Oklahoma City DUI Accident Lawyers
The most expensive assumption people make after a drunk driving crash is that the criminal case will take care of them. It will not. The district attorney represents the State of Oklahoma, not you, and a conviction does not pay a hospital bill.
Our Oklahoma City DUI accident lawyers represent people injured by impaired drivers, and families who lost someone, across the Oklahoma City metro. We handle the civil side, which is the only side built to compensate you. Free consultation, no money upfront.
Call or text (405) 336-3000 anytime.
Why Is a Separate Civil Case Necessary at All?
Because the two cases have different purposes, different burdens of proof, and different outcomes. The criminal case punishes the driver. The civil case compensates you.
They run on separate tracks and separate calendars. A criminal case can be continued for months while your medical bills go to collections, and it can end in a plea that includes no meaningful payment to you at all.
Oklahoma criminal courts can order restitution. Under 22 O.S. § 991f a court may order the defendant to pay up to three times the victim’s economic loss, covering medical expenses actually incurred, property damage, and lost earnings. That is real, and it is worth pursuing.
It is also narrow. Restitution covers economic loss. It does not cover pain, permanent limitation, or the life you had before the crash, and it depends on a defendant who often has nothing.
If a criminal case is already moving and no one has explained your role in it, call (405) 336-3000.
Who Can Be Held Responsible Besides the Driver?
Which Drunk Driving Cases Do We Take?
In Oklahoma, sometimes the business that sold the alcohol. This is the question most injured people never think to ask, and it matters most when the driver carries minimum insurance.
Oklahoma recognized commercial vendor liability in Brigance v. Velvet Dove Restaurant, Inc., 1986 OK 41. The Oklahoma Supreme Court held that a business selling alcohol for on premises consumption owes a duty to use reasonable care not to sell to a noticeably intoxicated person.
The Court extended that duty to off premises sales in Boyle v. ASAP Energy, Inc., 2017 OK 82, which is why a convenience store or liquor store can also be part of a case.
The statutory hook sits in Oklahoma’s alcohol code, which prohibits selling, delivering, or knowingly furnishing alcohol to an intoxicated person.
What this looks like in practice
Oklahoma requires employees of licensed establishments to hold an alcohol beverage employee license through the ABLE Commission and to complete approved server training. That creates records: who was licensed, who was trained, who was working.
Combined with receipts, point of sale timestamps, and interior video, those records can show how much a driver was served and over how long.
Two limits worth stating plainly. This duty applies to commercial sellers, and Oklahoma courts have declined to extend it to a venue that neither served nor over served the alcohol. Proof of proximate cause is still required. These claims are fact intensive, and they get built from evidence that disappears fast.
We represent people hurt by impaired drivers in the Oklahoma City metro, including:
Head on and wrong way crashes, including wrong way entries onto I-40, I-235, and the Lake Hefner Parkway.
Late night crashes leaving entertainment districts. Oklahoma’s alcohol related crashes concentrate on Friday and Saturday nights in the late evening hours. In Oklahoma City that pattern tracks Bricktown, Midtown, Uptown 23rd, the Plaza District, and Automobile Alley.
Rear end and red light crashes where impairment was not obvious at the scene and only surfaced later in the report.
Pedestrians and cyclists struck by impaired drivers.
Passengers injured by their own driver. You can bring a claim against a friend or family member’s insurance policy. It is a claim against a policy, not against a person’s savings.
Wrongful death claims brought by the personal representative of the estate under 12 O.S. § 1053.
Does a Drunk Driving Crash Change What a Claim Is Worth?
It can, in a way ordinary negligence does not. Oklahoma allows punitive damages, which are meant to punish conduct rather than reimburse a loss.
Under 23 O.S. § 9.1, a jury that finds by clear and convincing evidence that a defendant acted in reckless disregard of the rights of others may award punitive damages, with the cap set at the greater of $100,000 or the amount of actual damages. Higher categories exist for intentional and malicious conduct.
Driving impaired is the conduct that reckless disregard was written to describe. Whether a specific case supports a punitive claim depends on the facts, and no lawyer can promise one. But the availability of that claim changes the conversation with an insurer, and it should be evaluated early rather than raised late.
Oklahoma also places no statutory limit on non economic damages in an ordinary injury case, so the pain and permanent limitation portion of a claim is not capped.
Ask us what your claim actually involves before an adjuster tells you. Call (405) 336-3000.
What If the Driver Was Uninsured or Barely Insured?
Then your own policy usually becomes the main source of recovery, and the case shifts to a different opponent.
Oklahoma’s minimum liability limits are $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash (47 O.S. § 7-324). Serious impaired driving crashes routinely exceed that in the first week of treatment.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage under 36 O.S. § 3636 exists for exactly this situation. Every Oklahoma auto policy must offer it, and it can only be rejected in writing. Many people carry it without knowing.
Making a UM claim means your own insurer is now the party disputing your damages. It owes you a duty of good faith and fair dealing under Christian v. American Home Assurance Co., 1977 OK 141, and when it unreasonably withholds payment there is a separate claim for bad faith. Handling a UM claim like a routine customer service matter is how people lose value.
Oklahoma also has a Crime Victims Compensation program administered by the District Attorneys Council. Its statute covers conduct involving a driver under the influence, with a maximum award and a filing deadline, and it does not pay for pain and suffering. It can help with immediate expenses while a civil claim is still developing.
How Does This Firm Work a Case While the Criminal One Is Pending?
AP Injury Lawyers is a four attorney firm on NW 40th Street in Oklahoma City, founded by Austin S. Pieratt. In an impaired driving case the civil investigation cannot wait for the prosecution, so we run it in parallel from the start.
We trace where the driver was drinking. That means locating the establishment, then sending written demands for point of sale records, server schedules, and interior video before any of it is recycled.
We request the enforcement file. Chemical test documentation, body camera footage, and the responding officer’s investigation exist independently of the criminal calendar.
We identify every policy before we negotiate. The driver’s liability limits, any commercial policy, and your own uninsured or underinsured coverage. Impaired drivers frequently carry the state minimum, which changes where the recovery has to come from.
We track the criminal case without waiting on it. Restitution and the plea record matter, and neither one requires pausing your claim.
We keep you out of the adjuster’s process. Communication routes through our office.
Free consultation, 24 hour intake, and contingency fees with no money upfront. The firm handles cases in Spanish. Se habla español.
How Long Do You Have to Bring a Drunk Driving Claim in Oklahoma?
Two years from the date of the crash for most injury claims (12 O.S. § 95(A)(3)). Two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim (12 O.S. § 1053).
The real deadline is usually earlier than that, because the evidence that makes a dram shop claim work does not survive two years. Bar surveillance is often overwritten in weeks. Point of sale records get archived. Servers change jobs. Witnesses who remember which bar the driver left stop remembering.
Waiting until the criminal case resolves is the single most common way people lose the strongest part of a case.
Questions People Ask After a Drunk Driving Crash
Should I go to the criminal hearings?
Many people do, and Oklahoma victims have rights in the criminal process. Attending does not advance your civil claim by itself, and nothing said at a hearing substitutes for the investigation your own case needs. Go if it matters to you. Do not treat it as case progress.
The driver's insurance company already offered to pay my bills. Should I take it?
Not before you know what the offer releases. Insurers may not request a release broader than the claim being settled, and Oklahoma’s unfair claims rules address the practice of issuing a partial settlement check that carries a full release of total liability. Read what you are signing, or let someone read it with you. The consultation costs nothing.
What if a family member was killed?
An Oklahoma wrongful death action is brought by the personal representative of the estate, which usually requires opening a probate. Recoverable losses include medical and burial expenses, loss of companionship, and the financial loss to survivors. Punitive damages are available in the right case. Start early, because appointing a representative takes time on its own.
Does it matter that the driver refused a breath test?
It is one fact among many, and a refusal carries its own consequences under Oklahoma law. Civil liability does not require a chemical test result. Officer observations, video, witness accounts, and the driver’s activity before the crash all carry weight.
Do you charge for the first conversation?
No. Consultations are free, we answer 24 hours a day, and you owe nothing unless we recover money on your claim.
The Other Side Started Working the Day of the Crash
An insurer assigned an adjuster within hours. If a bar is involved, its risk manager has already been told. Video systems are already counting down.
The only party without a head start is you.
Call or text AP Injury Lawyers at (405) 336-3000, or reach us through our contact page. Tell us what happened. We will tell you what is worth doing next, and what is not.
Austin Pieratt Esq., Founder & Managing Attorney
Call For A Free Consultation.
Available 24 Hours A Day, 7 Days A Week.
Oklahoma City Office
2248 NW 40th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73112
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