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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are hundreds of thousands of arrests made for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or substances in the US each year. In fact, someone dies in a drunk driving crash every 42 minutes.
A DWI (driving while intoxicated) arrest can be a serious and stressful experience that can lead to criminal charges, license suspension, fines, and even jail time.
Every state enforces unique laws and statutes regarding DWI. According to a Houston DWI lawyer, offenders may face fines, jail time, and loss of their driving privileges for an extended period.
In this case, there are critical steps you should take to protect your legal rights after a DWI arrest. Let’s closely look into them.
Exercise the Right to Remain Silent
The police can use statements that a person makes after getting arrested as proof during their criminal trial. You will be taken to police custody after an arrest. But you must remember your Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.
A driver does not need to provide information about their past locations and their alcohol consumption and total drinking amount.
The Fifth Amendment allows a person to stop speaking during a custodial interrogation while the Miranda rights permit them to have legal counsel present for questioning. The Sixth Amendment right to counsel provides distinct legal protection, which begins when formal criminal proceedings start through indictment or arraignment.
The protections remain in effect because different jurisdictions use various terms to describe the same basic offense, which includes DUI and DWI and OWI and OUI violations.
If you had a DWI arrest, then you should get in contact with a DWI lawyer as soon as you can. Your attorney can immediately start looking at your case and reviewing all of the facts of what happened, according to DWI lawyer Blair E. Cody III.
The Chemical Test Decision and Implied Consent
Every state has an implied consent law, which states that all drivers who operate vehicles on public roads have given their consent to chemical testing when police officers possess reasonable suspicion that the driver operates under the influence. Most states treat chemical testing refusal as an independent violation that results in different administrative penalties from arrest and prosecution outcomes.
Texas law mandates first-time offenders who refuse testing to receive a 180-day license suspension according to Texas Transportation Code Section 724.035. California Vehicle Code Section 13353 establishes a one-year license suspension for drivers who refuse testing during their first offense.
The administrative penalties function as independent legal consequences that are separate from criminal penalties, while they extend beyond the suspension period that results from testing failure in most states.
The Administrative License Revocation Process
The administrative license revocation process is separate from the criminal case and operates on its own timeline. An officer who arrests a driver for DWI in most states will take the driver’s license and provide a temporary driving permit, which lasts for seven to fifteen days until the driver asks for a hearing to contest the license revocation.
Missing the deadline to request an administrative hearing results in automatic suspension without any opportunity to challenge it. In Texas, drivers must file a hearing request within 15 days following their arrest. In California, however, drivers need to inform the DMV about their arrest within 10 days.
The state-specific deadlines need immediate confirmation right after arrest. The two cases, administrative and criminal, progress on different paths because one case’s result does not influence the other case.
Retain Counsel as Soon as Possible
Immediate retention after a DWI arrest is crucial to secure the immediate benefits of hiring a DWI defense attorney. The lawyer will establish the administrative hearing deadline after which he will start studying the arrest record and chemical test procedures to find potential evidence to challenge the stop and test administration and evidence collection procedures.
The legal system needs professional knowledge to handle DWI cases because they must prove their case through special procedures that require breathalyzer calibration and maintenance knowledge and blood testing procedures and field sobriety test execution methods that follow legal standards.
The attorney will examine state law to find out if there are any diversion programs or deferred adjudication alternatives while he works on the criminal case, which is currently pending from the administrative hearing results.
Document Everything
When a driver is arrested, they must have a complete record that describes every detail of their arrest process. This should start from their arrest until their arrival at the police station.
The officer will explain the reason for the traffic stop. They will question the driver about the weather and road conditions while conducting multiple sobriety assessments and breath tests. The document should include these details.
Also, the document needs to show the names of all witnesses who were present at the event together with their complete contact details. The police department establishes a standard procedure that requires officers to submit preservation requests through their attorneys because video evidence from police arrest locations gets automatically deleted after a few days.
Criminal Penalties and What to Expect
The DWI criminal penalties in the United States differ when states apply their different regulations based on a person’s blood alcohol content and their previous offenses. Most states treat a first DWI offense as a misdemeanor, resulting in penalties that include fines, license suspension, compulsory alcohol education, probation, and, in certain states, required jail time.
The total cost of a first DWI in a jurisdiction reaches $10,000 or more because it includes fines and legal expenses and increased insurance costs and mandatory programs.
The authorities impose more severe penalties when individuals commit their second offense. Most states impose mandatory minimum jail sentences and longer license revocations for second and subsequent offenses. Several states also classify a third DWI as a felony regardless of whether an accident occurred.
Most states impose higher penalties for aggravated DWI or high-BAC offenses. This is when a person has a blood alcohol content that exceeds the legal limit by 0.15 percent or higher.