There are several penalties associated with a DUI conviction. They can be minimum, like we talked about as far as your driver’s license being suspended. This can be as little as 120 days, and it can go up to 2 years. There can also be mandatory alcohol education, AA meetings, rehab, or either in-patient or outpatient depending on the severity of the drug or alcohol problem. Ignition interlock device is also sometimes required depending on the case. If there’s been any type of harm caused to people, your vehicle could be confiscated. This is just for starters. There are also the fines that we talked about, starting at $1,395 for a first offense. A second DUI is usually around $14,940. Penalties start at 3,000 if you are charged with a felony DUI.
You are also looking at a minimum of 48-hours in jail. A second DUI is 10 days, and the third DUI can be up to 10 years, but it’s usually at least 62.5 days in jail. You definitely don’t want to be committing more than two or three DUIs. No one wants to spend 2.5 months in jail. We would definitely advise against that. Please, get treatment if you have some type of issue. You can become what is known as an alcohol restricted driver, meaning you cannot drive with any alcohol in your system. The courts can also put in some type of community service provision. That requires you to volunteer at a food bank, be on a cleanup crew, or a similar type of service.
Usually there is a minimum of 48 hours of community service. I have seen some cases where there are two weeks, 80 hours of community service. They can be quite extensive and have shorter time frames to get those done. Sometimes you don’t have a year to get them done, but you only have 6 months. You’re spending several weekends, or time after work getting that community service done. Those are the possible restrictions, fines, and penalties. The court has broad discretion to do any other type of restitution required. For example, if you caused property damage, you could have to pay back the costs for whatever damages you’ve incurred. If you’ve ruined a sign or another car, and insurance didn’t cover it for whatever reason, you have to cover it. You have to pay to the court whatever you are assessed as far as property damage is concerned.
What Sets You And Your Firm Apart In Handling DUI Cases?
One of the things that really helps is that we have former prosecutors in our office, so we have very good relationship with the district attorney’s office and the city attorneys’ offices that prosecute the DUIs. And because we know them so well, they know that when we tell them the details of a case, when we go over things with them, then we can be trusted. Because of that, it allows us to negotiate very well with the city and state prosecutor’s offices. We can usually get better sentences than other attorneys can get for their clients. We also try and resolve the actual underlying problem. Was this just a mistake? Was this a one-off error in judgment? If so, then we are going to treat it that way, that there is no problem that needs to be addressed. But if there is an alcohol abuse problem or drug abuse problem that needs to be addressed, we want to get that person the treatment they need.
Sometimes before it’s even required, before a plea deal is even made, we will have our clients get an assessment done by a social worker, or a psychologist or a psychiatrist or other type of therapist, to see if there is any dependency problems. If there is, get them into outpatient treatment right away because by doing that, when we talk to the prosecutor, we can say, “Hey look, this person’s got an alcohol problem and they are fixing it right now. Here is a report from their therapist they are working with, or the social worker they are working with.” We can then get jail time reduced, we can get them converted into community service hours instead, or we can get the fines reduced.
Everything is case specific, and so it totally depends on what happened in the case, what those reports say, and what those video footage looks like in order for us to do the best job for our client. But that is really why we can get a better result for our clients. We can mitigate any losses and get our client what they really want and what they need, which is to get free of any addiction that they may have and to prevent any future DUI charges from happening.
For more information on Penalties For A DUI Conviction, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (801) 676-5506 today.
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8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah 84088
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Telephone: (801) 676-5506
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