Walk It Through: Sleeping It Off
The decision not to drive, and the charge that can follow it anyway.
You have had too much to drink and decide not to drive. You get into the car to sleep, in a lit car park.
This walks one evening and four decisions. It says nothing about what a court does with a physical control charge, about limited driving privileges during a suspension, or about how a suspension at nineteen interacts with a graduated licence.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Administrative license suspensionA suspension imposed by the registrar on refusal or on a test over the limit, effective from the arrest and independent of the criminal case.
- Hard timeA period at the start of a suspension during which no court may grant limited driving privileges. Its length is set by which suspension it is.
- Implied consentOhio law treats operating a vehicle on a public road as consent to a chemical test of breath, blood or urine when an officer has arrested the driver for OVI.
- Limited driving privilegesPermission from a court to drive on a limited basis during a suspension, granted on petition and subject to whatever conditions the court attaches.
- Per se limitA concentration at or above which the prohibited amount itself is the offence, with no separate proof of impairment required. Ohio sets several, by substance and by test type.
- Physical controlA separate Ohio offence covering being in the driver's position of a stationary vehicle with the keys or ignition, while under the influence. No movement is required.