Every DUI Ticket Has Two Cases – Civil and Criminal:

The Civil Case: At the bottom of the ticket is a small eight (8) point type “longer than thicker” paragraph that is headlined “Right To Hearing” that should have been circled by the arresting officer when he tried to explain this mess to you. This is the only notice you will get of your duty to file a drivers license hearing request within ten (10) days of the date of ticket with the Division of Public Safety to hold a hearing regarding your license. If you fail to get your written request to the DLD within ten (10) calendar days from the date on your ticket, your license will automatically be suspended for one hundred and twenty (120) days if this is a “per se” ticket, or eighteen (18) months if this is a refusal hearing.  This request is available on our website. (although you MUST always check with the DLD to ensure they actually received it). There is no good way for you to defend yourself at this hearing without an attorney because the examination and procedure are quite technical in nature (e.g. you don’t know the rules).  The statistical rate of prevailing at these hearings in over 1000 cases  has been 23% including winning on the merits and winning by default (cop not showing); that means that statistically you have about a 75% chance of having your license suspended by the DLD at your initial hearing if you are represented by an experienced DUI attorney and somewhere around 12% if you just show up and leave it to chance that the cop will miss the date. However, if you have a BAC low enough for an attorney to work with (usually less than .150) and the charge can be reduced to Impaired Driving, then you can also reduce your 120 suspension to 60 days. And don’t forget Impaired Driving also eliminates the need for a mandatory Ignition Interlock Device (IID), saving you about $1500 in associated fees. In many cases I pay for my own fee by saving you substantial sums of money, and in November of 2016 I actually made money for a client by saving her $500 over and above my fee (unusual).

SECOND: The Criminal Case: APP: Place Link Here To Criminal Legal Procedure.