Indiana DUI Laws and OWI Penalties: What a Conviction Costs

· Written By Jerry L. Garner

An Indiana operating while intoxicated conviction costs three things, set by three different statutes: the term a court can impose, the fine, and your driver’s license. The figures that circulate are usually the aggravated ones, which is how somebody arrested for a first offense at 0.09 with nobody endangered braces for a year in jail and a $5,000 fine the statute for that charge does not authorize.

This is what Indiana imposes for OWI charges in Evansville, Rockport, Tell City, Boonville and across Southern Indiana. Every figure comes from the Code section beside it.

What Indiana Charges as an OWI

Indiana’s offense is operating a vehicle while intoxicated. IC 9-30-5 is the chapter, its title is the name of the charge, and IC 9-30-5-2(a) states it plainly: a person who operates a vehicle while intoxicated commits a Class C misdemeanor.

If the letters on your paperwork brought you here, our post on what OWI, DUI and the other acronyms mean in Indiana settles that. This one is about the numbers.

Sentence Ranges, Advisory Sentences, and Fines

Indiana sets the sentence by offense class, in a different title from the one creating the offense. IC 35-50-3-4 states the baseline in a single sentence: a person who commits a Class C misdemeanor shall be imprisoned for a fixed term of not more than sixty days, and in addition may be fined not more than $500.

At a glance:

  • Class C misdemeanor: up to 60 days, fine up to $500 (IC 35-50-3-4)
  • Class A misdemeanor: up to 1 year, fine up to $5,000 (IC 35-50-3-2)
  • Level 6 felony: 6 months to 2 1/2 years, advisory 1 year, fine up to $10,000 (IC 35-50-2-7(b))
  • Level 5 felony: 1 to 6 years, advisory 3 years, fine up to $10,000 (IC 35-50-2-6(b))
  • Level 4 felony: 2 to 12 years, advisory 6 years, fine up to $10,000 (IC 35-50-2-5.5)

The advisory sentence is a third figure the felony statutes name, between the floor and the ceiling. Each authorizes a fixed term anywhere in its range, so reading the advisory as the sentence a case will produce treats it as something the statute does not say.

Class C Misdemeanor

The baseline: at least 0.08 but under 0.15 under IC 9-30-5-1(a), a schedule I or II controlled substance or its metabolite in the blood under IC 9-30-5-1(c), or intoxication alone under IC 9-30-5-2(a).

Class A Misdemeanor

A result of at least 0.15 under IC 9-30-5-1(b), or operating while intoxicated in a manner that endangers a person under IC 9-30-5-2(b). One year and $5,000 belong to those two situations, not to an ordinary first offense.

Level 6 Felony

A prior conviction, or a passenger under eighteen, both under IC 9-30-5-3(a).

Level 5 Felony

Serious bodily injury under IC 9-30-5-4(a), or a new violation by somebody with a previous conviction of an OWI causing serious bodily injury, catastrophic injury or death, under IC 9-30-5-3(b).

Level 4 Felony

Death or catastrophic injury under IC 9-30-5-5(a), or serious bodily injury with a qualifying prior conviction under IC 9-30-5-4(a).

What Raises an OWI Above a First Offense

Four things move the class, and each carries conditions written into the statute.

A Prior Conviction

IC 9-30-5-3(a) makes a violation a Level 6 felony where the person has a previous conviction of operating while intoxicated within the seven years immediately preceding it.

A prior conviction also brings an additional sentence the court cannot suspend. IC 9-30-5-15 requires at least five days of imprisonment or 240 hours of community restitution or service where there is one previous conviction, and at least ten days or 480 hours where there are two or more, with an alcohol and drug assessment. It earns no good time credit. The chapter sets no mandatory minimum jail term for a first offense.

A Higher Test Result, or Endangering Someone

IC 9-30-5-1 splits at 0.15, and IC 9-30-5-2(b) reaches Class A through endangerment with no test result at all. Both raise the class before any prior conviction.

Two lower numbers get cited alongside 0.08 and neither is a crime: at least 0.04 but under 0.08 for a commercial driver under IC 9-24-6.1-6, and at least 0.02 but under 0.08 for a driver under twenty-one under IC 9-30-5-8.5. Both are Class C infractions, civil violations that do not escalate an OWI.

Injury or Death

IC 9-30-5-4(a) makes causing serious bodily injury a Level 5 felony, and a Level 4 felony where there is a previous conviction of operating while intoxicated within the preceding five years. That window is five years, not the seven in IC 9-30-5-3(a). IC 9-30-5-5(a) makes causing death or catastrophic injury a Level 4 felony, and both IC 9-30-5-4(b) and IC 9-30-5-5(c) provide that a separate offense is committed for each person injured or killed.

A Passenger Under Eighteen

Three conditions, all required. Under IC 9-30-5-3(a)(2) the charge is a Level 6 felony where the person is at least twenty-one, violates IC 9-30-5-1(b), IC 9-30-5-1(c) or IC 9-30-5-2(b), and operated a vehicle carrying at least one passenger under eighteen.

The middle condition gets skipped. A first offense at 0.09 with nobody endangered violates IC 9-30-5-1(a), which is not on that list, so a child in the car does not by itself make it a felony.

Losing Your License, and Getting Back on the Road

Your license runs on its own clock, it starts before the criminal case ends, and two suspensions are in play. One is administrative, imposed by the bureau of motor vehicles on an affidavit. The other comes from the court on conviction: IC 9-30-16-1(c) lets a court suspend driving privileges for up to the maximum allowable period of incarceration under the penalty for the offense, so that ceiling follows the class, sixty days for a Class C misdemeanor and one year for a Class A.

Two situations carry a minimum instead. IC 9-30-16-2(a) requires at least one year where the offense includes causing serious bodily injury, or where the person already has a conviction under IC 9-30-5. IC 9-30-16-2(c) requires at least two years for causing a death, with no eligibility for specialized driving privileges.

Administrative Suspension

IC 9-30-6-1 makes operating a vehicle in Indiana consent to a chemical test. IC 9-30-6-2(a) requires an officer with probable cause to offer one, IC 9-30-6-2(c) requires it administered within three hours of that probable cause, and IC 9-30-6-2(d) requires you to submit to each test offered, so declining a second is a refusal.

IC 9-30-6-9(c) directs the bureau to suspend driving privileges for 180 days, or until it is notified the charges have been disposed of, whichever occurs first, where the affidavit states that a chemical test resulted in prima facie evidence of intoxication. A result that does not carry that evidence is not what the subsection acts on.

IC 9-30-6-10(a) entitles you to a prompt judicial hearing, which IC 9-30-6-10(c) limits to two issues: whether the officer had probable cause, and whether you refused a chemical test. IC 9-30-6-10(f) puts the burden on the person seeking review, by a preponderance.

Refusing a Chemical Test

Refusing costs more than failing, in three ways.

  • The suspension is longer and fixed. IC 9-30-6-9(b) sets a first refusal at one year, and two years where the person has a previous conviction for operating while intoxicated. It is not up to a year. It is a year.
  • It costs eligibility for relief. IC 9-30-16-1(a)(2) makes a person seeking specialized driving privileges with respect to a refusal-based suspension ineligible for them, subject to a cross reference in the same subdivision to IC 9-30-6-8(d).
  • The time earns nothing. Under IC 9-30-16-6(a) days served on a refusal suspension earn no credit against a later court suspension, which IC 9-30-16-6(b) requires to run consecutive to it. Days on a failed test suspension are credited.

IC 9-30-16-6.5 runs the other way, requiring the court and the bureau to terminate whatever remains of a suspension if the charges are dismissed, the person is acquitted, or a conviction is vacated or reversed on appeal.

Specialized Driving Privileges

The phrase people search for is hardship license, and Indiana’s driving statutes have nothing by that name. The word hardship appears four times in Title 9 and none of the four creates driving relief after an OWI. What Indiana has is specialized driving privileges, under IC 9-30-16.

They come by petition. IC 9-30-16-3(b) requires a verified petition, filed in the case that produced the suspension and served on the bureau and the prosecuting attorney. IC 9-30-16-4(a) covers a suspension that is administrative rather than court ordered.

The deadline is short. Under IC 9-30-16-1(g), telling the court at the initial hearing that you intend to petition stays the suspension, but the petition must be filed within ten days or the stay is lifted, and the hearing is set within thirty days.

What the privileges look like is the court’s to decide. IC 9-30-16-3(c) and IC 9-30-16-3(d) put the duration and the terms in the court’s discretion and set out no list of approved purposes, so the fixed catalog of permitted trips people expect is not there. IC 9-30-5-16(a) lets the court add a certified ignition interlock device, IC 9-30-16-5(a) makes knowingly or intentionally violating a condition a Class C misdemeanor, and IC 9-30-16-7 sets a $10 charge.

Defense Options for an OWI Charge

A defense is built from the record the state made that night and the conditions the statute attaches to each escalator:

  • Whether the officer had probable cause, the precondition IC 9-30-6-2(a) attaches to offering a test
  • Whether the chemical test fell inside the three hour window in IC 9-30-6-2(c)
  • The maintenance and calibration records behind an instrument result, and the chain of custody behind a blood draw
  • Whether the facts support the class charged, such as endangerment under IC 9-30-5-2(b) or all three conditions in IC 9-30-5-3(a)(2)

The firm’s Indiana OWI and DUI defense page walks through that record in the order a defense takes it.

Jerry L. Garner spent years as an FBI Special Agent before moving into criminal defense. The value of that background is not the title. It is that he spent those years on the side that assembles criminal cases, and knowing how a file is built is knowing where one tends to be thin.

He defends operating while intoxicated charges throughout Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer and Perry counties, from Evansville to Rockport, Tell City and Boonville.

Contact Us for Help

The license track runs on its own deadlines and does not wait for the court, so the earlier a defense begins the more of the case is open to work with. Call (812) 301-6221 or contact us online, and bring every piece of paper you were handed, including anything about your license.

Remember: what an Indiana OWI costs is set by the offense class, the test result, whether anyone was endangered or hurt, and what is already on your record. The worst-case figures quoted online are the ones attached to the aggravated versions.

This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and outcomes depend on specific circumstances. Contact our office to discuss your particular situation.