How a Michigan DUI Affects Your Job and Career
As Michigan DUI lawyers, we are regularly asked how a DUI will affect someone’s employment. The good news is that, most of the time, a single DUI will NOT adversely impact a person’s job. That said, there are a few circumstances where it can and will be a problem. Fortunately, those are the exceptions, rather than the rule. In this article, we’ll examine the issue of DUI and employment, along with the requirement, in some cases, to report it to one’s employer and/or professional licensing body.
DUI and Employment: Why Most Employers Won’t Find Out
Let’s start with the basics: A DUI is both a criminal and a traffic offense. Under Michigan law, a conviction for any alcohol-related traffic offense will wind up on both a person’s criminal record AND his or her driving record. Michigan now has an expungement law that allows a single DUI to be removed from someone’s criminal record (but NOT the driving record) after 5 years, provided the person meets certain conditions. While that’s great news, it doesn’t change the fact that a DUI first goes on both records — and the impact of that is our focus here.
One of the more common questions we hear goes something like this: “Will my job find out about this?” The answer is almost always, “No” — unless you are required to report it to your employer. Neither the court system nor the police will ever notify any third party of a person’s DUI case. Absent a contractual or legal obligation to inform an employer about a DUI arrest and/or pending case, nobody is going to know unless the person facing it says something.
The Difference Between a Charge and a Conviction
Here is another very important point: There is a huge difference between a charge and a conviction. Although there are exceptions, even when a person is required to “report” a DUI, that usually applies only to a conviction, and not a mere charge. In other words, if someone is arrested for and charged with a 1st offense DUI, but then the matter is dismissed, they are typically NOT required to report that.
As noted, there are exceptions. We’ve had clients — most often active duty military and people with security clearances — who were obligated to promptly report to their employers that they’d been arrested for a DUI.
We’ll get to professional license reporting requirements shortly, but there are also people employed under contractual terms that require them to report an arrest, not just a conviction. The only way to know whether that applies is to read the employee handbook or whatever else specifies those obligations to the employer.
Another important consideration is that, even if an OWI case (the actual legal term is “Operating While Intoxicated,” although everyone calls it a “DUI”) can’t be dismissed outright, there is often a significant difference between the offense originally charged and the conviction offense that ultimately goes on a person’s record. This is almost always the result of a negotiated plea bargain that reduces the charged offense to something less severe.
For example, assume that Bad Luck Brenda is arrested for and charged with a High BAC offense. Our team manages to negotiate a deal reducing her charge down to impaired driving (OWVI). This will significantly lessen the impact to her record, and she’ll never lose the ability to drive, either. The plea bargain means she will be convicted of a less serious offense than the one she was originally charged with.
Accordingly, even among those required to report a conviction to their employer, it’s the final charge on the record that usually matters. Ultimately, if an employer runs a criminal or driving record check, it’s the conviction offense that will show up. Of course, avoiding a conviction altogether completely avoids that.
CDL Holders Face the Harshest Consequences
Anyone with a CDL (commercial driver’s license) will automatically lose it for a year if they are convicted of any alcohol-related traffic offense while driving a personal vehicle. Things are worse if a person is convicted of driving over the limit while operating a commercial vehicle — in that case, the suspension period is 3 years.
Because a CDL is governed by federal motor carrier laws, there is no way to avoid the mandatory suspension other than to avoid a DUI conviction altogether. This makes it critically important for our team, as DUI lawyers, to leave no stone unturned in an effort to beat the case.
On the bright side, CDL penalties only affect a small minority of people who get a DUI.
What If Your Job Requires Driving?
Operating a commercial vehicle is one thing, but just having to drive as part of one’s employment is another.
Many people have to drive as part of their jobs. As long as someone doesn’t need to operate a commercial vehicle that requires a CDL, the license penalties from a 1st offense DUI are usually not that severe. No matter what, the very worst 1st offense license penalty (for High BAC cases) will only sideline a person from driving for 45 days.
By contrast, the least severe penalty (for OWVI, or “impaired driving” cases) only restricts a person’s pleasure driving for 90 days and has NO effect on the ability to drive to, from, or during the course of work. That’s exactly what happened to Bad Luck Brenda in our example above.
Whether someone has to report this to an employer depends on the situation. Some employers who rely on an employee to drive may require disclosure. Others periodically run checks on an employee’s driving record — particularly if someone operates a company vehicle. The majority, however, don’t do anything except require a person to get the job done.
To use our own firm as an example: if one of our associate lawyers or support staff picked up a DUI, the primary concern would be whether he or she could get to work and, in the case of one of the lawyers, get to court. As long as there was no indication that the DUI was symptomatic of a broader problem affecting job performance, it wouldn’t be an issue. My team and I think it’s fair to say that most employers feel the same way.
The reality is that many people go through a DUI and nobody at work ever finds out. Other than a few hours off for court appearances, a person can navigate a DUI case without anyone being the wiser.
Professional Licenses and LARA Reporting
Some people who hold a professional license through the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) must report a DUI conviction. In our practice, we see this most often in the context of medical licenses.
The biggest licensing problem for anyone convicted of a 1st offense DUI is often failing to report it — not the conviction itself. How that information is presented to the licensing body matters enormously. My team and I help our clients make the disclosure in a way that minimizes further action. In cases involving an underlying alcohol or drug issue, we work with specialized outside counsel who concentrate specifically in LARA reporting.
The full scope of LARA obligations goes beyond what we can cover here. What’s important is that anyone who holds any kind of license through the State of Michigan — or certain federal agencies — must always confirm his or her reporting obligations after a DUI.
Whether a person must also report an arrest and/or conviction to an employer is almost always a matter of contract. An employment agreement may require disclosure of an arrest, a conviction, or anything reported to LARA. Reading that contract carefully — ideally with a lawyer’s help — is the only way to know for certain.
Summary: DUI and Employment at a Glance
This article covers the essentials of how a DUI intersects with employment for 1st offense cases. Here’s a quick summary:
- A very small minority of people will have to report a DUI arrest to their employer.
- A few are contractually or legally required to report a DUI conviction to their employer.
- Most people are under no obligation to say anything about either a DUI arrest or conviction at work.
- The court system does not notify anyone’s employer about a DUI case.
- Some employers run criminal and/or driving record checks, so a DUI may eventually be discovered.
- Anyone whose employment requires a CDL will have it suspended for a year upon conviction for a 1st offense DUI.
- Some people are required to report a DUI conviction to their licensing body. Any such person may also be contractually obligated to notify their employer.
If you are facing a DUI and considering your options, be a smart consumer and read around. Pay attention to how different lawyers explain the DUI process and their approach to it. When you’ve done enough reading, start calling around — you can learn a lot from a conversation with a live person.
If your case is pending anywhere in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, or the surrounding counties, make sure you give our office a call. All consultations are free, confidential, and done over the phone right when you call. My team and I are happy to answer your questions, explain the process, and compare notes with anything another lawyer may have told you. We can be reached Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at 586-465-1980. After-hours, our answering service is available to take your call.
To learn more about how we approach DUI cases, visit our Michigan DUI defense page.
