What To Expect On Chicago Administrative DUI Hearing

The very first thing that is going to happen to you in case you will be arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or any illegal substances will be the law enforcement officer taking your driver’s license from you. You will be provided with a temporary permit, which will allow you to operate your vehicle for 30 more days. Afterwards, your license will be revoked. In case you wish to avoid such a scenario and you need to keep your license, it is important to initiate an administrative Chicago DUI hearing within 10 days after the accident took place.

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With that said, an administrative Chicago DUI hearing is a separate hearing and it has nothing to do with the criminal court hearing. The decisions made in criminal court will not affect the DUI hearing and not the other way around. You can either attend the hearing in person, accompanied by your legal representative or you can conduct the hearing via telephone, which is much more convenient for all parties. First of all, the Secretary of State officer will want you to identify yourself. You will do so by telling your name, your date of birth as well as your address. Subsequently, the attorney is going to identify himself as well by stating his name and address.

The Secretary of State officer will want you to swear that you are going to tell the truth and you can start the hearing. The Chicago Secretary of State officer is going to name all the evidence that is available against you. It generally consists of witness testimonies and police reports. Your legal representative will try to counter that by putting under doubt the police reports and how the law enforcement officer describes the night for the arrest. Nevertheless, in most cases, the Secretary of State officer already knows that you were driving under the influence of alcohol and/or illegal substances, so it will be your word against the words of the law enforcement officer who arrested you and his statement is going to be much more believable.

This is why it is so important, crucial even, to have a qualified as well as genuinely experienced legal representative by your side during the Chicago DUI hearing. Only a skillful attorney will have what it takes to present a powerful argument, which will make the Secretary of State officer doubt the police report. This will trigger a reaction and a second DUI hearing is going to be held later on in order to question the arresting officer as well. One way or the other, if you do not want to lose your driving privileges, you will need to think about hiring a professional lawyer to represent you during the DUI hearing.

Refusing To Take a BAC Test Due To Inability? Here Is What You Need To Know

If you were pulled over by the law enforcement officers, who have reasons to believe that you were driving under the influence of alcohol, one of the first things that you will need to do is submit yourself to a BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) test. This is the only accurate way to identify how much alcohol is in your blood.

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With that said, refusing to take the BAC test may lead to some additional unpleasant consequences. After all, when you are getting your driver’s license from the Secretary of the State, you are automatically giving your consent to submit yourself to the BAC tests in case the law enforcement officers will want you to. Refusing to take the test means breaking the rules and in case you are going to be convicted, you risk facing additional penalties. Nevertheless, in certain cases people are unable to take the test to begin with. For instance, during the arrest, a lot of people cannot control their breathing, so the breathalyzer test may prove to be ineffective.

Furthermore, some individuals may be suffering from asthma or similar conditions, so it makes the breathalyzer test obsolete. Furthermore, at times, the Chicago law enforcement officers cannot find the vein to take a blood test. In addition, some individuals are scared of needles, so blood tests are pretty much impossible. Still, it all does not mean that the person was not trying to cooperate with the law enforcement officers. For instance, let us say that Rebecca was pulled over by the law enforcement officers and asked to submit herself to the BAC test. Unfortunately, Rebecca has asthma and does not have her inhaler with her. She tries her best, but her efforts are not enough and the breathalyzer just will not demonstrate any results. Then the police officers decide to take Rebecca’s blood. They are trying to find the right vein, but all of their attempts fail. This does not mean that Rebecca was not cooperating – she did her best to provide the officers with a sample. Unfortunately, though, despite the fact that Rebecca was trying to cooperate, the law is still going to consider that Rebecca refused to submit herself to the tests and she will have to face additional legal penalties.

This is why it is so important to have a qualified as well as genuinely experienced legal representative by your side. A good attorney will be able to come up with a good argument, which will demonstrate that Rebecca was in fact cooperating and it was none of her fault that the tests could not have been taken. A Chicago DUI attorney will help you steer the situation in the right direction.

Can You Refuse a Blood Alcohol Test During a DUI Arrest?

If you were pulled over at a DUI checkpoint in Chicago, and the law enforcement officers have reasons to believe that you were in fact driving under the influence of alcohol, they are going to ask you to submit yourself to the field sobriety tests. These are all pretty straightforward tests, but they are in no way mandatory – you need to volunteer and even if you refuse to submit yourself to field sobriety tests, it is not going to have any consequences. With that said, in case you were already arrested and the law enforcement officers believe that you were driving under the influence of alcohol, you will be taken to the station for the BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) test. It can be either a breath test or a blood test. There used to be a urine test, but it is no longer the case.

Of course, you may refuse to submit yourself to the breath test if you have a health condition, for example, asthma and you will be unable to breath hard enough into the device. In that case you will have to submit yourself for the blood test. This is where things get tricky. See, although you can refuse to submit yourself to the blood test, it is not going to be a good idea. Refusal is not going to play well in court. Refusal to submit yourself to the blood alcohol test is going to be deemed as an aggravating factor for your DUI case. As a result, you are going to face harsher legal penalties and consequences. Of course, there is also the matter of forced blood test. This is when the law enforcement officers ignore your refusal to submit yourself to the test and perform it forcefully. However, recently, there was a new law released, which states that the law enforcement officers have no rights to perform forced tests on you, since it is in direct violation of the 4th Amendment. 

Nevertheless, even though the results of a forced blood alcohol test will not play in court, the judge and the prosecution are both going to consider it as your refusal to submit yourself to the test and it is all back to the square one. The situation is undoubtedly tricky. One thing is 100% certain – in case you or your loved ones are in such a difficult situation, the very best option for you would be to get in touch with a qualified as well as genuinely experienced legal representative at the earliest opportunity.

Contact our law offices today and we will be able to review the case thoroughly, review all the evidence against you and will eventually come up with a solid defense strategy that may well help you avoid the harshest penalties. Otherwise, you risk facing severe charges and, as a result, equally severe punishment, which will have a devastating impact on your day to day living and it is the last thing you want to happen.

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Is It Important To Have An Attorney For The DUI Arraignment?

If you or your loved ones were charged with a DUI in Chicago, you are going to be provided with a special citation, which will include the date and the time for you to appear in court. This first appearance is known as an Arraignment. Even though the Arraignment is not an actual trial per say, do not make the mistake of believing that it is just a formality. In truth, it is a very important part of the criminal court system and there are several factors in play that may well have an impact on the end results. This is why it is preferable and highly advisable to have a qualified as well as genuinely experienced legal representative by your side.

- First of all, it is important to remember that during the Arraignment, the prosecutor is going to make you an offer, the so-called plea bargain. This offer basically implies that you are going to agree to the prosecutor’s conditions and the case is going to be closed there and then. At times, the plea bargain are genuinely beneficial for the defendants. However, in most of the cases, those bargains imply some serious penalties and it will make sense to carry on towards the pretrial hearing in order to get a better bargain. For example, let us say that John hired a professional DUI attorney and they both went to the DUI Arraignment. The prosecutor offers them a plea bargain – it does not involve any jail time, but it does involve several years of probation as well as hundreds of hours of community service. Of course, John is very eager to get it all done with and he is happy that there is no jail time involved. However, his lawyer warns him that it is not the best offer they can get and advises John to wait for the pretrial. John agrees and during the pretrial hearing the prosecutor decides to make another offer – reckless driving. Sure enough, John’s lawyer advises his client to plead guilty and not DUI charges will appear on his records.

- Entering a plea of guilty, not guilty or not guilty is also a matter that is best discussed with the attorney. See, without the proper knowledge of how the system works, it will be extremely difficult for you to determine whether it is best to plead not guilty or guilty in certain situation. For instance, let us say that Alice was charged with a second time DUI and she gets an offer – a week in jail, a fine as well as probation. Alice’s lawyer realizes that the judge does not take second time DUI offenders lightly during the pretrial, so he advises Alice to plead guilty.

As you can see, without the proper knowledge and all the necessary expertise, you will not be able to make the right decision on your own and it is best to hire a professional to represent you in court.

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Information About DUI Hit And Run Implications

People, who are charged with driving under the influence of alcohol are also often charged with hit and run. In case and individual was driving under the influence of alcohol, damaged someone else’s property or inured another person and fled the scene, he or she is going to face separate charges – both DUI and hit and run ones.

With that said, what most people cannot comprehend, is the fact that when it comes to injuries or any damages, it does not matter whether or not hit and run and DUI took place at the same time or separately. This is the “no fault” crime, which means that even if you were not the one to blame for the damage or the injuries. But you fled the scene anyway, you are going to be charged with hit and run DUI and you were also operating the vehicle while being intoxicated.

Damage or injury is very significant when it comes to this kind of cases. These circumstances can easily increase your sentence and turn it into a genuine felony, which will result in harsher legal penalties and consequences. This is particularly so if you have left the scene without providing the injured person with adequate assistance. Felony charges are not a joke and you will want to take them quite seriously.

In order for you to better understand how the concept works, let us review a simple example. Let us say that Chris was at his friend’s house where all the guys were having a party. It is already nighttime and Chris needs to drive home. He believes that he did not have that much to drink, so there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, in truth, Chris had several strong drinks, so his BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) is now way above the .08% limit. Chris is driving home through the forest road, since it is the shortest road home. He believes that no one is going to walk around the old forest road at night. However, he is unfortunately mistaken. A person dressed in black suddenly appears on the road. He does not notice Chris and his headlights and keeps on going. The person is not dressed appropriately, so Chris sees him when it is already too late. Chris runs the person over. Fearing for the consequences of the crime, Chris decides to leave the scene without even checking if the person he hit is still breathing.

Eventually, Chris is apprehended and he is charged with both DUI and hit and run – both very serious offenses. Legal penalties for those crimes are genuinely severe and may include jail time. In case Chris wishes to minimize the sentence, the only viable option would be to get in touch with a qualified as well as genuinely experienced legal representative at the earliest opportunity. The Chicago DUI lawyer who had experience with similar cases is the only one, who can actually help Chris in dealing with the consequences of his actions.

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