A wet reckless plea is a plea bargain when someone with an OWI charge attempts to get that charge reduced. This lesser offense could bring the OWI to a non-criminal offense traffic ticket of reckless driving. Wet reckless is a slang term, not an actual legal term.

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Wet Reckless Pleas in Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, a person charged with an OWI has more options other than going to trial. One of those options is to negotiate for a “wet reckless” plea deal. Distilled to its most basic parts, a wet reckless occurs when a prosecutor agrees to amend an OWI charge to the lesser offense of reckless driving, a non-criminal traffic ticket punishable by 6-points and a monetary fine.

Who Should Take a Wet Reckless Plea

For obvious reasons, a wet reckless is a favorable outcome for many. First, it resolves the case without an OWI conviction. This means lesser fines, no mandatory loss of your license, no requirement to install an interlock ignition device (IID) on your vehicle, and no jail time.

Second, it can protect you from issues from background checks. It is important to keep in mind that the term “wet reckless” or “wet and reckless” is not a legal term. Rather, it is a slang term to reference that alcohol was involved in the incident. Because the ticket will just be for reckless driving, some background checks may be ignorant of the fact that a person’s reckless driving ticket was instead a “wet reckless.”

In some cases, background checks only reveal title of the ticket, the offense date, and little to no other information. Couple this with the fact that police can issue a reckless driving ticket for any number of reasons (speeding, tailgating, cutting lanes, etc.) and it may not be obvious your reckless driving ticket involved alcohol.

What Is the Catch?

Sounds almost too good to be true to get out of an OWI. That’s because negotiating a wet reckless is exceedingly difficult. Wisconsin state statute 967.055 strongly encourages the “vigorous prosecution” of OWI offenses, so it is hard to get reductions. This means prosecutors are reluctant to agree to a wet reckless, so to get this you will need an expertly persuasive legal argument to change their mind.
Understandably, persuasive arguments require persuasive facts. Some facts that can be persuasive include having:

• No prior OWIs,
• A relatively low blood alcohol content (BAC),
• Factual issues with the evidence, and
• An overall absence of injury or property damage.

Wet reckless plea deals are difficult to negotiate and are resisted by most prosecutors. However, wet reckless plea deals do exist, and they can be offered with proper negotiation.