DUI License Suspension: Will My License be Suspended for a DUI First Offense & How do I Get It Back?

Is your license suspended immediately after a DUI? No, in every state under current 2024 DUI laws, your license is not instantly canceled or officially revoked by the state until your scheduled DMV hearing within 30 days of the DUI arrest.

However, if you lose at the DMV revocation hearing, this is the point when your mandatory DUI license suspension period will immediately take effect.

An arrest review provides trusted local attorney help with what to expect for DUI license suspension reinstatement near you based on the specific case details. It’s free, so every person can get the immediate expert legal advice needed to keep their driver’s license after a recent DUI arrest with a revocation lifted.

The best way how to get your license back after a DUI, DWI is identifying police report errors, inaccuracies, or other mistakes made on tickets or other paperwork. First offense DUI license suspension length of 6 months to 1 year and the best way how to prevent it, will come down to the specifics of your own arrest and uncovering these DUI legal technicalities in time.

If you had a valid driver’s license at the time you were arrested, the police officer most likely had taken your license and issued you a temporary driver’s license. This temporary license typically will allow a person to drive as normal for a period of 30 days from your date of arrest. At the end of that period of time, even if you haven’t even been to court yet or received any other notice, a person’s license will automatically be suspended. For information on the length of suspension you are facing, please have your arrest details examined through us online right away so we can provide you with answers and the help you need to potentially save your driving privileges.

It is also important to understand if a person is found driving for any reason during a DUI license suspension, without an approved temporary or restricted driver’s license, you are subject to a further DUI penalties, including jail time. Even if the reason you are pulled over or stopped is not necessarily your fault, any person caught driving after a suspended license for a first offense DUI is still subject to time in jail and additional fines. The only way a person can drive during the period of their license suspension for a 1st time DUI offense, is to obtain a restricted or temporary license. In most cases this will include a vehicle Ignition Interlock device with the restricted license.

A vehicle Ignition Interlock device is type of breathalyzer machine that controls a vehicle’s ability to run based on testing a person’s breath for alcohol both at start-up and while driving. For information on the availability of the interlock license for first-time DUI charges you are facing, please contact us or have your arrest details professionally examined online by us as soon possible after your DUI arrest.

A conviction for a first offense DUI or DWI arrest charge will result in serious penalties and consequences. This will include a permanent criminal record, the loss of your driver’s license, a fine or jail sentence and increased insurance costs. For most drivers who unexpectedly find themselves in this situation, fighting the driving under the influence charges is the only option.

For a first-time drunk or drugged driving offense, the average length of suspension in most states will range from 3 months to 2 years. This can vary depending on the state you live in and circumstances of what happened during the DUI arrest, which is another important area where having your arrest details carefully examined can help you. In order to challenge and fight the suspension of your license, you must act quickly to file the appropriate paperwork in a timely manner and present your case at a suspension hearing.

If you choose to challenge the suspension of your driver’s license, or learn your available options with FirstDUIHelp.com how to fight the DUI criminal charges in your case, you can receive a free examination of your arrest details online – simply by submitting the short contact form on this page.

Why to Not Enter a Guilty Plea, if You Want to Have the Best Chances for How to Keep A Driver’s License After a DUI Charge

When a driver has been arrested and charged with a DUI or DWI offense, it is imperative that a person completely understands what driver’s license penalties and consequences will happen if they get convicted, before making the decision to plead guilty. A suspension of a license will begin as soon as police find a driver’s blood alcohol content level to be .08 BAC or higher while driving or still being in control of the car. This is why even those who sleep in a parked car can still be charged with DUI. The duration of how long a suspension is depends on how serious the charges are and the precise details of what took place. Besides the potential of whether or not if a license will get suspended and for how long of period of time, the 6 most common penalties under the new DUI laws for a conviction of driving under the influence of alcohol, illegal drugs, Marijuana, prescription medication, or even a test refusal will include:

1. Having a permanent criminal record for life, that will be found on any future background check.
2. High costs exceeding $1,200 on average for a first DUI offense in fines.
3. Mandatory jail time is becoming more standard, even for a 1st offense conviction or guilty plea.
4. A person will lose a driver’s license for 6 months period of time on average.
5. A driver will have to get an Ignition Interlock installed in order to get a license back.
6. High insurance rates and costs for 5 years after a DUI or DWI conviction or guilty plea.

For many people when faced with the strong possibility of a driver’s license getting suspended along the other high costs and penalties involved, choosing to fight DUI charges is the only real choice to be made. However it is very important to the chances of success in winning or dismissing a case and finding the best defense for ways how to keep a license after a DUI arrest, a driver should not make any decision without getting the proper legal help first. When a person is in this situation facing a DUI charge, by taking action quickly with having us examine the arrest online, the local DUI lawyer reviewing the details can help a person to understand what legal rights they have, and ways how to successfully defend the charges and prevent a driver’s license from being suspended – whether it is for a first-time driving under the influence offense or not.

Under what the new laws are in every state, the cost and consequences for any type of DUI & DWI offense will be high, and the penalties will only become more increasingly harsh in the near future to come. 3 of the most common DUI fines and period of time to expect for jail include:

1. When a driver is convicted or pleads guilty to a first DUI or DWI offense charge: the minimum fine to expect is $1,200 plus court costs. There is an average minimum driver’s license suspension length of time of 6 months to 1 year . However in some states, how long a license will be suspended for can be lowered when a driver installs an alcohol Ignition Interlock device in their car, which they will also be required to pay for all of it’s fees.
2. For a 2nd time DUI offense: there is typically a minimum sentence of 10-30 days of jail time, plus having a suspended driver’s license for a period of up to a length of 3 years.
3. If the conviction is for a 3rd DUI offender: There is usually a minimum jail period of 1 year, and will also include losing a license for at least 3 years, and sometime for life depending on the circumstances of the DUI/DWI case.

What is the Maximum Length of Time Period for How Long My License Will Be Suspended For DUI, and Can I Get it Back Earlier?

There are a variety of factors that come into play when determining how long a driver will lose their license for after a DUI offense, as well as establishing what amount of potential jail time. The first most important factor in figuring out what will happen and what a driver is truly facing, is knowing what exactly happened during the DUI or DWI arrest. This is why having the details professionally reviewed online with us is so crucial to help prevent the severe DUI penalties from ever occurring, by avoiding a conviction in the first place whenever possible. This is because some maximum jail time sentences for a first offense driving under the influence or DWI conviction range from 6 months to over 1 year.

If convicted of charges that include bodily harm or expensive property damage, especially if it is for a 2nd DUI repeat offense, the maximum jail and driver’s license suspension length of time can increase to 3 to 5 years length for both consequences. In order for a driver to get a license back after a DUI arrest earlier than the mandatory suspension time length period they are currently facing, they must first take the necessary action to defend and challenge the charges as soon as possible, which is precisely what we are here to help do.

The court will also likely impose even more heavy costs and requirements, even above what the minimum mandatory penalties are under DUI law, for drivers who fail a Breathalyzer or blood test that show results far above the legal blood alcohol content limit of .08 BAC. Additionally, how having a lifetime DUI/DWI criminal record will also affect a person’s life can be long-lasting and devastating, which include:

• A conviction for driving under the influence will prevent an individual from getting a job as a police officer, teacher, lawyer, driving positions, or most government jobs.
• A DUI or DWI guilty plea can stop a person from being able to further some career fields, such as nursing and military positions.
• Having a DUI record can prevent travel to other countries, or being able to perform any work in them. This is due to the fact that many countries will not even let a person with a DUI criminal record cross over their border.
• If a person is a visiting immigrant in America, a DUI or DWI record could affect the length of time to get citizenship, and in some cases could case it may cause a person to get deported.

After a driver is charged with a DUI offense, regardless if it is for a first or repeat offender, the police will take the person’s photograph mug shot and fingerprints. When a driver gets convicted or decides to enter a guilty plea, the police will keep this information on file permanently. However if a driver gets the proper DUI help in enough time and can win the case or get it dismissed, a local DUI attorney for a first DUI can assist in having a person’s photo and arrest information removed from public records. This can be vital in preventing the stigma of a DUI arrest haunting a person for years to come both personally and professionally in their life.

Once I Get My Driver’s License Back After a DUI Offense Conviction, How High Will My Car Insurance Be?

After a person fulfills all of their required cost and penalty obligations for a DUI conviction or guilty plea to get a driver’s license returned or reinstated, the cost of car insurance rates will often skyrocket to high rates for the first 5 years after a DUI or DWI offense. Many drivers who look forward to the day of when the license suspension period is over, often are surprised to realize that auto insurance rates are so high in costs, that they cannot even afford to drive their car legally with insurance.

What can often happen for a driver who gets convicted of even a 1st DUI offense charge, is that only a insurance company who allows high-risk drivers will cover a person who has a driving under the influence offense conviction on their record – and they will have a high surcharge on top of their usually already higher rates. For example, the DUI driver insurance cost estimates below are what is common to expect:

• Regular rates before a first offense conviction: $2,000
• After a DUI guilty plea or conviction, the high risk insurance rate is: $4,000
• An additional surcharge up to: $2,000
• Total annual cost after a DUI conviction and getting a suspended driver’s license back: $6,000

What is also common after a DUI or DWI offense guilty conviction, is the high surcharge for car insurance cost can be locked in place for an average of three years after being convicted. However a driver will also still need to pay the increased cost in rates for an additional 5 years on average, once the suspended driver’s license time period is over with.

How To Get My License Back After a DUI

A person who doesn’t know what to do after a DUI charge should never plead guilty to the offense before having the arrest details carefully reviewed online with us first. Most people are totally unaware of all their options for how to get a driver’s license back after a DUI arrest charge, until it is too late after the fact. This is because like what was previously mentioned, even a 1st offense DUI or DWI conviction will have lifetime consequences since it will carry a permanent a criminal record found in a background check, losing a driver’s license with a suspension period, and even losing of a job.

Even after dealing with those first round of negative penalties under the law, next will be an average 5 year length of time of paying for high car insurance rate costs once the time as expired for how long a license is suspended for a DUI offense conviction is over with.

Regardless of whether the arrest is for a first offense or not, trying to beat any type of a DUI charge is much too serious to navigate this complex field of law by yourself, or make uniformed decisions based on what other friends or family might have said in trying to help. Even though others may mean well, an all too common mistake a driver charged with DUI makes is to try to figure out what to do or what will happen based on the outcome others have mentioned about their own drunk or drugged driving arrest experience ordeals.

The most important thing to realize in figuring out what option will work best for how to avoid a driver’s license suspension and help win a DUI case, is that each person’s own arrest situation is unique and the circumstances of what actually happened will never be exactly the same, no matter how similar it may seem at first. Therefore everything that is going to help build a strong defense for how to fight and get out of the charges and prevent a suspended license for DUI, will always depend upon a driver’s own facts and details involved with their own arrest scenario.

Please fill out the form to find out how we can help save your driving privileges.