Most people arrested for DUI in Arizona have never been in trouble before. They are released within a day, handed a stack of paperwork they don’t understand, and left to wait — often for weeks — before anything else happens. In the meantime the questions pile up. Am I going to jail? Will I lose my license? Do I have to tell my employer? Is it worth fighting, or should I just plead and get it over with?
The paperwork you were handed is not a formality. One of those pages starts a clock on your driver license that runs whether or not you ever go to court, and it runs out in 30 days. That deadline is explained in detail below, because missing it is the single most common and most avoidable mistake people make after a DUI arrest in Arizona.
This page explains what Arizona law actually says, what the penalties actually are, how the two separate cases against you work, and how these cases get defended. It is general information about Arizona law, not legal advice about your case. Every case turns on its own facts, and the only way to know what yours is worth is to have a lawyer look at it.
Arizona’s core DUI statute is A.R.S. § 28-1381(A). It lists five separate ways a person can violate it:
Two things in that list surprise almost everyone.
The first is that you can be convicted with no breath or blood number at all. The “impaired to the slightest degree” clause stands on its own. A reading under 0.08 does not end the case, and the State regularly prosecutes DUIs on officer observations, field sobriety tests, and video alone.
The second is the phrase actual physical control. Arizona does not require that anyone saw you drive. Whether a person asleep in a parked car is in actual physical control is a fact question that Arizona courts analyze using the totality of the circumstances — where the keys were, where the car was, whether the engine was running, whether the driver had pulled over to sleep it off. That analysis is frequently where a DUI case is won or lost, and it is why “I never left the parking lot” is not the automatic defense people assume it is — but also why it is often a genuinely strong one.
Arizona sorts DUI by breath or blood alcohol concentration and by history. The tier drives everything that follows.
| Tier | Statute | Trigger | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard DUI | § 28-1381 | Impaired to the slightest degree, or 0.08 to 0.149 | Class 1 misdemeanor |
| Extreme DUI | § 28-1382(A)(1) | 0.15 to 0.199 | Class 1 misdemeanor |
| “Super Extreme” DUI | § 28-1382(A)(2) | 0.20 or more | Class 1 misdemeanor |
| Aggravated DUI | § 28-1383 | See below — based on circumstances, not BAC | Class 4 or class 6 felony |
“Super Extreme DUI” is not language the legislature used. It is shorthand everyone in Arizona courts uses for the 0.20-and-above tier at § 28-1382(A)(2). A class 1 misdemeanor is the most serious misdemeanor level in Arizona, which is why an Extreme DUI can carry a month in jail and still not be a felony.
These are the statutory minimums. A court cannot go below them, but it can go above them, and the numbers below do not include the statutory surcharges and fees that are added on top of the base fine — the surcharges alone currently run 79 percent of the base fine, so what is actually owed is close to twice the number in the table before jail costs, screening, treatment, and interlock expenses are added.
| Standard DUI | Extreme (0.15–0.199) | 0.20 or more | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum jail | 10 consecutive days | 30 consecutive days | 45 consecutive days |
| Reducible to | 1 day, on completion of court-ordered screening, education, or treatment (§ 28-1381(J)) | 9 days, if you equip every vehicle you operate with a certified interlock for 12 months (§ 28-1382(I)) | 14 days, on the same interlock condition (§ 28-1382(I)) |
| Minimum base fine | $250 | $250, plus a $250 DUI abatement assessment | $500, plus a $250 DUI abatement assessment |
| Mandatory assessments | $500 prison construction + $500 public safety equipment | $1,000 + $1,000 | $1,000 + $1,000 |
| Ignition interlock | 12 months | 12 months | 18 months |
| Screening / education / treatment | Mandatory on every DUI conviction (§ 28-1387(B)) | ||
| Community restitution | Discretionary on a first offense | ||
The jail reduction on an Extreme DUI is worth reading twice, because a great deal of Arizona DUI content still states flatly that a first Extreme DUI means 30 days in jail with no exceptions. That is not what the statute says. Section 28-1382(I) lets the judge suspend all but nine of those days if you install a certified ignition interlock device on every vehicle you operate and keep it there for twelve months. It applies only to a first offense — there is no equivalent reduction on a second.
Separately, Arizona counties and cities may operate home detention programs with continuous alcohol monitoring (A.R.S. §§ 11-459, 9-499.07). Placement is at the court’s discretion. A person sentenced on a standard DUI must serve at least one day in custody first; a person sentenced on an Extreme DUI must serve at least twenty percent of the term first. Participants pay for their own testing and monitoring.
Arizona measures priors over an 84-month — seven-year — window, and it measures from the dates of the offenses, not the dates of the convictions. A second DUI inside that window changes the exposure sharply:
After 45 days of a one-year revocation, a person may be eligible for a special ignition interlock restricted driver license under A.R.S. § 28-1401, which permits limited driving in a vehicle equipped with an interlock.
Aggravated DUI under A.R.S. § 28-1383 is not about how high the number was. It is about the circumstances. Five things elevate a DUI to a felony:
Circumstances 1, 2, 4, and 5 are class 4 felonies. Circumstance 3 — the child passenger — is a class 6 felony, the least severe felony class, but a felony nonetheless.
A conviction for driving on a suspended or revoked license, for a third DUI in 84 months, or for wrong-way driving carries a minimum term of four months in the Arizona Department of Corrections, not eligible for probation, pardon, or release until served. With three or more prior violations in the 84-month window, the minimum rises to eight months. Where the aggravating circumstance is a child passenger, the person must serve at least the minimum required by the underlying standard or Extreme DUI.
Aggravated DUI also carries a minimum $750 fine, a $250 DUI abatement assessment, $1,500 and $1,500 assessments, mandatory screening and treatment, and a 24-month ignition interlock requirement.
One correction is worth making here, because it appears on a great many Arizona DUI pages: aggravated DUI does not carry an automatic three-year license revocation. Section 28-1383(J)(1) provides that MVD shall not issue a new driver license within one year of the conviction.
This is the part almost nobody is told at the roadside, and it is the part that costs people their licenses.
A DUI arrest starts two entirely separate proceedings. One is the criminal case, filed by a prosecutor in the city, justice, or superior court. The other is a civil administrative action by the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division against your driving privilege. They run on different tracks, on different timelines, before different decision-makers, under different standards of proof. Winning the criminal case does not automatically save your license, and losing the license does not decide the criminal case.
When you were arrested, you were served with a notice — either an admin per se notice under A.R.S. § 28-1385 if you gave a sample that came back at 0.08 or more, or an implied consent notice under A.R.S. § 28-1321 if you refused testing. That notice is also a temporary driving permit, and it is valid for 30 days.
You have 30 days from the date of that notice to request a hearing. The request must be received by MVD within those 30 days, or the suspension becomes final automatically. There is no trial, no judge, and no second chance. The suspension simply takes effect.
If you have read elsewhere that the deadline is 15 days, that number is stale. It was correct for years, which is why it is still repeated so widely. Senate Bill 1334 (2022), enacted as Laws 2022, Chapter 233, changed it from fifteen days to thirty, effective January 1, 2023. The same bill extended the temporary permit and the effective date of the suspension order to 30 days as well. The current text of both § 28-1321 and § 28-1385 says thirty.
Thirty days is more room than fifteen. It is not a lot of room. And the hearing itself is worth having: it is conducted before an administrative law judge, your lawyer can subpoena and cross-examine the arresting officer under oath, and the officer’s testimony there is recorded — which sometimes proves as useful in the criminal case as the hearing result itself.
An ignition interlock is required on every alcohol-related DUI conviction. The period runs from reinstatement of your driving privileges or completion of required screening and treatment — not from the date of conviction. Twelve months is the baseline; 18 months at 0.20 or above; 24 months on most aggravated DUIs.
There is a way out early, and it is narrower than commonly described. Under A.R.S. § 28-3319, a person sentenced on a first standard DUI only may have the remainder of the 12-month period deferred, beginning at the later of six months after installation or completion of the requirements. All of the following must be true: completion of an alcohol education program of at least sixteen hours; a functioning interlock maintained on every vehicle operated, meeting the requirements of § 28-1461; no two or more attempts to start a vehicle at 0.08 or more during the restriction period; and no accident causing injury or property damage at the time of the offense.
It is six months, not 90 days. The 90-day figure in circulation is a confusion with the administrative license suspension, which is a different thing entirely.
A DUI is a chemistry case, a procedure case, and a constitutional case stacked on top of each other, and each layer is a place the State’s proof can fail. What follows is not a promise about any case — it is what a defense lawyer looks for.
The stop. An officer needs reasonable suspicion to pull you over. Weaving within a lane, sitting too long at a green light, and an anonymous tip with nothing more have all been litigated. If the stop was unlawful, everything after it is subject to suppression.
Actual physical control. Where no one saw the vehicle move, the State must prove control from circumstances. Arizona’s totality-of-the-circumstances test is genuinely fact-bound, and a person who pulled over and shut the car off to sleep is in a materially different position from one found at a green light with a foot on the brake.
The breath test. Arizona’s breath instruments require documented calibration, quality-assurance records, and a fifteen-minute deprivation period during which the subject must be observed and must not burp, belch, or regurgitate. Those records are obtainable, and they are not always in order. Residual mouth alcohol, medical conditions including GERD and diabetes, and certain diets can also affect a reading.
The blood draw. Blood must be drawn by a qualified person, using a non-alcohol swab, into properly preserved tubes, stored correctly, and tracked through an unbroken chain of custody. Gas chromatography results depend on the instrument being calibrated and the lab following its own protocols. All of it is discoverable, and all of it is challengeable.
Rising alcohol. The statute asks about your alcohol concentration within two hours of driving. Alcohol absorbs over time. Someone still absorbing at the moment of the stop may have been below the limit while driving and above it at the station — a defense that lives or dies on timing and on when the last drink was consumed.
Field sobriety tests. The standardized battery is validated only when administered exactly as trained. Age, weight, injuries, footwear, roadside conditions, and traffic all affect performance, and officers do not always follow the protocol. Body-worn and dashboard video frequently shows something different from what the report describes — which is why obtaining the video early matters.
The drug-metabolite clause. Prosecutions premised on a metabolite raise their own issues, including whether the substance detected is one the statute actually reaches and whether it establishes anything about impairment at the time of driving.
Independent testing and preserved samples. Arizona law entitles a defendant to a portion of the sample for independent analysis. Whether that right was honored is itself a litigable issue.
Nova Law Group defends DUI charges in Maricopa County Superior Court, the county’s justice courts, and municipal courts throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area. We handle the criminal case and the MVD administrative case together, because they are two halves of one problem and treating them separately is how people win one and lose the other.
Two of our attorneys are former prosecutors. That matters in a DUI case for a practical reason: we know how the State builds these files, which parts of a breath or blood packet get real scrutiny and which get assumed, and what a prosecutor is actually authorized to agree to.
We request the MVD hearing. We obtain the calibration and maintenance records, the lab packet, the body-worn and in-car video, and the dispatch audio, and we read them rather than skimming them. We take cases to trial where trial is the right answer, and we say plainly when it is not. Consultations are free and confidential.
Call (480) 405-6767. If your arrest was recent, call before the 30-day MVD deadline runs.
Arizona’s DUI statutes carry mandatory minimum jail terms, so a conviction does mean some custody. But the minimums are reducible. On a first standard DUI the ten-day minimum can be reduced to a single day upon completion of court-ordered screening, education, or treatment. On a first Extreme DUI the thirty-day minimum can be reduced to nine days with a twelve-month ignition interlock. Some jurisdictions also permit home detention with continuous alcohol monitoring. And a conviction is not the only possible outcome — charges are dismissed, reduced, and won at trial.
Thirty days from the date of the notice served on you at the time of arrest. The request must be received by MVD inside that window. If it is not, the suspension becomes final without any hearing at all. The deadline was fifteen days until Senate Bill 1334 changed it effective January 1, 2023, which is why the older figure is still so widely repeated.
Yes. A.R.S. § 28-1381(A)(1) prohibits driving while impaired to the slightest degree and contains no numeric threshold. A reading below 0.08 is helpful evidence, not a bar to prosecution.
Possibly. Arizona prohibits being in “actual physical control” of a vehicle while impaired, and does not require proof that the vehicle moved. Arizona courts apply a totality-of-the-circumstances analysis — the position of the keys and the vehicle, whether the engine was running, and whether the person had pulled over to sleep it off all matter. It is a fact-intensive question and often a strong defense, but it is not automatic.
Refusal triggers a twelve-month license suspension under the implied consent law, or two years for a second refusal within 84 months. That is separate from the criminal case. Refusing also rarely prevents testing — officers commonly obtain a warrant and draw blood.
Standard, Extreme, and 0.20-and-above DUIs are class 1 misdemeanors. A DUI becomes a felony only under § 28-1383 — driving on a suspended or revoked license, a third offense within 84 months, a passenger under fifteen, driving while interlock-required, or driving the wrong way on a highway.
Arizona does not expunge criminal convictions in the way many other states do. It has a set-aside process under A.R.S. § 13-905 and a sealing process under A.R.S. § 13-911, and a DUI conviction is generally eligible for both. The rules on waiting periods and exclusions are specific enough to deserve their own discussion — ask about it at your consultation.
The base fines set by statute are only the beginning. Arizona adds mandatory assessments — prison construction, public safety equipment, and on Extreme and aggravated cases a DUI abatement assessment — plus statutory surcharges calculated as a percentage of the base fine. Beyond the court obligations, there are screening and treatment costs, ignition interlock installation and monthly monitoring, license reinstatement fees, and, for most people, a significant and lasting increase in auto insurance. The realistic total on a first offense is several times the fine figure alone.
That is your decision, and it is worth making with real information rather than a guess. What we would point out is this: a DUI conviction in Arizona is not something you serve and move past. It carries a mandatory interlock, it counts as a prior for 84 months, and it stays on your record. The MVD deadline runs whether or not you have counsel. Consultations are free, and there is no cost to finding out where you stand.
Arizona cases rarely arrive alone. If any of these apply to your situation, or you are not sure which charge you are actually facing, these pages explain what to expect:
Related: For nurses, teachers, contractors, real estate agents, and anyone else holding a state license, a DUI can open a second case entirely — a disciplinary matter before a licensing board that runs on its own timeline. See professional license defense.
We handle DUI cases in courts across Maricopa County, including Phoenix Municipal Court, Mesa Municipal Court, Scottsdale City Court, Tempe Municipal Court, Gilbert Municipal Court, Chandler Municipal Court, Glendale City Court, the Maricopa County Justice Courts, and Maricopa County Superior Court for felony and aggravated DUI charges. Where your case is filed affects how it is handled, who prosecutes it, and what resolutions are realistically available.
For licensed professionals, a DUI can create problems that reach past the criminal case and into your license and your employment. Our page for professionals and executives covers what is at stake beyond the courtroom.
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