Defending DUI and Other Serious Traffic Crimes in Athens, Georgia

Kohn & Yager, LLC has opened an Athens office. Cory Yager, Attorney at Law, defends first-offense DUI, repeat DUI, and high-and-aggravated misdemeanor and felony driving offenses from 320 East Clayton Street, Suite 435, Athens, GA 30601 — about 200 yards from the Athens-Clarke County Courthouse. It is the Athens home of the firm’s Athens-Clarke County criminal defense practice.

Georgia Treats Serious Driving Offenses as Crimes

Georgia does not treat every driving violation as a minor traffic matter. Article 15 of Title 40 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated is captioned “Serious Traffic Offenses,” and the offenses collected there — homicide by vehicle, serious injury by vehicle, reckless driving, fleeing or attempting to elude, and driving under the influence — are prosecuted as crimes, not as ordinary traffic infractions.

Many of these offenses carry mandatory minimum jail time and a revocation or suspension of driving privileges that takes effect by operation of law. In the felony grades there is a further consequence: a Georgia conviction for a felony involving moral turpitude bars a person from registering or voting until the sentence has been completed. That distinction governs everything that follows. A serious traffic charge is a criminal case with a criminal record at stake, and it should be defended on that level of urgency starting from the day of arrest.

Cory Yager, a partner at Kohn & Yager, LLC, has defended these cases in Athens-Clarke County and across Georgia since 2007. His qualification for that work is a matter of record rather than opinion. Before he was admitted to the Bar he served more than nine years as a Georgia police officer with the Cobb County Police Department and the City of Roswell Police Department, where, by the account of his State Bar of Georgia ICLE speaker profile, he made thousands of impaired-driving arrests and investigated fatality and serious-injury collisions. He was trained to build the State’s case before he was trained by William C. Head to take one apart.

Serious Driving Offenses Charged in Athens-Clarke County

Homicide by Vehicle

A death caused without malice aforethought through driving under the influence, reckless driving, reckless stunt driving, fleeing or attempting to elude, or unlawfully passing a stopped school bus is homicide by vehicle in the first degree, punishable by imprisonment for not less than three nor more than fifteen years. Leaving the scene of a collision that causes a death carries the same first-degree grade and the same three-to-fifteen-year range. Where the accused had already been declared a habitual violator and was driving during the period of revocation, the range rises to five to twenty years, and no part of that sentence may be suspended, probated, deferred or withheld until at least one year has been served. This is the core of a Georgia vehicular homicide defense.

Where the death results from a traffic violation outside that enumerated list — failure to yield, following too closely, disregarding a control device — the offense is homicide by vehicle in the second degree, a misdemeanor. The gap between the two grades is the gap between a felony prison sentence and misdemeanor punishment. Establishing that the predicate offense was an ordinary traffic violation rather than an Article 15 offense is frequently the central objective of the defense.

Serious Injury by Vehicle

Causing an accident that deprives another person of a member of the body, renders a member of the body useless, seriously disfigures the body, or causes organic brain damage, while violating the reckless driving or DUI statutes, is a felony under the serious injury by vehicle statute, punishable by one to fifteen years. A separate subsection reaches a driver who knowingly causes such an injury and then leaves the scene; that grade carries one to ten years, and it does not apply where the parties exchanged motor vehicle insurance information before leaving. The statutory definition of bodily harm is narrower than the charging language typically suggests, and the medical record controls. That record must be obtained and reviewed independently, not accepted as characterized in the accusation or indictment. We cover serious injury by vehicle charges in more detail elsewhere.

Fleeing or Attempting to Elude

A first, second, or third conviction under Georgia’s fleeing or attempting to elude law is a high and aggravated misdemeanor; a fourth is a felony. A first conviction requires a fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $5,000, which is expressly not subject to suspension, stay, or probation, together with confinement of not less than 30 days nor more than 12 months, of which only the time above 30 days may be probated. The offense becomes a straight felony, punishable by a fine of $5,000 to $10,000 and imprisonment of twelve months to ten years, where the driver operated the vehicle more than 20 miles per hour above the posted limit, struck another vehicle or a pedestrian, was the proximate cause of an accident, drove recklessly or under the influence, or left the state.

The State must prove that the signal to stop was given by an officer in uniform, prominently displaying a badge of office, operating an appropriately marked police vehicle, and that the failure to stop was willful. Each of those elements is litigable, and dash-camera footage frequently contradicts the narrative in the report.

Hit and Run

Knowingly failing to stop at the scene of a collision that is the proximate cause of death or serious injury is a felony punishable by one to five years under the driver’s duty to stop at or return to the scene. Where the collision caused a lesser injury or damage to a vehicle only, the offense drops to a misdemeanor with an unprobatable fine. In the great majority of these prosecutions the contested issue is identity, not conduct: the case is assembled from a partial tag, a residential camera, or vehicle damage observed days later. Knowledge of the collision is a required element, and it is often unprovable.

Habitual Violator Status

Three arrests and convictions within a five-year period — measured from the dates of the earlier arrests to the date of the most recent one — for the serious traffic offenses and the other qualifying violations produce a habitual violator declaration and revocation of the driver’s license by operation of law. Driving during the revocation, before a new license issues or before five years have run, carries a fine of at least $750 or one to five years in the penitentiary, or both; where the three predicates were DUI convictions, that offense is the felony of habitual impaired driving. After five years it drops to a misdemeanor.

The predicate convictions supporting a habitual violator declaration are ordinarily uncounseled misdemeanor pleas entered years earlier in courts of limited jurisdiction. Where the plea colloquy fails to establish a knowing and voluntary waiver of counsel, the conviction may be subject to collateral attack. Whether the statutory notice of revocation was properly served — by certified mail with return receipt requested, by statutory overnight delivery, or by personal service — is likewise a threshold question the State must answer.

Reckless Driving, Racing, and Super Speeder Exposure

Reckless driving is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed $1,000, imprisonment not to exceed twelve months, or both. Its significance is not the sentence but its status as a predicate offense for first-degree vehicular homicide, serious injury by vehicle, and habitual violator classification. A reckless driving plea accepted as a favorable resolution today can supply an element of a felony tomorrow, which is why we treat Athens traffic charges as more than paperwork.

Racing on highways and streets is one of the offenses for which the Department of Driver Services must suspend a license on conviction. Reckless stunt driving — drag racing or laying drags in reckless disregard for the safety of persons — is a high and aggravated misdemeanor carrying a $300 to $750 fine and ten days to six months on a first conviction, and becomes a felony punishable by one to five years on a fourth conviction within ten years. Georgia’s Super Speeder fee adds a further $200, collected by the Department, from any driver convicted of 75 miles per hour or more on a two-lane road or 85 miles per hour or more on any road; failure to pay within 90 days of the notice suspends the license and adds a $50 reinstatement fee.

Repeat Impaired Driving: The Athens-Clarke County 2nd DUI

An Athens-Clarke County 2nd DUI within ten years is governed by a distinct sentencing subsection, not by judicial discretion. Upon a second conviction within ten years, measured from the prior arrest dates to the date of the current arrest, Georgia’s DUI statute requires the court to impose a fine of $600 to $1,000 that may not be suspended, stayed, or probated; a jail sentence of 90 days to 12 months, of which a minimum of 72 hours must be served in actual confinement; not fewer than 30 days of community service; twelve months of probation less any days actually served; a clinical evaluation and any recommended substance abuse treatment; and completion of a DUI Alcohol or Drug Use Risk Reduction Program within 120 days of conviction. A fourth conviction within ten years is a felony.

The administrative consequences run on a separate and shorter clock — five years, not ten. A second DUI conviction within five years suspends the license for three years, and the driver may not even apply for reinstatement until 18 months have run; the 120-day early-reinstatement route available after a first conviction does not apply. What the 120-day mark does open is an application for an ignition interlock device limited driving permit, available once at least 120 days of that suspension have been served. The sentencing court must also order surrender of the license plates of every vehicle registered in the driver’s name. The license consequences of a DUI conviction are frequently what a client feels first.

Because the mandatory minimums leave little room to negotiate at sentencing, the defense of a second Athens DUI is conducted at the motions stage. The lawfulness of the stop, the administration and scoring of the standardized field sobriety evaluations, the officer’s certification and training file, the implied consent notice and its timing, and the inspection and maintenance records for the breath-testing instrument are the matters that determine outcome. Athens DUI lawyers who do not litigate those issues are, in practical terms, negotiating a plea. Our Athens DUI defense overview covers the first-offense case in the same detail.

Jurisdiction and Venue in Athens-Clarke County

Athens Municipal Court. The Municipal Court of Athens-Clarke County handles roughly 35,000 cases a year and exercises jurisdiction over county ordinance violations and over state misdemeanor traffic offenses, including DUI. The court does not empanel juries. Preserving the right to a jury trial therefore requires a timely written demand and transfer.

State Court of Clarke County. The State Court of Athens-Clarke County hears misdemeanor criminal cases, including transferred Athens DUI cases and high-and-aggravated misdemeanors, and it is where a jury trial in a misdemeanor driving case is actually conducted. Its criminal caseload is built around DUI, traffic, family violence and theft offenses.

Superior Court of the Western Judicial Circuit. The circuit is composed of Clarke and Oconee counties, and its Superior Court holds the exclusive constitutional jurisdiction over felonies: first-degree homicide by vehicle, serious injury by vehicle, felony hit and run, habitual violator offenses, felony fleeing, and fourth-offense DUI.

DUI Court in Athens GA. The DUI/Drug Court operated out of State Court is an accountability court offering intensive judicial supervision, treatment, and monitoring in lieu of incarceration for eligible repeat offenders. Begun in 2001, it was the first program of its kind in Georgia and is one of four National Academy Courts recognized by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. It is a long-term commitment with rigid compliance obligations, and entering and completing the program does not by itself avoid a conviction.

An accountability court is an appropriate disposition in some cases and an unnecessary concession in others. That determination should be made after the evidence has been examined, and little or nothing will be known at the time of arraignment.

More About Defense Counsel Cory Yager

Cory Yager graduated as the second-highest honor graduate in his class at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School while serving full time as a police officer in Roswell, Georgia. He was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in October of 2007, after passing the Bar examination on the first attempt.

He entered criminal practice the following week with William C. Head, lead author of the Georgia DUI Trial Practice Manual. He is now a partner with Larry Kohn, and Mr. Head remains with the firm in an advisory capacity.

Attorney Yager has been recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star and subsequently as a Super Lawyer. With Larry Kohn and William C. “Bubba” Head he co-authors the Georgia DUI Trial Practice Manual, the state’s principal practitioner treatise on Georgia DUI law. Martindale-Hubbell has rated him AV Preeminent, its highest peer rating.

His prior service as a patrol officer who made thousands of impaired-driving arrests and investigated fatal and serious-injury collisions bears directly on the defense of serious traffic cases. He has held NHTSA certification to instruct officers in administering the standardized field sobriety battery for more than seventeen years, so he knows the battery as it is taught, the reporting conventions officers are instructed to follow, and the difference between what a report asserts and what the underlying documentation supports. That background is the reason he is retained as a criminal lawyer Athens GA defendants engage when the charge is a felony, and as a DUI lawyer Athens juries hear from at trial.

The First Thirty Days After a DUI Arrest

• Preserve administrative rights. A written request for an administrative license suspension hearing, with its $150 filing fee, must reach the Department of Driver Services within 30 days of the date the notice of suspension is served — ordinarily at the arrest itself — or the right to that hearing is deemed waived. Electing the ignition interlock permit instead is the alternative for an eligible driver, and that election operates as a waiver of the hearing. Either way the deadline is fixed, it cannot be extended, and it is addressed first.
• Compel complete discovery. Dash and body-worn camera recordings, dispatch and CAD logs, calibration and maintenance records for the breath instrument, the officer’s training and certification file, crash reconstruction materials, and event data recorder downloads.
• File and litigate motions. Suppression of the stop and detention, challenges to the field sobriety evaluations, implied consent violations, and, where warranted, collateral attack on predicate convictions.
• Develop mitigation on our own schedule. Evaluation, treatment, and correction of the driving history record are undertaken before the State fixes its position, not afterward.

Consultation With an Athens GA DUI Attorney

Evidence in serious traffic cases is perishable. Surveillance recordings are overwritten on fixed cycles, vehicle data is lost when a vehicle is repaired or salvaged, and witness recollection degrades. Counsel should be retained before the first court date, not at it.

Kohn & Yager, LLC
320 East Clayton Street, Suite 435
Athens, GA 30601
About 200 yards from the Athens-Clarke County Courthouse — roughly the length of two football fields
(404) 567-5515

Consultations are confidential and without charge. Ask for Cory Yager, the ex-cop turned defense attorney.

Selecting Counsel in Athens-Clarke County

Retaining a DUI lawyer Athens GA defendants can rely upon in a felony or repeat-offense case is not the same undertaking as hiring general counsel for a citation. An Athens DUI lawyer should know which judge presides over which calendar, how the solicitor-general’s office evaluates collision cases, and when a matter must be removed from a court that cannot empanel a jury. Not all Athens Georgia DUI lawyers try cases; a substantial number resolve nearly every file by negotiated plea. A client facing incarceration is entitled to know which practice he is retaining before executing a fee agreement.

Cory Yager is the Athens GA DUI lawyer clients engage when the exposure is a prison sentence rather than probation. As a DUI attorney Athens GA prosecutors have opposed in contested motions for nearly two decades, and as a DUI lawyer in Athens GA who previously administered the field sobriety evaluations now under challenge, he approaches these cases from both sides of the record. In comparing any Athens Georgia DUI lawyer against another, three questions are worth asking: how many jury trials the lawyer has taken to verdict, how many DUI lawyers Athens firms actually keep on staff, and whether the DUI attorneys Athens clients meet at the consultation are the attorneys who will appear in court.

At Kohn & Yager, LLC, the attorney retained is the attorney who investigates, negotiates and, if needed, takes the case to trial.

Attorney advertising. The foregoing is general information regarding Georgia law and is not legal advice, nor does it create an attorney-client relationship. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.