License Suspensions After a First Time DUI in DC

When a person is charged with a DUI for the first time, one of the major concerns is what may happen to one’s driver’s license. Many people drive to get to work to run errands and to care for their families. An experienced DUI attorney in DC can help you understand the repercussions for a driver’s license after a first-time DUI in DC.

What Happens to Your Driver’s License After Arrest

When a person is arrested for a DUI in DC, they are provided a notice indicating that the DC Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has the ability to revoke their driving privileges in DC for a period of six months. The notice also informs them that they have the ability to challenge that revocation at an administrative hearing with the DC DMV.

However, the DC DMV has completely separate policies for revoking a person’s driver’s license that are not connected at all to a person’s court case for their criminal charge. This means that the DMV has its own procedures and their own policies for determining when to revoke and when to not revoke a person’s license.

Challenging the Revocation of Your License

When you are convicted for a DUI in DC, there is a mandatory six month license revocation period. There is no way to challenge that revocation because it is written in the laws in DC by the DC City Council saying that these revocation periods are mandatory and there is no way to get around them.

The DC DMV does not offer restricted licenses even for first offense DUIs.

Getting Your License Back

In certain circumstances, if you are acquitted for the DUI, you can go back to the DMV to either have them reverse an earlier revocation of your license based on a DC DMV administrative hearing or if there was no earlier revocation of your license, to simply close out your case and take no action at all against the person’s driver’s license.

Revocation Period for DC Licenses

Unfortunately, the revocation period in DC is mandatory. This means that there cannot be a negotiation with the DMV for reduced periods of revocation for restricted licenses because DC does not offer restricted licenses to people charged with DUIs. If a person is found by the DC DMV to be under the influence of alcohol while they were driving, then the DMV is required to institute a mandatory six month revocation period.

However, a DUI lawyer in DC can still provide advice as to how to put a person in the best possible situation to potentially avoid a revocation period or to work out the timing of that revocation to try and decrease the inconvenience to a person’s driving privileges.