWI causing death, but DUI is the term most people use to describe impaired-driving charges. The prosecution must prove that the defendant’s operation of the vehicle was both a factual and a proximate cause of the death. When another driver’s conduct, excessive speed, intoxication, road conditions, mechanical failure, or another intervening event materially contributed to the collision, proximate cause can become a central issue.
Proximate cause in a Michigan DUI causing death case is a separate legal issue from whether the accused was intoxicated. A blood or breath result may bear on the DUI allegation, but it does not by itself establish how a fatal collision occurred or whether the defendant’s operation legally caused the death.
Retrograde Extrapolation in DUI Cases: Science, Strategy, and Cross-Examination
Retrograde extrapolation is the process of estimating a driver’s earlier blood alcohol concentration from a later test. In DUI and Michigan OWI cases, the calculation can appear precise, but its reliability depends on facts that are often missing.
What Is Retrograde Extrapolation in a DUI Case?
Understanding the Disconnect Defense in a Michigan DUI Case
The disconnect defense in a Michigan OWI case applies when the chemical test result does not match the defendant’s observable behavior. If a breath or blood test reports a high BAC but the officer’s observations, police video, driving evidence, and field sobriety performance show little or no meaningful impairment, that inconsistency may create reasonable doubt.
This defense is especially important in high-BAC and Michigan Super Drunk cases, where the reported number is 0.17 or higher. At that level, prosecutors often expect a jury to assume serious impairment. But a high BAC number also creates a higher evidentiary expectation. If the person on the video does not look, speak, walk, or perform like someone at the reported BAC, the number itself may become vulnerable.
The disconnect defense does not prove that the driver was sober. It asks a more precise trial question: does the chemical result fit the person the officer actually observed?
Michigan Rape Shield Law: What MCL 750.520j Prohibits and What Masi Changed
Short Answer
Michigan rape shield law, MCL 750.520j, generally prevents prosecutors and defendants from introducing evidence of a complainant’s prior sexual conduct, opinion evidence about sexual conduct, or reputation evidence about sexual conduct in criminal sexual conduct cases. The statute recognizes two narrow statutory categories of potentially admissible evidence: prior sexual conduct with the accused and specific sexual activity showing the source or origin of semen, pregnancy, or disease. Other evidence may be admitted only when exclusion would violate the accused person’s constitutional right to confrontation or right to present a defense.
Michigan rape shield law is one of the most important evidentiary rules in a criminal sexual conduct case. It affects what the jury may hear, what the defense may investigate, how cross-examination is limited, and whether evidence of prior third-party abuse, sexual knowledge, or prior false allegations can be used at trial.
Michigan OWI for Outside Sales Professionals: Driving & Career Ramifications
Michigan OWI for Sales Professionals: Job and License Risks
Michigan OWI for sales professionals can create career problems that go beyond court, fines, probation, or possible jail. If your job depends on driving to client meetings, maintaining a company car, passing motor vehicle record checks, or covering a sales territory, an OWI charge can threaten your mobility, reputation, and employment before the criminal case is finished.
Quick Answer: Can a Michigan OWI Affect a Sales Career?
Gas Chromatography DUI Blood Tests in Michigan: How the Raw Data Can Create a Defense
Key point: A blood alcohol number is not self-proving. It is the final product of sample handling, instrument performance, laboratory protocols, and human interpretation.
What Is a Gas Chromatography DUI Blood Test?
Do I need a DUI attorney for a first offense in Michigan?
When someone is charged with a first-offense OWI under MCL 257.625, the question of whether to hire a defense attorney is, in practical terms, not a question at all. Because the charge carries up to 93 days in jail, the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches to every such prosecution.
While a defendant may theoretically waive that right, Michigan courts actively discourage waiver in OWI cases and grant it only in rare circumstances, and when a waiver is granted, the defendant is held to precisely the same standard as a licensed attorney: full knowledge of the law, the Michigan Rules of Evidence, the Michigan Court Rules, and the customs and protocols of the court.
In over thirty years of practice, the attorneys at the Barone Defense Firm have seen self-representation in a Michigan OWI case succeed almost never. The real question is not whether counsel is required, but what a skilled first offense OWI attorney can accomplish that no defendant standing alone realistically can.
Michigan OWI for CDL Holders: Protecting Your Trucking Career After a DUI
Quick Answer: What Happens to a CDL After a Michigan OWI?
A Michigan OWI can disqualify a CDL holder from operating a commercial motor vehicle for at least one year, even if the arrest happened in a personal vehicle. If the driver was operating a commercial motor vehicle with a BAC of 0.04% or more, refused a required alcohol test, or was convicted of an alcohol-related driving offense, CDL disqualification may apply. A first major offense generally carries a one-year commercial driving disqualification. If hazardous materials were involved, the disqualification period can increase to three years. A second separate major offense can result in lifetime CDL disqualification, with limited possible reinstatement after 10 years in some cases.
Michigan OWI for Financial Professionals: License, Career, and Reputation Risks
Michigan OWI for financial professionals can create problems that extend far beyond court. For financial advisors, brokers, investment adviser representatives, CFP professionals, CPAs, insurance producers, bankers, executives, and other financial professionals, the criminal case is only one part of the risk. The larger concern may be disclosure, licensing, employment, client trust, background checks, travel restrictions, and long-term reputational harm.
A first-offense Michigan OWI does not automatically end a financial professional’s career, but it can create serious professional consequences. The impact depends on the exact charge, whether the case is a misdemeanor or felony, the person’s license or registration, employer policies, aggravating facts, and whether any required disclosure is made accurately and on time. The most important step is to defend the criminal case while also identifying every professional reporting obligation before a missed deadline or inconsistent statement becomes a separate problem.
For many financial professionals, the OWI charge is the first time they have ever been treated as a criminal defendant. They may be embarrassed, anxious, and afraid that one incident will redefine a lifetime of professional achievement. A good defense should address those fears directly while building a practical plan for the court case, the license issues, and the professional narrative.