A DUI charge is serious on its own. Add a hit and run charge to it and the case becomes significantly more complex, the stakes go up on multiple fronts, and the path to a favorable resolution narrows considerably. This article explains what the hit and run charge adds to your situation, how the two offenses interact legally, and what it means for your defense strategy, your license, and your exposure to civil liability.
Two Separate Charges, Two Separate Penalties
The first thing to understand is that a DUI and a hit and run are entirely independent offenses. They are charged separately, prosecuted separately, and carry their own individual penalties. A conviction on both means you face the consequences of each stacked on top of the other, not merged into a single penalty.
The hit and run statute that applies in most DUI-related cases is Vehicle Code § 20002, which covers accidents resulting in property damage only. This is a misdemeanor. If another person was injured or killed, the applicable statute is Vehicle Code § 20001, which is a wobbler that can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony, and prosecutors typically file it as a felony when injury is involved.
For a misdemeanor hit and run under VC § 20002, penalties on conviction include up to six months in county jail, a fine up to $1,000, three years of probation, two points added to your DMV record, restitution to the owner of the damaged property, and a possible license suspension of up to six months. These penalties are imposed in addition to whatever the DUI conviction carries. For a first-offense misdemeanor DUI, that means you are now looking at potential jail exposure from two separate counts, fines from two separate counts, and two separate probation terms running simultaneously.
For a felony hit and run under VC § 20001 involving injury, the exposure jumps dramatically. A felony conviction can carry up to four years in state prison and fines up to $10,000, again in addition to whatever the DUI carries. If the DUI itself caused the injury, the case may also be charged as DUI causing injury under Vehicle Code § 23153, which is its own wobbler with separate enhanced penalties.
Why Prosecutors Take Hit and Run Seriously
Leaving the scene of an accident is treated harshly in the California criminal justice system for reasons that go beyond the act itself. Prosecutors and judges view it as a deliberate choice made after the accident, a secondary act of consciousness and willfulness that compounds the original offense. The message it sends is that the driver was aware enough to make a decision to flee, which cuts against any argument about impairment affecting judgment.
The combination of DUI and hit and run is also politically charged. Both MADD and the media treat DUI-related hit and run incidents as among the most egregious traffic offenses, and prosecutors in most California counties are sensitive to the optics of offering lenient resolutions in these cases. Expect less flexibility in plea negotiations than you would see in a straightforward DUI with no accident.
The Consciousness of Guilt Problem
One of the most damaging aspects of a hit and run combined with a DUI is what it does to your defense. In a standard DUI case, your attorney may argue that the evidence of impairment is weak, that the BAC reading was unreliable, or that the stop was unlawful. Those arguments become harder to make when the prosecutor can point to your decision to flee the scene as evidence of consciousness of guilt.
The argument goes like this: if you had not been impaired, why did you leave? Prosecutors make this argument routinely in DUI hit and run cases, and it resonates with juries and judges. Your attorney will need to anticipate and address it directly, and the available counterarguments depend heavily on the specific facts of why you left. Fear of a confrontation, not realizing the extent of the damage, or being in a state of shock are all fact-specific defenses that require careful development.
What the Hit and Run Does to the DUI Defense
Beyond the consciousness of guilt issue, the hit and run charge creates evidentiary complications that can actually work both ways in your DUI case.
On one hand, if the prosecution has evidence placing you at the scene of an accident, connecting you to the vehicle, and showing you left without providing information, they may use that evidence to establish that you were driving at all. In cases where there is no direct observation of you driving, the hit and run investigation may supply the link the prosecution needs.
On the other hand, the hit and run investigation may reveal evidence that is helpful to your DUI defense. If the accident occurred in a way that is inconsistent with the level of impairment the prosecution alleges, or if the physical evidence of the collision does not match the officer’s account of your condition, those inconsistencies create room for your attorney to work.
The DMV Consequences
A hit and run conviction adds two points to your DMV driving record under the negligent operator point system. Combined with the points that attach to a DUI conviction, the total point accumulation can trigger the DMV’s negligent operator program, which subjects your license to suspension or revocation on administrative grounds independent of any court-ordered suspension. A driver who accumulates four or more points within twelve months, six within twenty-four months, or eight within thirty-six months faces a negligent operator suspension.
The hit and run conviction also counts as a priorable offense on your driving record and affects your insurance premiums in its own right, compounding the already significant insurance impact of the DUI. Both convictions appear on your DMV record for the applicable retention period, and both are visible to insurers running motor vehicle reports at renewal.
Civil Liability
A DUI conviction alone does not automatically expose you to civil liability beyond what the underlying accident creates. A hit and run conviction changes that picture. Under California law, the fact that you left the scene of an accident can be used against you in a civil lawsuit brought by the property owner or, in injury cases, the injured party. The hit and run adds what is called evidence of willful misconduct to the civil case, which can support a claim for punitive damages beyond the actual damages caused by the collision.
Even in a minor property damage case, the combination of a DUI and a hit and run gives the opposing party’s civil attorney a strong narrative to present to a jury. Most DUI civil cases settle without going to trial, but the presence of a hit and run charge significantly weakens your negotiating position in those settlement discussions and increases what you can expect to pay.
Restitution
As part of any hit and run conviction, the court will order restitution to compensate the property owner for the damage caused by the collision. Restitution is mandatory under California law and cannot be waived. The amount is determined by the actual cost of repairs to the damaged property. If the other vehicle or property was significantly damaged, the restitution order can be substantial, and it must be paid as a condition of probation. Failure to pay restitution is a probation violation.
Can the Hit and Run Charge Be Resolved Separately From the DUI?
In some cases, yes. When the hit and run is a misdemeanor under VC § 20002 and the DUI is also a misdemeanor, both charges may be resolved in a single plea negotiation. In other cases, particularly when the accident involved significant property damage or there is a separate victim who has retained civil counsel, the hit and run may need to be addressed separately.
One avenue attorneys sometimes explore is negotiating the hit and run charge down as part of a global resolution that includes the DUI. Because the hit and run requires proof that the defendant knew they were involved in an accident that caused damage, there are cases where genuine factual ambiguity about the defendant’s awareness of the collision creates enough leverage to negotiate a more favorable disposition on that count, even when the DUI itself is difficult to fight.
What to Do
If you are facing both charges, do not treat them as two versions of the same problem. They are two distinct legal issues that require coordinated defense strategy. Your attorney needs to evaluate the DUI evidence and the hit and run evidence independently, understand how each affects the other, and develop a strategy that accounts for both the criminal exposure and the civil exposure simultaneously.
Start your mitigation package early. Courts respond to demonstrated accountability, and in a case involving an accident where property was damaged, proactive steps such as voluntarily contacting the property owner to offer restitution before being ordered to can carry real weight with a prosecutor who is deciding how hard to push on the hit and run count.
Citations
- California Vehicle Code § 20001 (hit and run causing injury or death, wobbler).
- California Vehicle Code § 20002 (hit and run causing property damage, misdemeanor).
- California Vehicle Code § 23152 (DUI offenses).
- California Vehicle Code § 23153 (DUI causing injury).
- California Vehicle Code § 12810 (DMV negligent operator point system).
- California Penal Code § 1202.4 (mandatory restitution).