As someone who runs a business, your biggest question is if a DUI will affect your business or not. You didn’t expect to get a DUI, but you were pulled over after a night out with friends, and you were slightly over the limit.
While you still have a chance to defend yourself, the biggest question on your mind is if this DUI will affect your business moving forward. The answer is: possibly.
How does getting a DUI affect your business?
A DUI may not affect all businesses, but it has the potential to affect yours in a few ways. The primary ways that a DUI affects businesses are by:
- Restricting the owner’s license
- Taking away time from the business that is spent in court for sentencing and hearings
- Having to pay higher insurance premiums
- Dealing with the impact on the business due to social stigmas
The first way that a business is affected is if you can’t use your license. Of course, you can use ride-share services and public transportation, but if your business relies on your ability to drive, you could struggle to make things work without a license.
Another thing that affects the business is having to spend more time away from the job. You will need to appear in court, and it can take hours away from your work day. This could lead to financial losses or mean that you have to have someone cover you while you’re away, taking your mind off the job.
A third way that your business is affected is because of the higher insurance premiums you face. Depending on the type of business you have, this could end up costing you significantly more to run the business each year. For instance, if you have a delivery service, the cost to perform those services is likely to increase.
Finally, there is the social stigma that comes with a DUI. If clients find out that you were drinking and driving or the media spreads the story, there is a chance that they’ll take their business elsewhere. It’s a serious social faux pas for any person in power, whether it’s a business owner, president or other worker, to drink and drive. It puts them at risk and threatens the lives of the very people they hope to sell their services to.
If you drink and drive, your business could be impacted. Do what you can to develop a defense for the best chance of having this affect you as little as possible.