DUI Accidents Causing Injury
Accidents resulting in an injury to a person or persons other than the
driver arrested for DUI are the most serious and complicated driving under
the influence cases a lawyer will handle. California Highway Patrol and
San Francisco are directed by their respective agency's policy to charge
any DUI arrest involving an accident and injury to another person as a
felony. Every DUI arrest involving an injury will trigger two
felony DUI charges. The first felony DUI charge is for driving under the
influence causing injury in violation of California Vehicle Code Section
23153, subdivision (a).
The second DUI charge if for driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.08% or greater causing injury in violation of California Vehicle Code Section 23153, subdivision (b). Each of these felony charges carry a statutory bail of $50,000. Accordingly, the total bail for a person arrested for DUI causing injury in San Francisco is a minimum of $100,000. A bail agent will typically charge ten (10) percent to a non-attorney seeking to bail a loved one or friend out of the San Francisco County Jail. Any fee paid to a bail agent is nonrefundable.
Bail in a DUI injury case will oftentimes be reduced by a judge at the first San Francisco Superior Court appearance. However, given that most DUI's happen on a Friday or Saturday, the person arrested for driving under the influence causing injury will be required to remain in jail for several days waiting for the case to be investigated by the San Francisco Police Department Inspector's Bureau and charged by the San Francisco District Attorney. If it turns out that the felony DUI injury charges are reduced to misdemeanor injury DUI charges by the District Attorney, bail will be reduced to $20,00 for the misdemeanor DUI causing injury charge and $20,000 for the misdemeanor driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.08% causing injury charge. However, the District Attorney's reduction in charges will not occur until the first court day following the DUI injury arrest at the earliest.
Experienced San Francisco DUI attorneys have established relationships with bail agents and should be able to obtain discounts from bail agents for most clients. If someone close to you is in the San Francisco County Jail for a DUI arrest causing injury, feel free to call the office at any hour and I will contacted and will respond as soon as I receive the message.
Contact The Office
The Law Office of Robert Tayac has been helping people charged with DUI in San Francisco for over twenty years. If you hire Robert Tayac to handle your case, you will know that you are retaining the services of a knowledgeable, experienced, and trustworthy San Francisco DUI lawyer.