DUI / DWI Defense
Arrested for DUI After an Accident in Spokane
This page is about the sequence — what actually happens after a crash-related DUI arrest, and the decisions that come at you while you are still shaken. If your case involves serious injury or death, the charges themselves are covered on our page about vehicular assault and vehicular homicide.
The single most useful thing to understand is that three separate systems are now moving, they are not coordinated with each other, and only one of them will give you a court date to remind you it exists.
The investigation is different after a collision
A routine DUI stop rests largely on an officer's observations. A collision investigation adds physical evidence: scene measurements, photographs, vehicle damage analysis, sometimes data downloaded from the vehicles, and statements from other drivers and bystanders taken while everyone is upset and unreliable.
It also frequently involves a blood draw rather than a breath test, especially where someone was transported to a hospital. Blood cases move slower — results can take weeks or months — which means charges sometimes arrive long after the arrest, when people have started to assume nothing is coming.
The license clock is already running
The Department of Licensing acts on the arrest, independent of the criminal case and independent of who was at fault in the collision. You have a short statutory window to request a hearing, and it starts immediately. This is the deadline most commonly missed in crash cases, because people are focused on injuries, vehicles, and insurance rather than a licensing form.
Talking to the insurance company
Your insurer will want a recorded statement, and so may the other driver's insurer. Those statements are not confidential, and they can end up in the criminal case. The same is true in reverse — what you said at the scene can shape the civil claim.
You generally do have obligations to cooperate with your own insurer under your policy. Handling that obligation without damaging your criminal defense is a genuine balancing act, and it is worth getting advice before the first recorded call rather than after.
What to do in the first week
- Contact an attorney immediately, because of the licensing deadline
- Do not give recorded statements to any insurer before getting advice
- Photograph the scene, the vehicles, and your injuries if you have not already
- Get medical attention and keep the records; injuries also affect how the case is viewed
- Write down your own account of the sequence while it is fresh
- Do not discuss the crash on social media, or with anyone but your lawyer
- Preserve the vehicle if possible — it can be evidence about speed and impact
Charges may not arrive right away
In collision cases it is common for the arrest to happen immediately and the charging decision to come weeks or months later, once blood results and reconstruction are complete. That gap is not a sign the case has gone away, and it is the most productive period for defense work — preserving evidence, identifying witnesses, and in some cases presenting information to the prosecutor before charges are filed at all.
Frequently asked questions
I was arrested but not charged. Is it over?
Not necessarily. In collision cases, prosecutors often wait for blood results and accident reconstruction before deciding, which can take weeks or months. The license case, however, is already running on its own deadline.
Should I give my insurance company a statement?
Get advice first. You generally have obligations under your policy, but recorded statements are not confidential and can appear in the criminal case. There is usually a way to meet your obligations without damaging your defense.
They took my blood at the hospital. Was that allowed?
It depends. Whether a warrant was obtained, whether an exception applied, and whether the draw and testing followed protocol are all legitimate questions — and the answer can determine whether the result is admissible.
What if the other driver caused the crash?
It matters enormously, both to any charges that depend on causation and to the civil claim. Establishing it requires evidence gathered early, which is one reason to involve counsel before the scene evidence disappears.
Ready to talk through your situation?
Reach a Schwab Law attorney in Spokane today.