An unfortunate part of our law practice is when there is a motorcycle or auto accident that involves a death.　 Our part in these situations is to handle the wrongful death civil case.　 However, there is often a criminal side to these cases where the At-Fault driver can be charged criminally for his or her actions. In this situation, we act as the victims' advocates. The criminal case is prosecuted by the State.

Until very recently, a prosecutor's options were limited. The most common crime to charge in dealing with an accident causing death was to criminally charge the at-fault driver with negligent homicide, which carries with it the potential for two years in prison and a mandatory license revocation for one-year.　 This created a dilemma for many prosecutors when investigating these accidents because some of them are just that to the prosecutor's office-- an accident. Often jail time, again to the prosecutor's office, doesn't seem like the proper punishment.　 A local prosecutor described this type of situation as "the only thing where simple negligence can result in a charge with felony penalties."

On October 31st, 2010 the negligent homicide law changed along with statutes that most prosecutors and criminal attorneys say are better for handling serious-injury and fatal crashes when a driver is at-fault.

Along with negligent homicide, involuntary manslaughter and felonious driving (all long-existing options) new charges have been added, including one that is a misdemeanor.　

The new charges and their potential penalties are:

The general response from prosecutors about the new range of charges has been good. 　Police seem to like it as well since now they are not always forced to write tickets to at-fault drivers that could potentially put the person in prison for a long time. No matter what the charge, we will still be there bringing the concerns of the family into the process and making sure the family's voices are heard.