Aggravated DUI Lawyer in Scottsdale, AZ

Under A.R.S. 28-1383, the felony is an ordinary or extreme DUI plus one added circumstance, and the statute names five. Your driving privilege was under a suspension, cancellation, revocation or refusal, or carried a restriction traced to an earlier DUI or a 28-1385 suspension. This is at least your third DUI violation inside 84 months. Someone younger than fifteen was riding with you. A court or MVD had required an ignition interlock on anything you drive. Or you were going the wrong way on a highway. Four of the five are class 4 felonies; the young passenger version is class 6.

Scottsdale's city prosecutors stop at misdemeanors. Their page assigns state felonies arising in the city to one of two state offices. The County Attorney takes most of them. The Attorney General takes certain others, often when the conduct is said to reach past county lines, the investigation came from a state agency, or the county attorney referred it. We handle these matters whichever office brought the charge.

Under either office, the route into Superior Court runs through a grand jury or a preliminary hearing, and Scottsdale felonies are heard in the downtown Phoenix criminal complex: the Central Court Building, 201 W. Jefferson St., or the South Court Tower, 175 W. Madison St. Confirm the building on your current notice. Maricopa County routes no felony through a justice court first.

A City Court date on your citation does not settle where the case ends. A Scottsdale Police DUI arrest often starts as a city misdemeanor, and the fact that makes it a felony sometimes shows up later, when someone pulls the license history or counts the priors. The felony allegation can be added after the County Attorney's Office reviews a report the city was handling. If that happens, the new charging paperwork names the court and the prosecutor, and that paperwork is the one to follow.

If you are booked, know one Scottsdale rule before anyone heads to the jail with cash: the City of Scottsdale Jail page says felony warrant bonds will not be accepted there. Rule 4.1 still applies, so a judge must see the arrested person inside 24 hours, and that judge settles release, any bond and the conditions you live under while the case is open.

Counsel attaches on a felony: if you qualify and have not retained anyone, the court appoints a lawyer at the first setting. The weeks before that setting are when the MVD record, the earlier court records and the testing data are easiest to gather.

Avoiding jail is not the same as avoiding a conviction. A felony DUI conviction suspends the rights to vote, sit on a jury, hold public office and possess a firearm under A.R.S. 13-904(A), and federal law generally bars firearm possession after a conviction punishable by more than a year. For someone with no earlier felony, A.R.S. 13-907 restores civil rights automatically after probation or an absolute discharge, once victim restitution is paid, though not firearm rights after a dangerous or certain serious offense. Immigration, professional licensing and housing can all be affected too.

A felony charge does not pause the license case. If you were served an administrative suspension notice, A.R.S. 28-1385(G)(2)(c) still says the hearing request "must be received by the department within thirty days after the date of the notice," whatever is happening downtown.

The city keeps two more clocks of its own. Scottsdale's Prosecution Division wants any jail video request in writing within 30 days of the arrest. And the Vehicle Impound Unit names aggravated DUI and a revoked driver's license among its mandatory impound reasons, with a 20-day hold and a 10-day window to ask for a contest hearing at the McKellips Station.

Getting the records. A felony DUI rests on paper as much as on the roadside, so we start there. Scottsdale City Court's own FAQ says it cannot tell you whether your license is suspended and sends you to MVD. ADOT offers both uncertified and certified driving records, through AZMVDNow.gov if you are eligible, or with a request form at any MVD or authorized third-party office.

Testing the license element. We set the MVD record beside the suspension notice itself: the address MVD used, the date it went out, and whether you had reported a move. What the State must prove about notice is a legal question, explained on the DUI on a Suspended License page. A restriction counts only if a DUI or a 28-1385 suspension produced it.

Testing the priors. For a third-offense allegation we get certified records from every earlier court. Scottsdale City Court cases can be searched on the city's website, and the court points to the Arizona Supreme Court's public access site for the rest of the state. Our FAQ below covers how the 84 months are measured.

Testing an interlock allegation. The Program and Jail Compliance office at Scottsdale City Court requests, from interlock defendants, the installation date, monthly reports and completion proof. Where those papers exist for an earlier sentence, they can help fix when the requirement started and ended.

Testing the DUI underneath. No DUI under 28-1381 or 28-1382 means no aggravated DUI. A Scottsdale Police blood alcohol sample usually goes to the department's own crime lab; another agency's arrest may use another lab. On a drug metabolite theory, 28-1381(D) gives a defense to a person whose use followed a licensed medical practitioner's prescription.

Sentencing exposure. On the license, wrong-way and third-violation forms, a conviction means four months in prison, at minimum, before probation or any release is possible, and, on the third-violation form, eight months where three or more prior violations within 84 months are proved. The young passenger form instead carries the jail floor of whichever DUI sits beneath it. On the interlock form, we go through sentencing with you against the class chart on the Aggravated DUI page. Every form also brings a minimum $750 fine with assessments on top, screening or treatment as the court orders, traffic survival school, a one-year revocation and then, usually, 24 months of interlock. Section 28-1383(H) also lets the court order incarceration as a term of probation if a probationer fails to complete the ordered screening, education or treatment.

DUI Court. If probation is on the table, one more county resource can matter. Adult Probation lists a DUI Court in its specialized services, built on the national treatment court model and pitched at medium-high and high risk probationers, with a judge and probation officers working beside public defender staff and contracted clinicians.

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. We take aggravated 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. On a felony DUI we pull the MVD record and the prior court records first, because the whole felony can rest on that one added fact. Most criminal cases are quoted as a flat fee. Consultations are free and confidential.

Office: 4455 E. Camelback Rd., Suite C250, Phoenix, AZ 85018. It is the firm's one office, and Scottsdale aggravated DUI clients meet with us there by appointment.