On June 6, 2023, while driving a vehicle with a blood alcohol content of 0.17%, the client was traveling for about 300 meters when he changed lanes from the secondary road to the primary road and struck the victim's vehicle, which was traveling straight on the primary road, causing injuries. In response, the client was charged with the Violation of the Traffic Accident Handling Special Act (hit and run) and Violation of the Road Traffic Act (drunk driving) and the Road Traffic Act (drunk driving).
Case issues
1) The amount of money available for settlement was small, so we had to negotiate as much as we could, and if we couldn't settle, we had to make it as fine as possible.
2) We needed to convince the client not to go to trial (bench trial) with a wealth of mitigation material, including that he had admitted to the crime and was remorseful and therefore not likely to reoffend.
Troubleshooting issues
Our lawyers first tried to reach a settlement with the victim, but were unable to reach an agreement with the victim who demanded a large settlement amount. In response, our lawyers convinced the victim that the client was sincerely trying to recover some of the damages through the settlement, and through continuous communication with the client, we discovered and utilized various additional mitigating circumstances.
In addition, Ongang Law Firm actively appealed to the fact that the client drove after sleeping for several hours in a car in a parking lot on the day of the incident, so-called hangover driving; that the distance driven was very short (300 meters); that he was a first-time offender with no criminal record; that he was supporting his family alone; and that he had been an exemplary and sincere employee for 15 years at the same job, and his colleagues voluntarily wrote a petition for him after the incident as if it were their own work.
The prosecutor's office echoed the sentiments of the defense brief , and thesummary judgment fine of $8 millionwas granted, allowing the client to get back to his life.
