How Anne Arundel DUI Charges Affect Employment
Having a DUI on your record can have an impact on a person’s ability to maintain or obtain employment, in addition to various other influences on a person’s life. Some companies in particular require that an employee or candidate have no criminal record. Additionally, someone who makes their living by driving commercial vehicles will find it almost impossible to remain employed. Therefore, if you have been charged with a DUI, one of the first steps you should take so that this is prevented from happening is to contact an experienced attorney. They understand all of the laws surrounding a DUI case and will anticipate any questions and strategies the prosecution will employ.
Impact of a DUI Charge on Future Employment
Depending on what type of employment you seek, a DUI arrest or conviction can have anywhere from a negligible impact to a very significant impact on employment. If you work in retail, a DUI problem will not have a very much impact on your employment, other than perhaps your ability to get back and forth to work. However, if you drive a commercial motor vehicle for a living, then getting a DUI is going to have an enormous effect on your employment.
Whether or not you will receive a background check depends on your individual employer. If there will be a driving component to the job, then very frequently employers will run background checks to confirm reliability.
Often times, you will be cut from the pile of potential interviewees without being given any opportunity to explain your record. That is why it is so important to get a good outcome whenever you are charged with a DUI.
Impact on Current Employment
Some employers will fire you if you receive a DUI conviction, especially if driving is a component of the job. There may be a condition in your employment that if you are charged or convicted of a DUI, your employment will be terminated. Other employers may not have this condition. It will depend on the nature of your employer and the nature of the work that you do. If an employer has two equally qualified candidates, but one has a DUI arrest and the other does not, they are more likely to pick the candidate without the DUI record.
Impact on Security Clearance
Depending on the nature of the job, security clearance could be required. Anne Arundel County has numerous military facilities in which having security clearance is an important component of employees’ work.
Typically, DUIs have almost no effect on an individual’s ability to have or maintain a security clearance. A DUI, generally speaking, is not the kind of crime that will make your clearance authority raise their eyebrows, particularly if you immediately disclose it.
Implications in terms of obtaining or maintaining a security clearance if you are arrested for a DUI are very rare. A DUI is not like fraud, forgery, or other crimes that in and of themselves require your honesty or your ability to keep a secret. So long as you disclose your record, there is no possibility for blackmail, either.
If you have a job that requires you to maintain a security clearance, losing it can highly jeopardize your employment. Not having that clearance may cause you to lose your job.