Common DUI Penalties

California DUI Penalties, for example, even a first time misdemeanor DUI carries jail time and some courts even set a 48-hour minimum. A felony can mean up to three years in the state prison with a possible three to five more years for an injury accident.

New laws in many states carry increased DUI penalties for underage drivers with any trace of alcohol in their blood, and increased DUI penalties for extreme BACs, increased DUI penalties for drivers with a minor in the car. When your freedom is at risk you need a professional DUI defense attorney to defend it.

DUI conviction often results in formal or informal probation but there may be circumstances of your case which lessen the severity of your crime. An attorney may be able to lessen the amount of time you'll have to be under probation

Misdemeanor and felony DUI penalties often require obligatory attendance of alcohol programs. Depending on the circumstances and your blood alcohol level, you can be required to attend classes for 90 days, six months or even 30 months. You could also be forced into AA or NA.

Even after you regain your driving privileges, you may be forced to install an ignition interlock device to your cars ignition. This means you have to blow alcohol-free into a handheld device every time you wish to start your vehicle -- sometimes even to keep the car going. The cost of these varies from model to model but you can be sure that you'll be the one fitting the bill.

You stand to lose thousands of dollars in DUI penalties between the significant fees, penalty assessments and victim restitution funds.

Your vehicle may be impounded and even permanently forfeited and sold. You could be straddled with a car payment for a car you no longer own.

Your license could be suspended by the DMV. You must contact the DMV within 10 days of your arrest in order to get a restricted license. Failure to do so will result in automatic suspension.

Your insurance rates could increase significantly or even be canceled by your carrier.

Additional DUI Penalties And Risks

While the direct effects of a DUI conviction may be easy to see, they are many other indirect but lasting effects as well. Certainly you'll be limited in your employment opportunities by your inability to drive without a license, but you could be limited by the conviction itself. Increasingly, the DUI conviction is precluding work in certain fields and with certain companies.

In many states a driver with a recent DUI conviction will not be eligible for a commercial driver's license nor may they drive a school bus. In Texas, in fact, a DUI conviction means never being able to drive a school bus, whether it's 10, 20 or 50 years since the conviction.

With increasing penalties for DUI, powerful lobbying organizations like MADD keeping DUI in the forefront of the public mind, and the expanding means with which employers can conduct extensive background checks, the impact of a DUI conviction is spreading beyond simply having a clean driving record.