While the array of penalties one suffers from a DUI arrest is overwhelming, the first penalty the accused often suffers, often as quickly as ten days after the initial arrest for DUI, is the loss of the ability to drive due to a suspended license. The DMV will suspend your license within ten days of your DUI arrest if there is evidence that your BAC is over a .08, or if you refuse to submit to a lawful test of your blood, breath, or urine. This guide will detail how a DUI attorney can help you get your hardship license back in both scenarios.
How a DUI Lawyer can help you get your hardship license if your BAC was over a.08
A BAC above a.08 gets you a 6 month suspension the first time, and a 12 month suspension the second time. Your Florida DUI Lawyer can request a formal review of the suspension on your behalf, provided you hire him with within ten days of your arrest. When the DUI lawyer requests that hearing, he can obtain on your behalf a hardship permit that lets you continue to drive pending the outcome of your hearing. This is the first opportunity to get a hardship license, and it will be good for an additional 42 days.
While you continue to drive, the Tampa DUI Attorney will prepare for your administrative hearing. During that time, the DUI lawyer will obtain the police reports, affidavits, breath test inspection and maintenance logs, and all the stuff necessary to prepare for the formal review hearing. If your Florida DUI attorney can successfully argue that the police lacked probable cause for to arrest for DUI, or that the Officer did not substantially comply with the rules regulating the blood, breath, or urine test, then the administrative suspension will be set aside, and your full driving privileges will be restored.
However, if the suspension is sustained, the hardship license will be taken away, and a period of "hard" suspension will begin. A "hard" suspension is a period of time during your regular license suspension when, no matter what your Tampa or Pasco DUI Attorney says or does, no hardship license will be issued. You cannot drive (legally), period.
The length of the hard suspension for a BAC over a.08 is 30 days. At the end of 30 days, you will be eligible for a hardship permit (again), provided you can show proof of enrollment in DUI school. Your Florida DUI attorney will set up a hardship license hearing for you, hopefully on the first day that you are eligible for a hardship permit.
How a Florida DUI Lawyer can help you get a hardship license if you refuse to submit to a lawful test of your breath, blood, or urine.
Most of the same principles apply if your license is suspended for a refusal as if it was suspended for a BAC over a.08. For example, you must still get to a DUI Attorney within ten days of your arrest so your right to appeal is not waived. Then, the Attorney will prepare for your formal review hearing. Again, if he is able to win your hearing, then the license suspension will be invalidated, and your regular license will be restored. However, if he cannot win the hearing, then a hard suspension will result.
A refusal suspension carries a hard suspension of 90 days for a first refusal, and eighteen months for a second refusal. That means if you are arrested for a DUI and refuse, and you had previously refused a test of your BAC on another occasion, you will be ineligible for a hardship permit for the entire length of your administrative suspension.
The preceding information only applies to the administrative side of your DUI case.
Please note that the suspension issues outlined above only deal with the administrative, or DMV side of things. If you go to court and ultimately plead to your DUI charge, you will suffer another separate and distinct suspension of your license, this time at the direction of the presiding judge. If it is a first DUI conviction, the suspension is for 6 months to 1 year. If you had previously received a hardship license to keep you driving during your administrative suspension, it will be taken away. The driver's license bureau requires you to go back and reapply to get your hardship back. Only this time, you will need to have completed any DUI school and treatment if necessary before they give you a hardship permit.
No comments:
Post a Comment