Wisconsin could enable tougher drunk driving laws as soon as mid September.

First, a 4th DUI will be considered a felony under the new law. Currently a 5th time DUI in Wisconsin is considered a felony. Also, on the bill co-sponsored by Republican Tony Staskunas is mandatory ignition interlock use for repeat offenders.

The bill states an offender will have to at least partially pay for the installation and maintenance of the device. What this means exactly is unclear at the moment.

Wisconsin drunk driving law (DUI / OWI) prohibits a person from driving or operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, a controlled substance, or a combination of alcohol and a controlled substance, or any other drug which makes a person less capable of safely driving. If you have been arrested for drunk driving in Wisconsin you should contact a Wisconsin DUI lawyer immediatly. During your search, visit the Law Firm Directory to find a DUI lawyer.

The Labor Day weekend is more than two weeks away, but local law enforcement are joining forces from now through the holiday weekend in an effort to make the streets safer for drivers. More than 10,000 law enforcement agencies across the country will take part in a DUI crackdown on inebriated drivers in a campaign starting last night.

The Highway Patrol put out what it calls saturation patrols Friday night on the freeways, where officers will be actively looking for drivers under the influence through labor day.

The crackdown comes the same week the FBI released a report that the number of women driving drunk has increased by almost 29 percent during the past weekend.

Officers say they will arrest anyone caught driving with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 grams per deciliter or more.

In March a 16 year old boy was killed by a 15 year old drunken female driver who had a blood alcohol level of .165, more than twice the legal limit in Florida.

The driver, of Naples, faces Florida DUI manslaughter charges and if convicted could face up to 15 years jail time.

"This will be a good test for the justice system in Florida," said Arizona DUI Lawyer Stewart Bergman, who has handled serious vehicular crimes, including manslaughter. "When you look at the Stallworth sentence, it should give her attorneys a pretty compelling argument."

Though Mr. Stewart has a point there are some things that make what this driver did worse than what NFL WR Donte Stallworth did.  First is the fact that her victim was young. Second is the fact that he put his trust in her. Third is the fact that she shouldn't have been drinking at all. Fourth is the fact that she was not a licensed driver. And finally, according to reports by the Florida Highway Patrol, she was driving at 70 miles per hour in an 30-mph zone.

Check back for updates.

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A DUI charge against a Mobile, AL DUI lawyer has been dropped due to lack of evidence.

The prosecution was stymied by the defendant’s refusal to take a Breathalyzer test when he was pulled over Dec. 6. He spent a night in the Mobile County Metro Jail and, because he would not take the Breathalyzer, had his driving license suspended for 90 days, in accordance with Alabama law.

His attorney, Richard Alexander, said, “A seasoned prosecutor looked at this thing and made a decision that he was not going to be able to prove the case.”The Mobile DUI Lawyer himself has been quoted in the Press-Register as saying he advises his clients in Alabama DUI cases not to take Breathalyzers.

The prosecution said the threat of not being able to drive in response to refusing a Breathlayzer might carry more weight if state law required a suspension for six months or longer.

“If they refuse to take the test — and DUI lawyers know it best — it makes it difficult to win the case,” Mobile County Sheriff Sam Cochran said Thursday.

This was the second DUI charge dropped against the lawyer who specializes in DUI law. His initial Alabama DUI charge came in 2001. The case was dropped provided he didn’t get another DUI within six months.

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The Montana Legislature’s Law and Justice Interim Committee will spend the next 18 months focusing on Montana DUI laws and storage of DNA evidence, said Rep. Shannon Augare, its new chairman.

The Montana DUI study request asks committee members to examine the strengths and weaknesses of Montana’s laws and to compare those laws to other states. The committee also is tasked with studying the incarceration rate for DUI offenses in the state and to determine whether Montana has a culture of accepting drunken driving.

Legislators also asked the committee to study the protocol for how law enforcement agencies collect and maintain DNA evidence in the state; they also asked the committee to come up with statewide standards for how that material is handled.

The Supreme Court in Washington state on Thursday unanimously reinstated a $14 million award to a family who sued a tavern and a bartender after one of the bar's customers drove away from the establishment and collided with their car, leaving a 7-year-old-boy a paraplegic.

Under state law, bartenders who serve visibly intoxicated customers are liable for damages to potential victims. At question was the type of evidence needed to prove "negligent overservice."

More.

Former major league baseball player Jim Leyritz won’t have to go back to jail since the alcohol-monitoring device in his car likely malfunctioned, a judge says.

Broward County Circuit Judge Marc Gold ruled Friday that Leyritz, 45, was not at fault for a positive reading on an alcohol device installed in his car by police as he awaits trial on Florida DUI manslaughter charges, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

Gold reportedly could have jailed Leyritz if the former New York Yankees player had been found to have alcohol in his system while in control of his car. But state prosecutor Stefanie Newman said Leyritz submitted urine samples that contradicted the results of the monitoring device, which had apparently malfunctioned.

Leyritz admitted this year to drinking on four occasions after the monitoring device gave positive readings and was jailed for five days, the newspaper said. He is accused of being drunk while running a red light and colliding with a car driven by a 30-year-old woman who was killed in the December 2007 crash in Fort Lauderdale.

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Local law-enforcement agencies will implement DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols in Petaluma and nearby areas during a countywide crackdown during the Memorial Day weekend.

“Law enforcement (agencies) throughout the county will be combining resources and sending out a unified message this Memorial Day weekend to holiday travelers, college graduates and communities enjoying festivities that drunk driving won’t be tolerated. If you’re over the limit, you will be arrested,” said Sgt. Ken Savano of the Petaluma Police Department.

The county’s Avoid the 13 DUI task force will be staffing checkpoints this weekend and deploying additional local DUI saturation patrols working overtime. The task force will be “targeting those (people) who still don’t heed the message to designate a sober driver before the celebrations begin,” Savano said.

The enforcement campaign will begin in Petaluma on Friday night, May 22 with a DUI/driver’s license checkpoint in Petaluma, and saturation patrols will be scheduled throughout the weekend. The California Highway Patrol will be deploying 80 percent of all available officers — on freeways and county roads in its jurisdiction — during the weekend.

Funding for the operations is being provided through a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The number of people killed in alcohol-related deaths in California dropped from 1,597 in 2006 to 1,489 in 2007. Traffic-safety experts are hoping that when data is available for 2008, it will show an additional decline.

“Police, sheriff and CHP officers are doing more with less to remove drunk drivers from California’s streets and highways,” said Chris Murphy, director of the California Office of Traffic Safety. “Law enforcement (agencies) everywhere are asking for the community’s help; if you see a drunk driver, call 911.”

The Petaluma Police Department serves as the lead agency for California DUI enforcement efforts in Sonoma County to reduce alcohol-related injuries and raise general public awareness regarding the problems associated with drinking and driving.

Participating agencies include the city police departments from Cloverdale, Cotati, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma and Windsor; Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department; Sonoma State University Police Department; Santa Rosa Junior College Police Department; Santa Rosa Junior College Police Department; California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control; and California Highway Patrol.

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A teenager who pleaded guilty to hitting and killing a Clarke County woman as she walked along a road with her 3-year-old son has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

At Thursday’s sentencing, prosecutors said Abel Gonzalez-Perez will be held in a youth detention facility until he turns 17 in September, then will be transferred to adult prison.

Prosecutors said the teen is a native of Mexico who was working illegally in the U.S. He earlier pleaded guilty to first-degree vehicular homicide, DUI and hit-and-run.

Nayasheika “Keisha” Cooper, who was 19, died after being hit from behind in the June 14, 2008, accident.

Judge Steve Jones also ordered Gonzalez-Perez to serve seven years of probation after he is released from prison.

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