DUI or driving under the influence is also known as driving while intoxicated or DWI is a serious matter no matter where a person lives. Even for those first time offenders will still be punished to have certain jail time and suspension of his or her driver’s license. Once a person was convicted of having such criminal offense about alcohol or drug consumption, there are a lot of possible repercussions.
Driving under the influence is not being handled by the federal state, but in the same level where there are different variations in every jurisdiction. This kind of act is also extremely hazardous to other people with whom he may come in contact. Because of the seriousness of this offense, there are different laws that were implemented in various jurisdictions in order to prevent drunk driving as well as to rehabilitate and protect those who were arrested.
DUI or DWI is a serious crime and is composed of two main parts which is the administrative suspension of license and the other one is the criminal court case. The part wherein the administrative case is involved is the DUI conviction arrest which basically deals with the driving and license record and is also considered as a civil proceeding. On the other hand, the criminal case basically deals with the sentencing, penalties and other fines.
For the administrative suspension of license, the individual’s driving license could be taken right away even before the suspect is not yet found guilty in this criminal case. Whether a person refuse to take the breathalyzer test or accepted the test and fail, in both cases, the individual’s license can still be suspended or worse, be revoked. There are some states where this kind of situation occurs on the spot wherein the police enforcer had found an individual driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. On the other hand, there are also some states where the law allows an individual certain number of days (most probably around 5 to 10 business days) on which the court may grant request on having an administrative court hearing.
As what was mentioned earlier, this administrative court hearing is completely a different matter from the criminal case. If the person’s arrest was due to a “probable cause” and that individual took the test and failed or have refused to take the test at all, his or her own license will either be revoked or suspended.
It is essential to take into considerations that there are several states where they permit certain DUI suspects to still have some driving privileges as long as they were able to meet certain criteria. An example of that instance is when a person just had his or her first offense and the case is not that serious, he or she can still be granted of privilege to drive to school, work or undergo an alcohol treatment, but of course, with the courts permit. However, there are a lot of jurisdictions where they don’t allow this kind of considerations especially for those people who did not take the breathalyzer test.
The individual’s criminal proceedings will start after his or her DUI arrest. That person will be asked to be present in a particular arraignment, wherein the individual will be entering a plea. Then this will be followed by court trial and sentencing once the person was found guilty and was convicted.
DUI sentence may include jail time, financial penalties or fines, community service, probation, mandatory attendance and completion of DUI classes and alcohol treatment or counseling. There are some instances when the convicted person will be required to have an ignition interlock device be installed in his or her own vehicle.
Aside from those given criminal penalties, a person can face different DUI consequences in his or her personal life. The DUI conviction will be permanent in one’s record and future employers may be able to see and trace that record which could result to unemployment. The family relationship can also be put in greater risk once a certain family member was convicted of this crime.
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