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.…
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…
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…
The San Diego Union Tribune newspaper recently reported on a California DUI arrest with a Cook County, Illinois connection. A man in San Diego, California faces prison time of 15 years to life for a DUI arrest that led to the death of another person. The article notes that California…
An emergency room nurse in Chicago recently refused to draw blood from a patient at the request of police. The police suspected alcohol caused the accident for which the accused sought medical care. The nurse insisted on first consulting her supervisor, and the article focused on the her lawsuit against…
Recently in the news is that former Chicago Blackhawks star Chris Chelios was arrested in Illinois for DUI. As I viewed this online report from the Daily Herald, the following statement from reporter Jim Davis, who had viewed the DUI arrest video caught my eye: I had heard that the…
Illinois has a “four strikes” lifetime driver’s license revocation if you meet certain criteria. The factors that must be present for the lifetime revocation to apply are: 1) Your Illinois driver’s license is revoked because of a DUI. 2) You have four (4) or more DUI convictions. This includes convictions…
The Illinois Zero Tolerance (ZT) Law provides that if you are under the age of 21 years and are stopped for a traffic violation and the police suspect you may have been drinking, they are entitled to ask you to take a breath, blood or urine test to determine if…
You are probably reading this because the state in which you now reside either will not renew an existing license or will not issue an original one because the national registry has “flagged” an Illinois DUI. Your state’s DMV has informed you that before it can issue you a license,…
Not every person who has a Driving Under the Influence conviction (DUI) is required to have the Breath Alcohol Interlock Ignition Device (BAIID) (“breath machine” or “blow machine”). The Breath Alcohol Interlock Ignition Device (BAIID) comes into play in many but not all Restricted Driving Permit (RDP) and reinstatement cases.…