The Impact Of A DUI Arrest On Families

When you find yourself in need of a DUI Defense attorney, you may be thinking about the legal impact a DUI arrest may have on you, personally, but you may not be thinking about the impact it may have on your family. There is most certainly a major impact on your ability to drive in the future, avoid jail time and more as it relates to your own personal difficulties surrounding this type of an arrest, but an arrest in this arena can also be quite difficult on your family as well.

Before you think about the impact an arrest may have on you and your family, you should consider how you can avoid an arrest all together. The best way to keep yourself from having to deal with a DUI (Driving Under the Influence) arrest is to not do this in the first place. If you’re planning on drinking alcohol and you’re away from your own home, make a plan to get home safely and without getting behind the wheel of your car. If you and your friends are planning a night of using recreational drugs you will want to make sure that when you’re done for the night you have a way to get home that does not involve you driving. The best thing you can do to limit the impact of a DUI arrest on your family is to not put yourself in that situation in the first place.

However, if you do end up in this type of situation you will want to make sure you take the time to consider your options and how they may affect your family. In this way, it is important for you to contact an attorney as soon as possible if you find yourself in this situation. An attorney can help guide you through the process of protecting your rights and freeing you up to consider the difficult impact this type of arrest may have on your family. As soon as you find yourself in a situation like this, you should seek representation so you can have the best possible outcome.

If you do get arrested you should think about how this arrest is going to affect your family and make sure you are open and honest about the impact on your loved ones. Once the situation has occurred you will want to have an honest and open discussion with those in your family who are most affected by your actions and discuss some of the following impacts;

1.) Financial strain. Dealing with the fallout of a DUI arrest can be costly. This is something that will directly impact your family members and something you should talk about with your loved ones. Increased insurance premiums, loss of wages and an inability to drive may all have a financial burden on your family and you should be clear about this with those who are your biggest supporters so they know what to expect.

2.) Emotional stress. You may be having some difficult feelings of embarrassment or shame from this type of arrest, but so too may your family. It is important to speak about these issues and have an honest and open discussion about them. It can be difficult for family members to understand how the arrest happened and why you took the actions you took. You should be transparent with them so they have a full picture of what happened.

3.) Impact on children. If you have children at home they may be scarred or confused about what is happening. Depending on their ages you may want to discuss what happened and how it has made you feel and what you might do differently to avoid this from happening again in the future. Children may develop a difficulty for trusting you in the coming weeks, so be prepared for this and try to have patience as they continue to process their feelings around your arrest.

There are other impacts on family that are quite serious in the event that you require a DUI defense attorney like loss of employment or a loss of your drivers license. These things can have tremendous, lasting impacts on all the people in your life and should be treated with seriousness and honesty. If you try to run from these hard truths they will only get harder and more difficult to address with your family members and the impact will not go away.

When you experience a situation like this you may need to speak with an attorney who has experience in this situation. Contact our office and one of our experienced attorneys will review your situation and work with you to protect your long-term interests.