Trusted DUI accident lawyers with over 10 years of experience.

If you’ve been hit by a drunk or impaired driver in Phoenix, you’re dealing with two cases at once. The criminal prosecution is the state’s case against the driver, and you’re a witness to it. The civil claim is yours — and it carries different rules, different evidence requirements, and different potential recoveries than a typical car accident case. Punitive damages are often available. The driver’s bar or restaurant may bear separate liability under Arizona’s dram shop doctrine. The criminal investigation produces evidence that strengthens your civil claim if it’s preserved correctly. At Wyatt Injury Law Personal Injury Attorneys, our founder Justin Wyatt has spent the last decade representing injured people across Maricopa County, and we know how DUI cases are built on the civil side. Speak with a Phoenix, AZ car accident lawyer before the at-fault carrier locks in a position you can’t undo later.

DUI Accident Lawyer Phoenix, AZ

What is a DUI accident, and what makes the civil case different from a typical crash?

A DUI accident is any crash caused by a driver impaired by alcohol, drugs, or a combination — whether or not the driver is ultimately convicted of driving under the influence. The civil case proceeds on its own track. The criminal proceeding requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but the civil claim only requires a preponderance of the evidence, so a driver who beats the criminal case can still be held fully liable in the civil case. In 2024, 2,407 alcohol-related crashes occurred on nights and weekends in Arizona, accounting for 43.6% of total alcohol-related crashes, according to ADOT. Two features make DUI civil cases distinct: punitive damages are routinely available because impaired driving is generally treated as the kind of conscious disregard for safety that supports them, and dram shop liability may attach to the bar, restaurant, or social host who served the at-fault driver while obviously intoxicated.

Types of DUI Accident Cases We Handle in Phoenix

DUI crashes vary in severity, fact pattern, and the layers of liability that surround them. The cases below are the situations our car accident lawyer in Phoenix, AZ handles most often.

  • Alcohol-impaired driver crashes. The most common DUI fact pattern. Field sobriety tests, breath alcohol concentration, and blood draws produce evidence that often makes liability nearly indisputable.
  • Drug-impaired driver crashes. Marijuana, prescription drugs, opioids, and stimulants cause impaired driving even when the driver is not legally intoxicated by alcohol. These cases require different evidence — toxicology results, prescription records, witness observations.
  • Late-night and weekend crashes. Alcohol-related crashes cluster heavily on Friday and Saturday nights. The patterns are predictable and the evidence is often available through bar receipts, surveillance, and witness statements.
  • Head-on collisions by impaired drivers. Drivers entering freeways the wrong way or drifting across centerlines while impaired produce some of the most catastrophic crashes in the Valley.
  • T-bone accidents and red-light running. Impaired drivers regularly run lights and stop signs. The intersection geometry and the impairment combine to produce severe injuries.
  • Rear-end collisions by impaired drivers. Slowed reaction times leave impaired drivers unable to brake in time. These cases often involve significant injuries despite the apparent simplicity of the crash type.
  • Hit-and-run accidents involving impaired drivers. Impaired drivers frequently flee the scene. Recovery often runs through your own uninsured motorist coverage if the driver isn’t located, and through their liability and your UIM coverage if they are.
  • Repeat offender crashes. A driver with prior DUI convictions causes additional exposure for both the driver and any third party who served them, and the prior history often strengthens the punitive damages case.
  • Dram shop and social host cases. When a bar, restaurant, or social host overserves a clearly intoxicated person who then causes a crash, the establishment or host can face separate civil liability for contributing to the impairment.
  • Catastrophic injury and wrongful death DUI crashes. Drunk drivers cause a disproportionate share of fatal crashes. These cases connect with our Phoenix wrongful death lawyer work and often involve multiple coverage layers.

Why Choose Wyatt Injury Law Personal Injury Attorneys for DUI Accidents in Phoenix, AZ?

Civil and Criminal Tracks Run on Separate Clocks

The criminal prosecution moves on its own timeline, with its own evidence rules, plea negotiations, and sentencing. Your civil case is yours alone, and waiting for the criminal case to resolve before pursuing the civil claim usually costs you opportunity rather than gaining you any advantage. Justin L. Wyatt founded Wyatt Injury Law Personal Injury Attorneys to focus exclusively on injury claims, and we coordinate with criminal proceedings while running the civil file on its own schedule. Justin earned his Juris Doctor from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and is admitted to all Arizona courts, the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, and the United States District Court for the District of Ohio. He was named to the Top 10 Jury Verdict list in 2021 and holds memberships in the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Arizona, the Arizona Trial Lawyers Association, the Maricopa County Bar Association, and the J. Reuben Clark Law Society.

Our firm has recovered millions of dollars for injured clients across a range of crash types, including cases against impaired drivers and the establishments that served them. When you hire a Phoenix car accident lawyer who has handled DUI civil cases through trial, the carrier knows from the start that punitive damages exposure changes the settlement math.

Contingency Representation

We work on contingency. There is no upfront fee, and we collect nothing unless we recover compensation for you. The firm advances investigation costs, expert review fees, and the records and document requests necessary to build the case — including criminal court records, toxicology reports, and bar receipts where dram shop claims are involved. Our blog on aggravation of pre-existing injury settlement covers the situation many DUI victims face when prior conditions become an issue.

Understanding DUI Accident Cases

Damages, Liability, and Compensation for DUI Accident Cases

Arizona law allows DUI accident victims to recover both economic and non-economic damages. The punitive damages question is what most distinguishes these cases from ordinary crashes.

Recoverable damages typically include:

  • Medical expenses, both incurred and projected
  • Lost wages and reduced earning capacity
  • Property damage to your vehicle
  • Pain and suffering and emotional distress
  • Loss of enjoyment of life
  • Permanent impairment, scarring, or disability in catastrophic cases
  • Punitive damages, where the at-fault driver’s conduct supports them
  • Wrongful death damages for surviving family members in fatal cases

Liability in a DUI case is usually less disputed than in other crash types because the criminal investigation produces evidence that strongly supports civil fault. Arizona is a pure comparative negligence state, but the comparative-fault analysis rarely shifts much weight to the struck driver when the at-fault driver was impaired. The harder questions are usually damages valuation, the size of the punitive award, and whether dram shop liability extends recovery beyond the driver’s personal coverage.

Important Aspects in Your DUI Accident Case

A few things matter more in a DUI case than in a typical crash file.

  • Criminal records support civil liability. Police reports, breath and blood alcohol results, and any conviction or plea become powerful evidence in the civil claim. Coordinating record requests with the criminal proceeding is part of the work.
  • Dram shop investigation has a short window. Bar receipts, server schedules, and surveillance footage from the establishment that served the at-fault driver often disappear quickly. Identifying the source of the alcohol service early matters.
  • Punitive damages exposure changes settlement dynamics. Carriers value DUI files differently because of punitive risk, and the threat of punitive recovery often produces better offers earlier.
  • Pre-existing conditions get scrutinized hard. Defense counsel will use prior medical records to argue your injuries weren’t entirely caused by the crash. Our breakdown of pre-accident medical records explains how this plays out.

DUI Accident Case Timeline

DUI cases sometimes resolve faster than ordinary crash files because liability is clearer, but they often take longer when punitive damages or dram shop claims are in play.

  • Immediate aftermath: emergency care, police report, photographs, witness contact information, criminal proceeding tracking.
  • Investigation phase: criminal court records, toxicology results, bar surveillance and receipts (if dram shop is in play), accident reconstruction.
  • Treatment to maximum medical improvement: typically 3–18 months depending on injury severity.
  • Demand and negotiation: usually 60–180 days after treatment stabilizes and criminal evidence is in hand.
  • Litigation when needed: filing suit, discovery, depositions, mediation, and trial.

Some DUI cases settle within months of the criminal disposition. Others take longer, particularly when dram shop defendants are involved or punitive damages are contested. Knowing what your settlement should actually cover before signing anything keeps the negotiation honest.

What to Bring to Your DUI Accident Consultation

The more documentation you can hand us at the first meeting, the faster we can evaluate your case. If you have these items, bring them.

  • The police or DPS crash report
  • Any criminal case number or court information you’ve been given
  • Photographs and video of the scene, vehicles, and injuries
  • All medical records, bills, and treatment notes
  • Insurance information for every party involved, plus your own policy
  • Names and contact information for any witnesses
  • Information about where the at-fault driver had been drinking, if known

If you don’t have all of this, come anyway. We can pull the report, request the criminal case file, and identify dram shop defendants on your behalf once retained. The consultation is free and confidential, and you’ll leave with a clear evaluation of your case and a realistic recovery range.

Arizona’s rules on filing deadlines, fault, and damages in DUI cases come from a small set of statutes and public crash data sources. The links below take you to the authoritative versions.

  • The two-year statute of limitations for personal injury is set by Arizona Revised Statute 12-542, which controls how long you have to file suit against the at-fault driver.
  • Arizona’s pure comparative negligence rule is codified at ARS 12-2505.
  • Statewide DUI crash data, including alcohol-related fatality and injury figures, appears in the annual ADOT Crash Facts report.
  • National impaired driving research and prevention resources are maintained through the NHTSA impaired driving program.
  • Federal data on alcohol-impaired driving fatalities and trends is published through the CDC impaired driving page.
  • Punitive damages and dram shop exposure typically make DUI files more complex than the average Phoenix car accident attorney case, because recovery may extend beyond the driver to a bar, restaurant, or social host.

These rules look mechanical in print, but the interplay between criminal proceedings, civil claims, and dram shop exposure produces a complex case structure. If you have a question about how a deadline or doctrine applies to your facts, ask before you assume.

Reach Out to Wyatt Injury Law Personal Injury Attorneys to Schedule a Consultation

The consultation is free, and there is no fee unless we win. Bring whatever you have, ask whatever you need to ask, and you’ll leave with an honest assessment of your case and a clear next step. We respond quickly because dram shop investigations and surveillance windows close fast, and the criminal proceeding moves on its own clock. Contact us today, or talk with a Phoenix car accident attorney about your DUI accident before the bar’s records are gone and the witnesses move on.

Client Testimonials

Real Clients, Real
Success Stories