When someone is facing a Marin County DUI conviction, the standard first offense sentence would be three years of unsupervised probation and a fine of about $2,000. Payments can be made on fines over a number of years. There would also be a requirement that the person does not drive with any alcohol in their system at all for the period of probation. You’d have to agree to not refuse to take a chemical test if pulled over and investigated for a DUI. You would have to complete the first offender DUI School to level one, which is 32 hours of education, usually once a week for two to three hours, depending on the school. Typically, the Marin County sentence would be two days in county jail. You would get credit for any time that you served in jail after arrest.
If you don’t have a day or two of credit, then you would have to serve whatever is remaining. Typically, it’s one day in the adult offender work program. That is a program which is run through the probation office and you would have to sign up for and pay for it. The only additional consequence that you might face is restitution, although that’s something that would not be part of a standard offer. If there’s restitution involved, it usually means that someone was injured or someone’s property was damaged. In those cases, the DA’s office would want more jail time, which can typically be served in the adult offender work program. They’re typically looking for 10 days and you’d serve about half of that under the halftime laws. Then, if you had prior DUI’s that were no longer prior-able, meaning the arrest date was over 10 years before the arrest date on this new case, they will often tack on an extra five days for each of those.
What we’re trying to do is get the case dismissed, win at a suppression motion, or win at a trial. If we can’t do any of that, we will see if we can get the case reduced to a lesser charge, called a wet reckless. Typically, the DA’s office will not consider a wet reckless if you’re above a 0.10 BAC. The maximum penalty for a DUI, if you decide not to go on probation or if you violate the probation, is six months in jail.
If you had a blood alcohol level at or above a 0.20 and you refused a chemical test, sentencing typically includes having to complete a level two, nine-month DUI School. A refusal, unfortunately, can result in a one-year license suspension. There is a new law in California regarding driving after a DUI conviction that says that you would have to go a month of no driving, followed by 11 months of driving restricted to going to and from work and DUI School only. The other option the court can order is an ignition interlock. You can request one on your own from DMV if you’re convicted of a DUI where the arrest happened after January 1st, 2019. It’s a device that you would have to blow into. Assuming that the alcohol level is zero or extremely low, your vehicle will start and then you have to continue to blow into it while you’re driving, periodically. That is a way to avoid the one month of no driving. It gets a bit complicated because there are two separate cases we’re dealing with in a DUI case: the court case and the DMV administrative per se hearing action.
Under the new law, if you do get the ignition interlock device and get it set up before conviction, technically, you should be able to barely have any suspension at all or potentially none. You go to DMV, pay a reissue fee, and you already have an ignition interlock installed in your vehicle. The interlock company has contacted DMV and all the paperwork is in order, so you can go right into the six-month interlock license and not miss driving anywhere.
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