People who have lived in Louisiana know that its reputation as a den of hedonism is largely undeserved. Yes, we love our food, and it shows in our waistlines, but for every nine bars in Louisiana. There are ten houses of worship. When we drink until we are smashed, we do it in the company of people we trust, of family and friends who have our best interests in mind. Despite this, every young person who goes out for a night on the town in the French Quarter of New Orleans or who attends freshman orientation at one of Louisiana’s infamous party schools gets the same lecture. Don’t drink anything that you didn’t watch the bartender pour. Keep your eyes on your drink at all times. Decide, before you start, how many drinks you will have, write it down in your Notes app every time you drink one, and stop when you plan to. Have a plan for getting home safely and voice it to your friends in advance.
People who do not heed this advice, who become more intoxicated than they planned because someone puts additional alcohol or drugs in their drinks without their knowledge, more than they realized, can suffer all kinds of misfortunes, but if they get criminal charges, they might be able to avoid a criminal conviction by pleading the involuntary intoxication defense. Where does that leave the people they accidentally injured when they were involuntarily intoxicated? If you were injured by a drunk driver who avoided a criminal conviction, through the involuntary intoxication defense or any other means, contact a Houma car accident lawyer.
How Does the Involuntary Intoxication Defense Affect Your Personal Injury Case?
The involuntary intoxication defense, in which a defendant argues that he or she committed a crime only because someone administered intoxicating drugs or excessive quantities of alcohol without the defendant’s knowledge or consent, is rare in practice, but it is only one of many scenarios where justice dictates that a person avoid criminal penalties when it is obvious to everyone that the person engaged in behavior that injured or endangered other people. For example, drunk drivers who cause accidents can also be acquitted because of Brady disclosures, where they argue that the arresting officer’s history of misconduct makes him or her an unreliable witness, thus rendering most of the evidence in the criminal case invalid.
All of this belongs to the field of criminal law, though. Personal injury cases proceed in civil court. The standards of evidence for ruling against a defendant are lower in civil cases, and the rules for discarding evidence differ. Even if the drunk driver who injured you did not get convicted, you still have a chance to win in a civil lawsuit.
Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey About Personal Injury Cases
A personal injury lawyer can help you if you got injured in a preventable accident where the at-fault driver was drunk but did not get convicted of DWI. Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey in Houma, Louisiana, to set up a consultation about your case.
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