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Call For A Free Consultation(602) 345-1818
Updated March 2026 | By Jared J. Pehrson | Impact Legal Car Accident Attorneys
You were going about your day. A drunk driver wasn’t. Now you’re dealing with medical appointments, an insurance adjuster who keeps calling, and a criminal case against the at-fault driver that you don’t fully understand. This page walks through how a Phoenix DUI accident claim actually works under Arizona law: what your civil claim is worth, how punitive damages apply, who else might share fault, and what to do in the first 48 hours. If you want to talk through the specifics, call us at (602) 345-1818 for a free case review.
Most people think DUI means a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of.08 or higher. That’s one version. Arizona’s statute is broader.
Under A.R.S. § 28-1381, a driver in Arizona can be charged with DUI if any of the following apply:
Why this matters for your civil claim: you don’t need a.08 BAC to prove the other driver was impaired. Witness statements, dashcam footage, field sobriety performance, and the responding officer’s observations all count as evidence of impairment to the slightest degree.
When a drunk driver causes your injuries, the work splits into two tracks: building the civil case and shielding you from the insurance company’s tactics. Here’s what we handle:
You’re generally not required to give a recorded statement to the other driver’s insurer. Your own insurer’s policy may require cooperation, but the wording matters. We’ll review it before you say anything.
We don’t publish typical settlement ranges, because every DUI case turns on facts the adjuster doesn’t see at first. What we can tell you is what moves the number up or down.
Value drivers in a DUI civil claim:
This is where DUI cases differ from a typical rear-end claim. Arizona allows punitive damages when the defendant acted with an “evil mind,” a standard the Arizona Supreme Court laid out in Linthicum v. Nationwide Life Ins. Co. The plaintiff has to show, by clear and convincing evidence, that the defendant either intended to cause harm or consciously disregarded a substantial risk of significant harm to others.
Choosing to drive drunk is the textbook example of conscious disregard. Arizona juries and courts have repeatedly recognized that someone who gets behind the wheel after drinking knows the risk and chose to take it anyway. That’s why DUI accidents are a common scenarios for punitive damages in Arizona, along with road rage, hit-and-run, and other intentional or grossly negligent conduct.
Two practical points:
DUI crashes tend to be more severe than average. Impaired drivers don’t brake. They run red lights, drive the wrong way, and hit at highway speeds. The injury patterns reflect that.
Injuries we see in Phoenix DUI cases:
Even crashes that look survivable on the outside can produce post-traumatic stress, depression, and chronic pain that shows up weeks later. Document everything, including how you’re sleeping and functioning at work.
The drunk driver isn’t always the only one at fault. Under A.R.S. § 4-311, Arizona allows civil claims against commercial alcohol sellers (bars, restaurants, liquor stores) when they serve a person who is “obviously intoxicated” and that person then causes injury or death. This is called dram shop liability.
To bring a dram shop claim in Arizona, you generally need to show:
These cases are evidence-intensive. Receipts, surveillance video, server interviews, and patron statements matter. Acting quickly to preserve that evidence is often the difference between a viable dram shop claim and a dead end.
Arizona’s social host rules are narrower than dram shop. Social hosts (a private party, not a licensee) generally are not liable for serving adult guests who then drive drunk, though there are exceptions involving minors. The facts matter.
Why this matters: a bar’s general liability policy often carries far higher limits than the drunk driver’s personal auto policy, especially when that driver only carried state-minimum coverage. Identifying a dram shop defendant can be the difference between a claim that pays for your care and one that doesn’t.
The criminal case and your civil case are separate. They have different parties, different standards of proof, and different goals.
A few practical points:
Arizona follows pure comparative negligence under A.R.S. § 12-2505. That means your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, but you can recover something even if you’re 99% at fault. The drunk driver’s defense team will still try to pin a share of fault on you, even when their client was over the limit.
Quick example. You have $100,000 in damages. A jury finds the drunk driver 90% at fault and you 10% at fault for, say, going slightly over the speed limit. Your recovery is $90,000, not $100,000.
Common defense arguments in DUI cases:
This is a common reasons to read up on the comparative negligence rule before you talk to the other driver’s insurer.
Many DUI drivers either have no insurance or carry only Arizona’s required minimum bodily injury limits. In a serious crash, those minimums are often a fraction of the medical bills.
This is where your own uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage matters. Under A.R.S. § 20-259.01, Arizona insurers must offer UM and UIM coverage. You can reject it in writing, but if you didn’t reject it, you have it.
A drunk driver who flees the scene and is never identified is treated as an uninsured driver in most policies. UM coverage applies.
If you’re facing an uninsured drunk driver, the steps and policy language matter. UM and UIM claims are filed with your own insurer, which often acts more like an adversary than an ally at this point. Strict notice deadlines and policy conditions apply.
You don’t have to do everything yourself. But the first two days set the trajectory of your case.
DUI crashes in the Phoenix metro cluster in predictable places. Knowing where these crashes happen doesn’t prevent them, but it helps with case strategy because patterns of wrong-way driving and lane departures show up in the evidence.
Common hotspots based on ADOT and Phoenix-area crash data:
If your crash happened on a state highway or interstate, DPS handled the report. City streets fall under the local PD (Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, Glendale, etc.). The agency that wrote the report controls how you request it.
In Arizona, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims is two years from the date of the crash under A.R.S. § 12-542. Miss it, and the court won’t hear the case.
Three things to know:
The takeaway: even if you have two years on paper, the practical deadlines (preserving evidence, identifying defendants, complying with notice rules) start running on day one.
We handle DUI accident claims on a contingency fee basis. That means no upfront attorney’s fees. We get paid a percentage of the recovery if and when we resolve the case for you. If there’s no recovery, you don’t owe attorney’s fees.
A few honest details:
Founding attorney Jared J. Pehrson started Impact Legal because boutique attention beats a high-volume intake process for serious injury cases. When you call, you talk to an attorney, not a sales rep. When your case has a question, the attorney handling it has the file and knows the facts.
We focus on car accident and personal injury work in Arizona. We don’t take every case. We take the ones where careful work makes a difference, and DUI cases almost always fall in that category.
Often, yes. Your own uninsured motorist (UM) coverage is designed for this. Arizona insurers must offer UM and UIM coverage under A.R.S. § 20-259.01, and most drivers carry it. We can review your declarations page and explain what’s available.
Not automatically, but DUI is a common scenarios where Arizona courts allow them. The standard is “evil mind” (conscious disregard of a substantial risk of harm), and a driver who chooses to drive impaired generally meets that bar. Whether punitive damages are actually awarded depends on the facts and the jury.
No. The cases are separate. Civil claims often proceed faster, and waiting can mean lost evidence and witnesses. A conviction or guilty plea later can be used as evidence in the civil case.
Arizona’s pure comparative negligence rule (A.R.S. § 12-2505) allows you to recover even if you share some fault. Your damages are reduced by your fault percentage. The defense will probably raise this, so the facts and your own BAC, if tested, matter.
Sometimes. Arizona’s dram shop statute (A.R.S. § 4-311) allows claims against licensed alcohol sellers who serve obviously intoxicated patrons or minors. These cases require fast evidence preservation (receipts, video, witness interviews).
Two years from the date of the crash for a personal injury suit under A.R.S. § 12-542. If a government entity or employee was involved, you have only 180 days to file a notice of claim under A.R.S. § 12-821.01.
A hit-and-run drunk driver is generally treated as an uninsured motorist under your UM coverage. You’ll need to report the crash to police promptly and notify your insurer within the policy’s required window.
Generally, no. You’re not legally required to give a recorded statement to the at-fault driver’s insurer. Your own policy may have cooperation requirements, but the wording matters. Talk to an attorney before agreeing to a recorded call.
If you or someone in your family was hurt by a drunk driver, you have real options under Arizona law. The criminal case will run its course. Your civil claim is the lever that pays for the medical care, lost income, and long-term costs the crash created.
Free case review: (602) 345-1818. We answer 24/7. No attorney’s fees unless we recover, per the terms of the written fee agreement.
By Jared J. Pehrson | Impact Legal Car Accident Attorneys