Steve Palmer [00:00:00]:

Steve Palmer here, lawyertalkpodcast.com, where we are off the record but on the air, and this is gonna be another segment of our DUI 360 program. Here, we talk about all things DUI, all things OVI. And why do we do that? Well, because I think it's one of those topics that everybody's concerned about, at least drinkers are concerned about. And the idea here is to cover topics beyond just the the law and and discuss things that might impact you personally or somebody personally, differently than another person who might be charged with the same thing. And, I I've had some recent questions, in fact, just this week, about what the drunk school is. And and here here's how this works. In Ohio, and I think a lot of states have something similar, if you go plead guilty to OVI or DUI, the court, the judge, has to impose certain mandatory minimum punishments. And among those is 3 days in jail.

Steve Palmer [00:00:51]:

And most people when they hear that 3 days in jail, they start to quiver, or or they think, how do I get out of that? Well, there there is a way out, and the law in Ohio lets you serve those same 3 days, those same 72 hours, in a certified driver's intervention program, AKA drunk school or the weekend program or the hotel or whatever people call it. And here's how this works. You get sentenced to 3 days in jail and often the judge will look at, me, the defense, or the defendant and say, would your client like to do the driver's intervention program? And by the way, often, we do this in advance. So if you call me for an OBI and it looks like it's sort of going in a certain direction, I will often have my client get this program done in advance. One, it helps with plea negotiations because part of the program typically is an evaluation for substance abuse issues. And 2, it shows that you're at least, doing something to move the ball forward. Often what we're doing as we negotiate these cases is we're we're sort of giving the court, we're giving the prosecutor, we're giving the system a peg they can put in the wall and hang their hat on to maybe give us a deal and getting that program done in advance is one of those pegs. So what is the program? Well in Ohio, it used to be that there were a lot of places that had their own facility.

Steve Palmer [00:02:08]:

There was a place called Mary Haven here in Ohio, there was another one called Parkside Recovery Center and they had like bunkhouse type housing or even individual rooms. And you would pay and go spend a weekend there and be subject to all sorts of education about alcohol, alcohol related problems and specifically drinking and driving related problems. It's long, it's probably boring, I think often it's probably boring, but it's not jail and that's most people would choose that. Now you you would say now it's become, a little bit more streamlined. Different private companies have popped up and they produce these programs at hotels and, once they get enough people signed up, they book the hotel block and, they provide the programming right there in the hotel conference room. People aren't allowed to leave the hotel because it's theoretically supposed to be locked down, so you can't go around the corner and catch a movie after everything closes. You can't go out for a midnight snack. I I presume you could probably order, something in.

Steve Palmer [00:03:06]:

I don't know. But, you know, the idea is they provide food, they provide the seminar, and you're locked down in a hotel to the extent that it is being locked down for 72 hours. And once you do that, you have checked the box of having completed the program. I used to as an attorney on Saturday mornings and sometimes Sunday mornings, they would invite us to go speak to the participants of the program and explain the legal issues. They often wanted to hear about the driver's license suspensions, what reinstatement requires are or requirements are. But we would go in and I would try to make it as entertaining as I could and I've sort of watched people over the years in these programs. Some groups are really active and it looks like they're having fun together. Other groups look like they couldn't be more miserable.

Steve Palmer [00:03:49]:

You know, it's just it's just the dynamic of the personalities. But I've always said it, when I talk to people who have done it, I've threatened to do it over the years. I never have. It's never it's never completely awful. It's certainly nothing anybody would wanna choose to do on your weekend, but it's better than jail and most people get at least something out of it and then we on the on the legal side, if we've done it in advance, get something out of it as we try to negotiate the case. So the 72 hour drunk school, the driver's intervention program, maybe here's the takeaway. It's not that bad. You're probably gonna have to do it even if you get your case reduced, or modified or changed to a reckless op or something else.

Steve Palmer [00:04:29]:

Most courts are still gonna require something like that as a condition, of even net reduction. So look, not a horrible option. Talk to your lawyer about it. We've got a list of programs that we could refer you to. If you need help with your OBI, I guess I should shamelessly plug my law firm upstairs, Palmer Legal Defense, Practice all over the state of Ohio. Give us a shout. But until then, this is a lawyer talk podcast off the record on the air, DUI 316.