Extreme DUI Lawyer in Phoenix, AZ

Two boxes on the citation tell you where an extreme DUI will be heard: the agency that wrote it and the court printed at the bottom. A Phoenix Police arrest on a city street generally becomes a City Prosecutor case at Phoenix Municipal Court, 300 W. Washington St. The police department's own Vehicular Crimes Unit page says incidents on the interstates and freeways are investigated by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and a DPS misdemeanor usually lands in a Maricopa County justice court; nine of them sit inside Phoenix, in two buildings. The higher tier does not change the courthouse. Extreme DUI under A.R.S. § 28-1382 is a class 1 misdemeanor, and it becomes a felony only if the State alleges an aggravating circumstance under § 28-1383.

Some arrests end with a booking rather than a citation. A person booked after a Phoenix extreme DUI arrest generally goes before a judge at the county's Intake, Transfer and Release facility on South 28th Drive, which runs City of Phoenix initial appearances on a 10:00 a.m. and a 4:00 p.m. calendar. Under Rule 4.1 of the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure, it has to happen within 24 hours of arrest, or the person has to be released. The Sheriff's Office says the city calendar can take a guilty plea and impose a sentence on the spot. On this charge that deserves a pause, because § 28-1382(D) sets a 30 consecutive day jail minimum for a first conviction. Whether any part of it can be suspended is a sentencing question, and the statewide extreme DUI page covers it.

A blood draw stretches the timeline. A Phoenix Police sample generally goes to the department's Laboratory Services Bureau, a nationally accredited crime lab that measures ethanol by headspace gas chromatography. A DPS sample goes to the DPS Scientific Analysis Bureau. Either way, the complaint or the trial setting can wait on the lab report.

At a first city court date, the lawyer for the City of Phoenix is across the table, and nobody in that room represents you. On extreme DUI the negotiation tends to center on which count the case resolves on, and the count reaches past the jail term. What MVD requires after a conviction follows its own rules, and the statewide ignition interlock page explains how that period is set.

Avoiding jail is not the same as avoiding a conviction. Whatever the jail term turns out to be, the extreme DUI conviction counts as a prior for 84 months and can still be used as a prior and by MVD after a set-aside under A.R.S. § 13-905. For commercial drivers, licensed professionals and noncitizens, the effects can outlast the probation.

The license is handled separately by ADOT's Motor Vehicle Division. A result of 0.08 or more can bring an administrative suspension under A.R.S. § 28-1385, and under § 28-1385(G)(2)(c) a hearing request "must be received by the department within thirty days after the date of the notice." A timely request holds the suspension until the hearing, which is narrow, limited to issues such as reasonable grounds, the arrest and the test. The request goes to ADOT's Executive Hearing Office, and nobody at the municipal courthouse tracks that date for you.

The test. The charge rests on a measured concentration, so the record behind it gets the hardest look: the instrument and operator for breath; the draw, the tube, the chain of custody and the lab run for blood. A.R.S. § 28-1388(C) entitles you to a reasonable opportunity to arrange an additional test of your own, and the recordings can show how real that chance was.

The Disclosure Center. On a Phoenix city case, part of that record is published. Besides the discovery the City Prosecutor hands to defense attorneys and self-represented defendants at the pretrial conference, the office provides discovery for alcohol related cases through an online Disclosure Center. It posts toxicology and Intoxilyzer material, officer and forensic scientist permits and phlebotomy training, Phoenix Police horizontal gaze nystagmus logs listed by officer, and photographs of the lab's headspace instruments. The toxicology index adds the lab's ethanol protocol and its papers on estimating measurement uncertainty, and it says instrument service records, pipette calibration records and quality control charts can be viewed at the crime lab by appointment.

Close to the line. Every lab result comes with an uncertainty, and the Phoenix lab publishes how it estimates its own for ethanol. A reported 0.15 or 0.20 is where that margin carries the most weight, because one tier lower means a shorter minimum jail term and, at the 0.20 line, 12 months of interlock instead of 18. Timing belongs on the same chart. The statute looks at concentration within two hours of driving, so the time of the stop, the time of the draw and any drinking after the driving ended all get plotted.

Arraignment and the pretrial conference. The appearance date on a citation an officer handed you is the arraignment at Phoenix Municipal Court. After a not guilty plea, the court schedules a pretrial disposition conference and then a trial setting, and its own page says witnesses do not attend that conference and no testimony is taken. It often works as a session between the lawyers: discovery, offers and the trial decision.

A jury, if you want one. Section 28-1382(C) has the court advise you at arraignment of the right to ask for a jury, and a request you make has to be granted. Phoenix Municipal Court runs its jury calendar through Courtroom 601, with its own conference, readiness and posting steps, set out in the FAQ below.

A justice court instead. A DPS citation sends the same charge, tiers and jury right to the justice court it names; since five courts share 620 W. Jackson St. and four share 18380 N. 40th St., go by the court's name.

Sentencing, if it comes to that. The City Prosecutor's misdemeanor sentencing page notes that DUI carries additional mandatory consequences, such as counseling, ignition interlock devices, community service and restitution. When jail comes with a later report date, the Sheriff's Office self-surrender page sends people to the 28th Drive facility at the time in the court order, with the Confinement Order and a photo ID. Anyone who arrives under the influence, it warns, goes into full custody and loses work release eligibility.

Nova Law Group was built by Ryan Tait, a former Maricopa County Attorney's Office felony prosecutor. The practice is criminal defense first. We keep caseloads deliberately low, which means the lawyers on your case have time to actually watch the video and read the reports line by line. On an extreme DUI, that also means the lab's uncertainty figures, the instrument records and the timeline from the stop to the test. We take DUI cases to trial when trial is the right pressure. Overcharging happens, and a case that is genuinely prepared for trial changes the conversation with the prosecutor. Most criminal cases are quoted as a flat fee. Consultations are free and confidential.

Office: 4455 E. Camelback Rd., Suite C250, Phoenix, AZ 85018. Our office is on Camelback Road in Phoenix, and meetings are by appointment.