There may be several reasons you want to hire an attorney. First, you may want to hire an attorney if you feel you were wrongfully charged, or if the charges go beyond a DUI as a result of any accident or reckless endangerment. Besides consultation on your options, another reason you may want to hire a lawyer is because you have only 10 days from the date of arrest to apply for a hardship license and work permit. At this court hearing you can contest the license suspension.
However, if you do not request a court hearing within 10 days from the date you were arrested, your license can be suspended for 6—18 months. It is important to remember that in the State of Florida, a conviction of a DUI will remain on your record for 75 years. The National Highway and Safety Administration's annual Traffic Safety Fact stated that 1 out of every people will be arrested for driving under the influence each year.
There may also be video of what happens in the police station after you've been arrested. Usually this is the booking room where you were taken while the officer completes paperwork and asks you to submit to a breathalyzer test.
These 3 tests are:. The majority of DUI arrests in Illinois involve the officer asking the person to provide a breathalyzer sample or blow at the station. Do not confuse this with a breathalyzer test on the road.
A breathalyzer test on the road is called a PBT for portable breath test. These machines are so unreliable, the fact you took one on the road cannot even be mentioned at trial. The PBT is only used to help the officer decide if there is probable cause to arrest you. The breathalyzer at the station is the test that is admissible at trial.
This is because it's not as portable and less prone to mistakes but certainly not fool proof. If you provide a breath test at the station that is. At the time you are at the station, you have already been arrested for a different type of DUI, for being under the influence of alcohol.
In order for breath tests to be admitted, there are a number of things we look at to verify it's accuracy such as was the officer certified as required, when was the last time the machine was calibrated, what was it calibrated with and how does it do during the calibration process? The machines in Illinois are mostly SELF calibrating which means on the first of every month they test themselves to see if they are accurate.
This is the modern world we live in, but it's scary that we rely on the machine to tell us it's broken, but if it's broken, how would it know? This is why we thoroughly investigate every case. The other less common chemical test if a blood test. A blood test can either be taken if you are injured and go to the hospital for treatment, the hospital can draw your blood in the course of treatment and test it for alcohol.
Additionally, the officer may ask you to submit to a blood test even if you've already had one done by the hospital in some instances and then a nurse or phlebotomist will draw your blood and it will be sent to the crime lab to be tested. The crime lab is very busy, so blood tests sent to the crime lab routinely take 3 or 4 months to be tested.
Important issues in any blood test case include the method in which the blood was drawn, how the tubes of blood were handled and treated, where they are sent and their condition, as well as a lot of information about the machine called a gas chromatograph that tested the blood.
How was the machine trained to detect alcohol or drugs, how does it know what is what? There are many issues in blood testing that our hours of classes have taught us. It's very complex, but very important. It might be possible to take a plea on your first court date in an attempt to get it over with, but in most circumstances this is both a bad idea and very hard to do. You need an appointment and documents and sometimes it's not possible to be done in time for your first court date.
Bigger issues that I see is the fact you would be pleading guilty without having seen the evidence against you since the reports and videos are only just provided on the first court date. You may FEEL as though you have the worst case or that you are guilty, but the evidence doesn't always show that. And, you lessen the likelihood of a favorable plea if you do it on the first court date since your lawyer won't have had time to review the evidence or potentially talk to the prosecutor's supervisors.
You may think on a first DUI you'll take supervision and be done with it, but as you'll read below, this will follow you for the rest of your life and is only available one time ever.
As we discussed here , supervision can have both positive and negative implications. For some clients it's a fantastic resolution, but for others it is absolutely not. Do not believe that if you get supervision it means it won't go on your record. This is very wrong. In fact, supervision for a DUI will always stay on your record, is not eligible for expungement and can prevent you from entering Canada. The upsides to supervision is that it is not a conviction if you complete it without an issue, and this prevents you from having your driver's license revoked, which will happen if you get convicted of a DUI.
In addition, it can make you more prone to getting rearrested and officers routinely drive down the road running license plates and they will be able to see your prior supervision for a DUI.
This may plant a seed in their head that you are someone who routinely drinks and drives, and if you make a moving violation while changing the radio station, you may find yourself pulled over and under suspicion for a DUI.
We love our clients, but we understand you don't want to have to see us a second time. When you are let out of the police station or jail, you should have a handful of documents. These documents will usually include:. Our attorneys consistently receive glowing reviews from their past clients.
Client dedication and obtaining optimal results attribute to the success we have had with our clients. It is very important to us that our clients get treated as a person and not a case. We create personalized solutions that help us focus on getting the result you deserve. At our firm, we recognize what is on the line and we are firmly devoted to bringing our clients the high-quality and thorough legal assistance that they need.
You cannot be satisfied with anything less than an unwavering devotion to your best interests. Our team is firmly devoted to defending your freedom. What's the worst case scenario for your license suspension?
DUI Court Appearances In Illinois, a defendant must appear at every court date unless the judge specifically grants permission to the defendant not to appear. In the hearing to fight your suspension, the issues you can raise are: Whether the officer had reasonable grounds to stop your car or to arrest you Whether the officer read you the warnings to motorist the white piece of paper which outlines that you'll be suspended for 6 months if you blow over a.
These 3 tests are: Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test - an eye test looking for the involuntary jerking of your eyes. By Richard Stim , Attorney. The consequences of a first-offense DUI driving under the influence vary by state. Common penalties include jail time, community service, fines, license suspension, and having to install an ignition interlock device IID in your vehicle. The minimum penalties for a first-offense DUI are often increased if you had a high blood alcohol concentration BAC usually.
Here are some of the penalties for a first DUI listed out by state:. The information provided on this site is not legal advice, does not constitute a lawyer referral service, and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be formed by use of the site.
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