Penalty Charts for an Ohio Prior OVI Felony Offense charge
Please Note – You may be charged with more than one OVI offense if:
1) you took a chemical test or,
2) refused a test and have a prior OVI conviction in the last 20 years.
Make sure you review each of the charges you are or may be facing.
Feel free to contact us if you have difficulty figuring out what charges apply to you.
Prior OVI Felony Individual Penalty Charts
Click on the applicable offense below to access the correct chart
Prior OVI Felony – Impaired Offense
Prior OVI Felony – Low Tier Test
Prior OVI Felony – High Tier Test
Prior OVI Felony – Criminal Refusal
Administrative License Suspension (ALS) Charts & Information.
Administrative License Suspension (ALS). In most cases the officer already took your driver’s license and placed you under an ALS Suspension or, if you took a urine or blood test, you will face an ALS when the result comes back.
Avoiding a Conviction is Important.
A Conviction is a huge penalty. Avoiding a conviction can be extremely important to your current and future employment and opportunities, not to mention your insurance rates.
How to tell which of the above OVI offenses you may be facing.
1. The Impaired Offense is the basic OVI offense and almost everyone is, at minimum, charged with this offense regardless of whether you submitted to a breath, urine, or blood alcohol test. This can even be charged if you took a test and tested below the legal limit. You may also be charged with one of the below offenses.
2. A Low Tier Test Offense can be charged if there is:
- a breath alcohol test result at or above .08 but below .17
- a blood alcohol test result at or above .08 but below .17
- a plasma or serum alcohol test result at or above .096 but below .204
- a urine alcohol test result at or above .11 but less than .237
3. A High Tier Test Offense can be charged if there is:
- a blood alcohol level of .17 or above
- a blood plasma or blood serum alcohol level of .204 or above
- a breath alcohol level of .17 or above
- a urine alcohol level of .237 or above
4. A Criminal Refusal Offense can be charged only if you have a prior OVI conviction within 20 years and refused to submit to a chemical test.
As you will see in reviewing the charts applicable to you, if you have a High Tier Test Offense or a Criminal Refusal Offense it increases your minimum penalties.
Please review your paperwork carefully or contact us if you need help determining what you have been or potentially may be charged with.
A quick summary of the relevant Prior OVI Felony (Operation Under the Influence Alcohol or Drugs) penalties and a quick summary of Administrative License Suspension (ALS) sanctions you are facing or a deep, thorough analysis of the Ohio OVI statutes, which are you looking for?
This page is designed so that you can click the first box above and get a summary of the basic, critical details about the penalties you face if you are charged with any OVI offense and do not have a prior OVI conviction with 10 years.
If you click the second box above it will take you to summaries of the Ohio Administrative License Suspension (ALS) sanctions you face.
However, if you are a lawyer, a law student or someone else who wants to know the exact wording of the statutes pertaining to the penalties for a Prior OVI Felony in Ohio, below you will find that we have extracted the provisions of Ohio’s OVI statute (Ohio Revised Code Section 4511.19) that set forth the jail time penalties, license suspensions, vehicle sanctions and other penalties that may be applied in Ohio Prior OVI Felony Offense whether the charge is the Impaired Driving, an OVI Per Se Low Tier Alcohol Test charge, an OVI Per Se High Tier Alcohol Test charge, a Criminal Refusal charge, or a driving under the influence of marijuana or other drugs.
Even though we have included below ONLY the portions of the Ohio OVI statute related to a penalties for the various Prior OVI Felony Offense charges we warn you, it is still a lot to go through and the Ohio OVI statute has been roundly criticized by lawyers and judges alike for not being a model of clarity.
The Penalties for Prior OVI Felony Offenses are found in Ohio Revised Code Section (ORC) 4511.19(G)(1)(e), ORC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(i), ORC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(ii), ORC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(iii), ORC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(iv), 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(v), and 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(vi).
Below is the actual text of the statutes.
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e) Prior Felony OVI Conviction – subsequent conviction is F-3
(e) An offender who previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a violation of division (A) of this section that was a felony, regardless of when the violation and the conviction or guilty plea occurred, is guilty of a felony of the third degree. The court shall sentence the offender to all of the following:
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(i) Prior Felony – Low Tier or Impaired – Incarceration; With 5 in 20 Spec
(i) If the offender is being sentenced for a violation of division (A)(1)(a), (b), (c), (d), (e), or (j) of this section, a mandatory prison term of one, two, three, four, or five years as required by and in accordance with division (G)(2) of section 2929.13 of the Revised Code if the offender also is convicted of or also pleads guilty to a specification of the type described in section 2941.1413 of the Revised Code
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(i) Prior Felony – Low Tier or Impaired – Incarceration; Without 5 in 20 Spec
or a mandatory prison term of sixty consecutive days in accordance with division (G) (2) of section 2929.13 of the Revised Code if the offender is not convicted of and does not plead guilty to a specification of that type.
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(i) Prior Felony OVI Conviction – Low Tier or Impaired – Incarceration; Additional Prison Term Authorized
The court may impose a prison term in addition to the mandatory prison term. The cumulative total of a sixty-day mandatory prison term and the additional prison term for the offense shall not exceed five years.
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(i) Prior Felony OVI Conviction – Low Tier or Impaired –Incarceration; Post Prison Community Control
In addition to the mandatory prison term or mandatory prison term and additional prison term the court imposes, the court also may sentence the offender to a community control sanction for the offense, but the offender shall serve all of the prison terms so imposed prior to serving the community control sanction.
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(ii) Prior Felony – High Tier or Criminal Refusal –Incarceration; With the 5 in 20 Specification
(ii) If the sentence is being imposed for a violation of division (A)(1)(f), (g), (h), or (i) or division (A)(2) of this section, a mandatory prison term of one, two, three, four, or five years as required by and in accordance with division (G)(2) of section 2929.13 of the Revised Code if the offender also is convicted of or also pleads guilty to a specification of the type described in section 2941.1413 of the Revised Code
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(ii) Prior Felony OVI – High Tier or Criminal Refusal –Incarceration; Without the 5 in 20 Specification
or a mandatory prison term of one hundred twenty consecutive days in accordance with division (G)(2) of section 2929.13 of the Revised Code if the offender is not convicted of and does not plead guilty to a specification of that type.
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(ii) Prior Felony OVI – High Tier or Criminal Refusal –Incarceration; Additional Prison Term Permitted
The court may impose a prison term in addition to the mandatory prison term. The cumulative total of a one hundred twenty-day mandatory prison term and the additional prison term for the offense shall not exceed five years.
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(ii) Prior Felony OVI – High Tier or Criminal Refusal –Incarceration; Post Prison Post Release Control
In addition to the mandatory prison term or mandatory prison term and additional prison term the court imposes, the court also may sentence the offender to a community control sanction for the offense, but the offender shall serve all of the prison terms so imposed prior to serving the community control sanction.
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(iii) Prior Felony – High Tier or Criminal Refusal – Fine
(iii) In all cases, notwithstanding section 2929.18 of the Revised Code, a fine of not less than one thousand three hundred fifty nor more than ten thousand five hundred dollars;
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(iv) Prior Felony – High Tier or Criminal Refusal – License Suspension
(iv) In all cases, a class two license suspension of the offender’s driver’s license, commercial driver’s license, temporary instruction permit, probationary license, or nonresident operating privilege from the range specified in division (A)(2) of section 4510.02 of the Revised Code. The court may grant limited driving privileges relative to the suspension under sections 4510.021 and 4510.13 of the Revised Code.
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(v) Prior Felony OVI – High Tier or Criminal Refusal –Vehicle Forfeiture
(v) In all cases, if the vehicle is registered in the offender’s name, criminal forfeiture of the vehicle involved in the offense in accordance with section 4503.234 of the Revised Code. Division (G)(6) of this section applies regarding any vehicle that is subject to an order of criminal forfeiture under this division.
RC 4511.19(G)(1)(e)(vi) Prior Felony OVI – High Tier or Criminal Refusal –Assessment and Follow-up required
(vi) In all cases, the court shall order the offender to participate with a community addiction services provider authorized by section 5119.21 of the Revised Code, subject to division (I) of this section, and shall order the offender to follow the treatment recommendations of the services provider. The operator of the services provider shall determine and assess the degree of the offender’s alcohol dependency and shall make recommendations for treatment. Upon the request of the court, the services provider shall submit the results of the assessment to the court, including all treatment recommendations and clinical diagnoses related to alcohol use.