Criminal Driving Offences in Romania

I know the night you were stopped keeps going round in your head. You blew into the breathalyser, you were taken to give samples, your licence was taken away and you left with a document saying you have no right to drive. Now you’re waiting for a summons and don’t know what comes next. I’ll tell you. I assist you from your first questioning to the final outcome, and at every step I tell you what options you have.

I’ve written about the offences themselves, about intent when driving without a licence and about psychoactive substances after Decision 25/2025 of the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ÎCCJ) in my article on driving offences (in Romanian). This page is about what we do together once the case has been opened. The criminal law page covers other kinds of case.

Which traffic offences are crimes?

Two things are worth saying up front. For alcohol, what counts is the value in your blood, not the figure on the breathalyser, and the threshold is 0.80 g/l (art. 336(1)). For leaving the scene of an accident, the law expressly excludes the situation where there was only material damage (art. 338(3)(a)). For handing your car to someone who has been drinking, the High Court ruled that a blood alcohol level above 0.80 g/l is needed there too (Decision HP 14/2020). If you drank alcohol after an accident in which people were injured, before the samples were taken, that’s a separate offence under art. 336^1.

What happens at the roadside and in the first few days?

On the spot, the officer retains your licence and gives you a replacement document (dovadă înlocuitoare), under art. 111(1)(b) and (2) of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 195/2002 on road traffic (OUG 195/2002). For the offences in art. 335(2), 336, 337 and 338(1), the document gives you no right to drive (art. 111(3)). If you’re under the influence of alcohol and nobody else can take the wheel, the vehicle is immobilised (art. 117(1)(e)). Biological samples are taken only in the presence of a traffic police officer, in a medical unit, in an ambulance with a doctor or at a forensic medicine institution (art. 88(1)). The lab report (buletin de analiză) arrives a few days or weeks later, and it decides whether the case goes any further.

Next comes the summons for your first questioning as a suspect. Before you’re questioned, the judicial body tells you, in writing, what the act is, its legal classification and your rights, and you sign for them (art. 108(1) and (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Codul de procedură penală or CPP). You have the right not to make any statement, and the law says you suffer no consequences for that. If you do make a statement, it can be used against you (art. 83(a)). You have the right to a lawyer of your choice, to consult the file and to propose evidence (art. 83(b), (c) and (d)). Honestly, I think that in a driving case the first statement carries a lot of weight, because that’s where the circumstances get set down: where you were coming from, how much you’d had to drink, why you left. Don’t give it on your own. Write to me when you receive the summons; I’ll ask to be told the date of the questioning and I’ll come with you.

How can the case end?

Not every criminal driving case ends in a conviction. The law gives the prosecutor and the court several possible outcomes, and my job is to work towards the one that suits you and is open to you.

All the driving offences in the first table carry a maximum of 7 years or less, so waiving the criminal investigation is possible in principle. The prosecutor weighs the public interest by looking at the substance of the act, its consequences, your previous conduct and your attitude after the act (art. 318(2) and (3)), and can ask you to take on obligations, from repairing the damage to 30 to 60 days of community service (art. 318(6)). The penalty can’t be waived if you’ve been convicted before or if the penalty set by law is more than 5 years (art. 80(2)), which rules it out for art. 336(3) and art. 338. For postponement and suspension, your agreement to do unpaid community service also matters (art. 83(1)(c) and art. 91(1)(c)).

If you don’t comply with the measures during the supervision period, or you commit a new offence, the postponement is revoked and the penalty is applied and served (art. 88); a suspension is revoked in the same way (art. 96). From the start, I tell you what obligations come with each outcome, so you can make an informed choice.

What happens to your driving licence?

This is the question everyone asks me, and the answer depends on how the case ends.

• Final conviction under art. 335(2), 336, 336^1, 337 or 338(1): the police cancel your licence (art. 114(1)(b) OUG 195/2002). Your licence is also cancelled when the court has imposed the complementary penalty of a ban on driving certain categories of vehicle (art. 66(1)(i) of the Criminal Code and art. 114(1)(d) OUG 195/2002). Under art. 336, the ban on certain rights is mandatory, and the court chooses which rights.
• Case closed, acquittal, criminal investigation waived, penalty waived, or penalty postponed without the obligation not to drive: the police suspend your right to drive for 180 days (art. 103(1)(c)). This is an administrative measure under the law on minor offences (contravenții), and it’s challenged separately from the criminal case; I’ve written about it on the page about the suspended driving licence.
• A new licence after cancellation: you can sit the exam 6 months after the fine is paid or the prison sentence is served, one year after the judgment ordering a suspended sentence under supervision became final, after the driving ban has been served in full, or after rehabilitation (art. 24(6) OUG 195/2002). If you never had a licence and were convicted under art. 335(1), the same periods apply to your first exam.

I want to stress that postponing the penalty with the obligation not to drive (art. 85(2)(g) of the Criminal Code) doesn’t lead to your licence being cancelled, because it isn’t a conviction. That’s why, in many driving cases, it’s the outcome we aim for.

How I work on a criminal driving case

I read everything: the police report (proces-verbal), the breathalyser result, the lab report, the replacement document and the order opening the criminal investigation. I compare the time the samples were taken with the time you were stopped, and I check whether they were taken where and how art. 88 OUG 195/2002 requires, whether the legal classification is right and whether every element of the offence is there. For driving with a suspended licence, I check whether the suspension was communicated to you, because the offence requires intent. I come with you to the questioning and we prepare your statement together, or we decide that you won’t give one yet.

When the evidence is clear, we talk openly about a plea agreement and I negotiate the type of penalty and how it’s served with the prosecutor. When it isn’t, I propose evidence, file complaints against the acts that harm your interests (art. 336(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure) and, once you’ve been sent to trial, ask the preliminary chamber to check that the evidence was lawfully obtained (art. 342). At trial I argue for the outcome that’s right for you, with documents about your job, your family and your conduct since, because the law gives them weight (art. 83(1)(d) and art. 91(1)(d) of the Criminal Code). The deadline to appeal is 10 days from the judgment being communicated (art. 410(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure); you can work it out with the court deadline calculator. I’ve written separately about each stage: criminal investigation, the preliminary chamber, the trial and appeals.

What documents you need

• the report drawn up on the spot and the replacement document for your licence;
• the breathalyser result and the toxicology lab report, if you have them;
• the summons or the order you received, with the date it was communicated;
• the judgment or the order suspending your licence, if you were driving with a suspended licence;
• a certificate from your employer and any documents about your family situation.

The up-to-date text of the Criminal Code is on legislatie.just.ro, and OUG 195/2002 is here. If you’ve been stopped by the police and received a summons, write to me or call me. Send me a photo of the report and the replacement document and I’ll tell you what comes next.