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Michigan does not charge DUI. It charges OWI, OWVI, OWPD, or high BAC, and the letters on your ticket decide the penalty.
Most people go through this once, without a map. The numbers below are the official count, not our estimate. The rest of this guide is the map.
Source: Michigan Vehicle Code, MCL 257.625, and the Michigan courts' criminal sentencing chart.
Each phase protects the one after it. Get medical care fast, open the claim on time, build the record, then settle from strength.
257.625(1) is OWI. 257.625(3) is OWVI. 257.625(8) is drugs. 257.625(6) is under 21. 257.625(7) means a child was in the car. The letters after the number tell you which version. The charge can change at arraignment, so the citation is a starting point.
A breath or blood result at 0.08 or above supports OWI. At 0.17 or above it supports high BAC. No number means the case is about what the officer saw, which is an OWVI case or an OWI case built on observation.
If there is a separate Secretary of State notice, you refused the chemical test and have 14 days to request a license hearing. MCL 257.625f. That clock runs on its own.
The district court for the city or township where you were stopped. Most Metro Detroit stops land in an Oakland County district court. The court is set by the stop, not by your address.
The statute number, the reading, the court, and the stop date are the four things a lawyer needs to tell you what you are facing. Criminal fees are quoted in writing before you decide.
Every injury claim in Michigan runs on clocks that start the day you are hurt. The forms are simple and the deadlines are unforgiving.
Time from the crash to each cutoff. Every case has facts that can shift these, which is exactly what a free first look confirms.
No formula survives contact with a real case, but the drivers are knowable. Economic damages are receipts and math. Pain and suffering is argued, not calculated, and multiplier rules of thumb are internet folklore.
Reported contributing factors, statewide. The other driver's behavior is often the heart of the fault argument.
Source: Michigan State Police 2024 year-end crash data.
OWI. Michigan's statute, MCL 257.625, uses operating while intoxicated. DUI is the common name and means the same thing in conversation, but no Michigan charge is called DUI.
OWI requires a 0.08 or proof that alcohol or drugs substantially affected your driving. OWVI requires only that your driving was visibly impaired, a lower standard. OWVI carries four points instead of six and a restricted license instead of a suspension.
Operating with the presence of drugs, MCL 257.625(8). Driving with any amount of a Schedule 1 drug or cocaine in your body, whether or not it affected your driving. The penalties match OWI.
Yes. Driving under the influence of marijuana is a crime. For a registered medical marijuana patient, People v Koon requires proof of impairment, not a positive test. Michigan has no THC number that counts as impaired, so these cases turn on driving, observations, and the blood level together.
The high BAC offense, OWI at 0.17 or above, for a first offense. Up to 180 days in jail and a one-year license suspension with an ignition interlock after the first 45 days.
Six for OWI, high BAC, and OWPD. Four for OWVI and for an under-21 zero tolerance offense. Points stay on the driving record for two years.
No. A first and second OWI are misdemeanors. A third offense in a lifetime is a felony. OWI causing serious injury or death is a felony on the first offense.
The conviction stays unless it is set aside. A first drunk driving conviction can be expunged once, after five years, by applying to the court, if there is no later offense. MCL 780.621c and 780.621d. The Secretary of State driving record keeps it for life.
OWI or OWVI with a passenger under 16 is charged under MCL 257.625(7). A first offense carries up to a year in jail. A second within seven years is a felony.
Any prior drunk or drugged driving conviction within seven years, including OWVI, zero tolerance, and out-of-state convictions. For a third offense, every prior counts regardless of age.
It can be, and it often is on a first offense with a reading under 0.17 and a clean record. Whether it happens depends on the evidence, the prosecutor, and the county. No lawyer can promise it.
Three decisions separate the charges: what visibly impaired means, when a drug case needs proof of impairment, and when a stop is lawful at all. Newest first. We update this section if a new ruling changes it.
November 10, 2026
Michigan Supreme Court, decided July 26, 2022, Docket No. 162833
A deputy followed a driver down a one-lane driveway and parked behind him, blocking the way out, because the driver had been stopped in the road talking to another driver with no traffic around. He smelled marijuana and alcohol and arrested him.
The Supreme Court held the driver was seized when the patrol car blocked the driveway, and that the impeding-traffic statute is only violated when actual traffic is disrupted. The stop was unlawful and the evidence stayed out.
Whatever the charge, it starts with the stop.
Michigan Supreme Court, decided May 21, 2013, 494 Mich 1
A Grand Traverse County driver was stopped for speeding, handed the officer a marijuana pipe, and said he was a registered medical marijuana patient. A blood test hours later showed 10 nanograms of THC per milliliter. He was charged under MCL 257.625(8), driving with any amount of a Schedule 1 drug in his body.
The Supreme Court held the Medical Marihuana Act protects registered patients from the any-amount rule. A patient can only be convicted of driving under the influence of marijuana. That takes proof the patient was impaired, not a positive test.
For a medical marijuana patient, a positive blood test is not a conviction by itself.
Michigan Supreme Court, decided November 25, 1975, 395 Mich 296
A trial judge instructing a jury on the difference between driving under the influence and driving while visibly impaired told them, on the record, that he did not know what the difference was and could not see how a thing could be visible without being material.
The Supreme Court wrote the instruction courts still use. Driving under the influence means the driver's ability to drive was substantially and materially affected. Visibly impaired means the driver's ability was weakened enough to drive with less ability than an ordinary careful driver, and the weakening was visible to an ordinary observant person.
That sentence is why OWVI exists as a separate, lesser charge, and why most first-offense pleas end there.
These decisions describe how courts read the statute in the cases in front of them. They do not tell you how your own case will come out, because your facts control that. If you are holding a citation and are not sure what the letters mean, call Azzo Law at 844-ASK-AZZO (844-275-2996).
Lauren Sitto Azzo, lead attorney at Azzo Law, PLLC, is responsible for the content of this page. This section is general information about Michigan court decisions and not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
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