Drunk drivers cause immense harm in North Dakota. When their vehicle strikes another or causes a crash, they need to be held responsible for their actions. Because drunk driving is a criminal offense, the driver will likely be facing criminal charges. However, that doesn’t automatically make everything right again. Justice isn’t limited to a guilty plea or verdict.
That’s because accident victims are left with life-changing injuries and extensive medical bills. When a driver chooses to drive under the influence of any substance, whether it’s alcohol, drugs, or certain medications, it’s the victim who pays the highest price.
According to North Dakota’s Vision Zero program, an initiative sponsored by the Department of Transportation, Highway Patrol, and the Department of Health, there was an alcohol-related crash every 14 hours in the state in 2024.
Recovering from any crash can seem like an overwhelming prospect. While facing serious injuries, surgeries, and permanent life changes, you’re also looking at mounting medical bills and pressure from the insurance company. They want to keep their payout as low as possible, and their negotiation practices reflect exactly that. A Williston drunk driving accident attorney can make all the difference in your recovery. We can help you get the compensation you deserve by holding the at-fault driver accountable for their actions.
North Dakota treats drunk driving as a criminal offense, and if the driver who hit you was intoxicated, they’re likely facing criminal charges. That process moves separately from your personal injury claim, but the two aren’t completely disconnected.
First of all, criminal evidence can strengthen your civil case. A blood alcohol content reading above the legal limit, a DUI arrest, or a conviction on the criminal side all make it significantly harder for the at-fault driver’s insurer to deny liability. They can’t easily argue their client wasn’t impaired when a court has already established that they were.
Still, a criminal conviction doesn’t pay your medical bills. The civil process is what gets you compensation for your injuries, your lost wages, and the ongoing treatment you may be facing for months or years. That’s why we focus on the civil claim, even when criminal proceedings are underway.
North Dakota follows modified comparative fault rules, which means fault can be divided between parties involved in a crash. First, your own insurance covers your initial costs regardless of who caused the accident, but it’s common for damages to exceed those limits. In that case, you have every right to pursue additional compensation from the intoxicated driver.
Modified comparative negligence rules state that you can only recover damages if the other party was more than 50% responsible for the crash. This is a relatively easy threshold to clear when the other driver was intoxicated. However, if you bear any responsibility for the accident, your compensation total will be reduced.
For example, if you were 10% responsible for the crash, then your compensation package or court award will be reduced by 10%.
Insurance companies understand this rule well, and they use it aggressively. Even when their insured was caught driving drunk, adjusters may still argue that you were speeding, distracted, or otherwise contributed to the collision. The goal is to inflate your share of fault and reduce what they owe.
Our DUI accident lawyers in Williston, ND know that tactic. We build cases around the actual evidence, including police reports, BAC results, accident reconstruction, and witness accounts, to establish what really happened on Highway 2 or US-85 that day. Drunk drivers don’t get to shift blame just because their insurer pushes hard enough.
It can feel like recovering from a crash is a full-time job, and insurance negotiations are one of the biggest burdens of that job. Most people aren’t prepared for this, and the insurance companies know it. They use their adjustors, attorneys, and internal guidelines to protect their bottom line. Meanwhile, you have injuries to recover from and a life to piece back together.
When an insurer can’t dispute that their client was drunk or otherwise under the influence, they shift their focus to you and your claim. Common tactics include:
This is where having Dr. Andrew Georgi on our team changes the outcome. As our Medical Director, Dr. Georgi brings the clinical precision of a physician who assisted in more than 10,000 surgeries. He identifies the complications that emergency departments don’t have time to catch and builds a medical record that holds up against whatever the insurer’s hired experts try to argue. When your injuries are documented at that level of depth, the usual minimization tactics don’t get very far.
It’s important to choose a Williston personal injury attorney who knows the area.
Williston sits along Highway 2 and US-85, two of the busiest corridors in western North Dakota. Oil field traffic mixes with local drivers and long-haul trucks across these stretches, and when a drunk driver enters that environment at highway speeds, the results can be severe. Rural crash sites in Williams County also mean longer waits for emergency responders, and that delay can turn an already serious injury into a permanent one.
North Dakota law requires uninsured motorist coverage, but policy limits don’t always match the reality of a serious crash. When there is a gap between insurance coverage and the real expenses related to your injuries, we can step in to help you get the compensation that you are owed by the at-fault, intoxicated driver.
North Dakota law allows DUI crash victims to pursue both economic and non-economic damages, because the losses from a collision like this extend well beyond the initial hospital bill.
Economic damages typically include:
Non-economic damages, on the other hand, may include:
No two cases produce the same compensation amount. What your claim is worth depends on the specifics of your injuries, your recovery timeline, and the insurance coverage available. We’ll give you an honest assessment once we understand the full picture. You can also visit our Victories page to see what we’ve recovered for clients in similar situations.
We have developed a powerful and effective system for dealing with drunk drivers and their insurance companies. Here’s what you can expect when you work with us:
Let us listen to your story. We’ll provide a free, no pressure case evaluation.
Our team handles everything: the legal process, gathering paperwork, reviewing your medical treatment, and more.
We win your case and maximize your compensation or we don’t get paid, guaranteed.
In the first 30 days after signing with us, you have the right to end the agreement with no obligation to pay for any services rendered.
If the driver was impaired, their impairment caused the crash, and you have documented injuries, you likely have a valid claim. Bring whatever you have to a free consultation, including the police report, any photos, and your medical records, and we’ll give you a straight answer.
Get medical attention first, even if you feel fine at the scene. Adrenaline can mask serious injuries for hours or days. Document what you can: photos, witness contact information, and the responding officer’s details. Don’t give a recorded statement to any insurance company before speaking with an attorney.
North Dakota’s minimum liability coverage is $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. That rarely covers serious injuries. We pursue compensation through your own underinsured motorist coverage and examine every available source to close the gap.
Yes. A conviction or guilty plea is strong evidence of negligence in your civil claim. Even without a conviction, a BAC result above the legal limit carries significant weight. The criminal and civil processes run separately, but the facts from one can work in your favor in the other.
It depends heavily on your medical recovery. Cases with injuries that resolve relatively quickly can settle within six to eight months. When treatment is ongoing or the damage is permanent, the timeline often extends to two years or more. We won’t push you toward a settlement before we understand the full scope of what you’ve been through.
Most drunk driving cases settle. Insurers know that juries have little sympathy for impaired drivers, and that dynamic gives us real leverage in negotiations. We prepare every case for trial from day one, which keeps that pressure on. If a fair settlement isn’t offered, we’re ready to take it to court.
A drunk driver made a choice that changed your life. The physical recovery is hard enough without spending your energy fighting an insurance company that’s looking for every reason to pay you less than you’re owed.
We handle the legal work so you don’t have to. That means the paperwork, the negotiations, the back-and-forth with insurers, and the case building happen on our end while you focus on getting better.
Call us today for a free case evaluation with a drunk driver accident attorney in Williston. There’s no pressure and no obligation. Just an honest conversation about what happened, what you’re facing, and what we can do about it.
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