DUI Process in NYC

Get Your Life Back to Normal as Soon as Possible

1. Avoiding jail.
2. Avoiding a criminal conviction.
3. Resuming driving privileges as soon as possible.

If you have a history of alcohol-related or drug-related driving offenses, achieving your goals becomes more difficult. Other complicating factors might arise from the facts and circumstances that led to your arrest, such as:

1. Registering a high blood-alcohol content.
2. Refusing to provide a breath sample.
3. Driving with a child in the car.
4. Being involved in a traffic accident.
5. Leaving the scene of an accident before police arrive.

If you’re licensed in a state other than New York, you need to be concerned about the consequences that your home state might impose upon your New York conviction.

Also, you need to understand DUI sentencing, because New York imposes a more complicated and expensive range of penalties for DUI than perhaps any other offense. You need to know what the various penalties are, and how much they will cost in terms of dollars, time and aggravation.

I Will Navigate All of This with You

You need a New York DUI lawyer who will efficiently advise you of the best strategy for resolving your criminal case and restoring your privilege to drive. Whether this is the first time you’ve been arrested for drunk driving, or you are a repeat offender accused of a felony – whether you blew a .23 into an Intoxilyzer 5000 or your refused to take a chemical test (entitling you to a “DMV Refusal Hearing”) – you must quickly determine how badly you need your license back.

You might decide that you want to plead guilty as soon as possible, even to a crime, because you can’t afford to be off the road for one day longer than necessary.

Hopefully, though, you can get by temporarily without your driver’s license. If your livelihood doesn’t immediately depend on your ability to drive, we will have time, should we need it, to litigate all aspects of your case, from pretrial suppression to trial. If you have multiple prior DUI’s, we will have the opportunity to decide whether you should pursue a strategy that seeks to avoid or minimize jail time.

If you own a commercial driver’s license, you have special needs that require special care and immediate attention.

For some of my clients, a drunk-driving arrest results from a police officer’s mistaken conclusion. For others, the arrest results from an unlawful stop of the driver’s vehicle. Sometimes, it represents a driver’s one-time lapse in judgment. For some clients, the arrest is a wake-up call, one that motivates a much-needed life change. For others, it’s one of many legal consequences stemming from a truly horrible event. For still others, the drunk-driving arrest is an opportunity ignored, later leading to tragic consequences.

The penalties for drunk-driving offenses are complex and varied. They can include:

1. Imprisonment
2. Probation
3. Civil forfeiture of your car
4. Retention of your car pending civil forfeiture
5. Substantial fines and mandatory surcharges
6. Suspension of your driver’s license pending prosecution
7. Suspension or revocation of your driver’s license upon conviction
8. Suspension or revocation of your car registration upon conviction
9. Participation in a drinking driver program
10. Driver responsibility assessment fees
11. Crime victim assistance fees
12. Attendance at a victim impact panel
13. Installation of an ignition interlock device on your automobile