Illinois DUI Lawyer Blawg

If you are convicted of DUI and have an Illinois driver's license, your license will be revoked. You must then submit yourself to a driver's license reinstatement process before you are allowed to drive legally. The length of time you are required to wait before being eligible for reinstatement depends upon your age, the type of offense you committed and your previous driving record.

Something to keep in mind during this discussion: You may have been convicted of DUI in another state while driving on your Illinois driver's license. If that conviction appears on your Illinois driving record, it will be treated as though it occurred in Illinois.

Illinois drivers may (but not necessarily will) receive court supervision for their first DUI offense. Court supervision is not a conviction and it does not result in a driver's license revocation. In supervision cases, your license might be suspended, but it will not be revoked. This means that once the suspension period is over, you pay a fee and are automatically reinstated without a hearing.

A first conviction, on the other hand, results in a one-year revocation of your driver's license. However, the Secretary of State will not automatically return your license to you (as happens in the case of a suspension). The end of the revocation period only signifies that upon attending a hearing, you are entitled to ask for your license.

Continue reading "Illinois Driver's License Reinstatement after a Driving Under the Influence (DUI) Conviction" »

In Illinois, the county coroner's office works with various police agencies within the coroner's county. This recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times online concerns the deputy coroner of Will County Illinois (suburban Chicago) who was arrested on suspicion of DUI. If the police report is accurate, she seemed to imply that her position of authority justified special treatment ("Don't you know who I am?")

Here are some tips to keep in mind if the police stop you and you are concerned about being charged with DUI.

First, statements that imply guilt ("give me a break", "I can't get another DUI", "I am only 2 blocks from home, can't you cut me some slack") put you in a position of having to provide the judge and jury with an innocent explanation for your statements, and there is an old saying in the law, if you are explaining, you are losing. And these pleas for mercy never work.

Likewise, being belligerent ("I will have your badge", "I will sue you", "I am getting railroaded", "you guys are all on the take") does not help. Moreover, if the arrest is taped, and most of them are, your actions will leave the judge and jury who view the video with a negative impression of you.

Furthermore, most law enforcement officers encounter so many people on the job that by the time your case gets to trial, the typical officer in the typical arrest will not remember anything about your case other than what is in his notes. But if you have gone out of your way to be rude, that officer is likely to remember you better than the other people who are polite and cooperative. (the nail that sticks out is most likely to get hammered).

In addition, police are human. If you have treated the officer fairly, he is less likely to register a protest if the state officers you a good "deal". While the prosecuting attorney has final say in those matters, many of them take the arresting officer's input into account.

Continue reading "Simple things to keep in mind if you are arrested for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) in Illinois" »

You can be charged in Illinois with Driving Under the Influence (DUI) even though the police may not actually observe you driving. This Chicago Sun-Times article describes a man who was charged with DUI despite the fact that at the time of the arrest, his car was pulled over and notwithstanding the fact he was rear-ended.

Blake, perhaps concerned that he was too impaired to be driving, parked his car on the shoulder. Although he failed to pull completely over, the fact remains that his vehicle was struck from behind and he was not driving at the time. However, Illinois DUI law provides that you are considered to be driving under the influence if you are in "actual physical control" of your vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.

Many DUI arrests begin when authorities find a driver asleep behind the wheel, or asleep in the back seat of the car, or even outside of the car. As long as the state can prove to a jury that the driver either had been driving or was capable of driving before he sobered up, that is enough.

For example, in the Blake case, the state might ask, if Blake was not the driver of the car, how do you explain how he and his car ended up on the shoulder of I-55? Unless a helicopter dropped him and his car in from the sky, it does not seem far-fetched for a jury to conclude he was driving.

In situations in which the driver is asleep, the state's argument will always be, you could have awakened and driven away. The argument loses some force if the car is inoperable.

Many people arrested for drunk driving who the police did not see actually driving admit to the police that they were driving. Instead of talking to the police, you should exercise your constitutional right to demand a lawyer and refuse to answer any questions.

The issue of whether or not a driver is in "actual physical control" is a touchy legal matter best left to the care of an Illinois DUI lawyer. He can walk you through this legal thicket and help piece together a defense that may avoid a DUI conviction, jail or prison and loss of your driver's license.

Since 1984, federal law has required all 50 states to implement a drinking age of 21. Failure to do so results in a loss of federal highway funds. A recent newspaper article discusses proposed actions in the state of Virginia regarding alcohol possession by those under the age of 21. These laws, like those of many other states, go far beyond what the 1984 law requires.

Because laws in this regard vary from state to state, you should consult an Illinois DUI lawyer if you or anyone you know who is under the age of 21 receives any type of drinking ticket. In addition, even if you do not receive a ticket but have a driver's license or ID confiscated from you, your driving privileges are in jeopardy.

This state has a Zero Tolerance Law Under that law, if you are under the age of 21 and are stopped for a traffic violation and the officer has reason to believe you have been drinking, the officer may demand that you take a breath or blood test.

If that test shows an alcohol level above zero, your driver's license will be suspended for 3 months if this is your first zero tolerance offense. If you refuse to take the test and this is your first zero tolerance offense, the Secretary of State will suspend your license for 12 months. If you are a repeat zero tolerance offender, your license will be suspended for 6 months if you fail the test and 2 years if you refuse to take the test.

Illegal transportation of alcohol (open container in the vehicle) is a violation of the law regardless of the driver's age. However, if you are under 21 and are convicted of illegal transportation, your license will be suspended for 12 months for a first conviction, and it will be revoked upon a second conviction.

Continue reading "DUI and related offenses for under aged drivers in Illinois " »

If this is your first Illinois DUI arrest, things may not be as bad as they could be. The sentence that celebrity playwright and actor Sam Shepard received for his Bloomington, Illinois DUI arrest is fairly typical for first offenders.

The term "first offender" has two very different meanings for someone arrested for an Illinois DUI. That is because an Illinois DUI takes two related but different tracks.

At the time of the DUI arrest, the police will almost certainly ask you to take a breath test. Unless you take the test and register less than .08, your license will be suspended. The length of the suspension will depend upon whether you took or refused the test and whether or not you are a first offender.

Before I go any further, you should understand the difference between an Illinois driver's license suspension and an Illinois driver's license revocation.

A suspension is for a limited amount of time. When the suspension ends, your license is automatically returned to you upon payment of the appropriate fee.

A revocation is for a specified period of time during which you cannot drive, just like a suspension. However, unlike a suspension, a revocation ends only after you have an Illinois driver's license reinstatement hearing with the Illinois Secretary of State. In other words, it is not automatic.

Remember that a driver's license suspension occurs if you refuse the breath test or take and fail it. A driver's license revocation occurs if you are convicted of DUI.

For purpose of the suspension, you are a first offender if you have not had a DUI arrest in the previous 5 years. If you have had a DUI arrest in the previous 5 years, you are a non-first offender.

Continue reading "Sam Shepard faces first offender consequences from Illinois DUI " »

A much-anticipated Illinois Supreme Court opinion held that the HGN, one of three standardized field sobriety tests in Illinois DUI cases, was a valid indicator of alcohol impaired driving. What this means in practical terms that the state will not have to provide expert testimony that the HGN is some evidence of alcohol impairment every time it wishes to use the HGN in an Illinois DUI prosecution.

While this decision is helpful to the state, the Supreme Court placed limits on its use. First of all, the state cannot present the test as proof of intoxication. It will be treated like the other standardized field sobriety tests, or like an open beer can in your car, or an odor of alcohol on your breath, or your admission that you had been drinking. None of these things, standing alone, proves that you are drunk. They just tend to make it more likely that you had consumed alcohol.

The Court also held that any police officer who administers the HGN must be trained according to the student manual of the National Traffic Safety Highway Administration (NHTSA).

Continue reading "The HGN is scientifically valid in Illinois DUI prosecutions" »