---
title: "Ohio Judge Ordering People Facing Drunk Driving Charges to Install Uber or Lyft"
description: "\"It's far cheaper than paying the thousands of dollars you'd have to pay for another [DUI],\" said Judge Michael Cicconetti."
date: "2017-06-14"
modified: "2017-06-14"
authors:
  - name: "Aaron Brown"
    job_title: "Staff Editor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/aaron-brown"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/tech/11521/ohio-judge-ordering-people-facing-drunk-driving-charges-to-install-uber-or-lyft"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "court"
  - "Drunk-driving"
  - "Law"
  - "Lyft"
  - "Uber"
---

# Ohio Judge Ordering People Facing Drunk Driving Charges to Install Uber or Lyft

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A judge in Ohio has been requiring people facing drunk driving charges to install ride-hailing apps like Lyft and Uber as a penalty for their crimes, [according to *The News-Herald*.](<https://www.news-herald.com/general-news/20170610/painesville-judge-requiring-drunk-driving-defendants-to-download-uber-lyft-on-smartphones?source=most_viewed>)

Painesville Municipal Court Judge Michael A. Cicconetti explained to *The News-Herald* that a repeat DUI offender gave him the inspiration to order future plaintiffs to use the ride-hailing apps.

"There’s nothing crazy about it,” Cicconetti said to [*The News-Herald*](<https://www.news-herald.com/general-news/20170610/painesville-judge-requiring-drunk-driving-defendants-to-download-uber-lyft-on-smartphones?source=most_viewed>). “It’s just common sense. Now that we have the technology and most people have the ability to do that, why not make it part of their sentence?

“If you can save one person from getting another OVI, one person from getting into an accident, one person from hurting somebody else, it makes sense. It’s just common sense. It doesn’t cost anybody anything to install it and activate it, and it’s far cheaper than paying the thousands of dollars you’d have to pay for another OVI," Cicconetti said.

According to *The News-Herald*, 604 drunk driving citations were issued in Cicconetti's jurisdiction last year. The majority of them were issued by the Ohio State Patrol.

“I’m not promoting [Uber](<https://www.thedrive.com/tech/11472/travis-kalanick-leaves-uber>) or Lyft," Cicconetti said, according to *The News-Herald*. "I have no monetary interest in [Uber](<https://www.thedrive.com/tech/10650/more-uber-lyft-riders-are-ditching-their-own-cars>) or [Lyft](<https://www.thedrive.com/tech/11396/jaguar-land-rover-invests-25-million-in-lyft>). In the next 20 years, they’ll have self-driving cars anyway so we won’t have to worry about it.”

## Author
Aaron was previously a contributing writer with Jalopnik and has also written for Business Insider covering cars. When he's not in the office writing the news, you'll probably find him thrashing a beater car around a RallyCross.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/aaronmaxb>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/aaronmaxb>)