DUI Defense

Not every DUI case starts with a night in custody. Many arrests end with a citation and a release to a sober adult, and some cases are submitted to the prosecutor first, so the paperwork arrives weeks later when the prosecutor files a complaint. Either way, you should expect a court date, and a long gap is not a sign that nothing is happening.

If you were booked, the initial appearance has to occur within 24 hours of arrest under Arizona Rule of Criminal Procedure 4.1, or you must be released. A judge decides whether to release you, whether to set a bond, and what conditions apply, and on a DUI those conditions can include terms about driving and alcohol that begin immediately.

Unless you have retained a lawyer before your first date, you may end up dealing with the prosecutor on your own. The prosecutor is not your lawyer and is not there to explain the weaknesses in their own case, tell you which count might not survive a motion, or advise you on how a plea could follow you afterward. On a DUI that matters more than usual, because a plea can carry license, insurance and interlock consequences that are not obvious from the plea form.

Avoiding jail is also not the same as avoiding the rest of it. Depending on the charge and your circumstances, a DUI conviction can surface in background checks, in professional licensing review, in employer driving policies and in immigration review, and it can carry a license consequence and an interlock requirement that outlast the court case.

Arizona sorts DUI by breath or blood alcohol concentration and by history. The tier drives everything that follows.

“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.

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:

• Standard DUI: minimum 90 days in jail, 30 of them consecutive, reducible to 30 days on completion of screening, education, or treatment; minimum $500 fine; $1,250 and $1,250 assessments; at least 30 hours of community restitution: now mandatory; and a one-year license revocation.
• Extreme DUI: minimum 120 days, 60 consecutive. At 0.20 or more, minimum 180 days, 90 consecutive. No jail reduction is available on a second offense at either level.

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.

This is the part of a DUI that most often gets lost, and it is the part that can cost 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. Under A.R.S. § 28-1385(G)(2)(c) the request for a hearing or summary review “must be received by the department within thirty days after the date of the notice.” Miss it and the order of suspension can become final on its own, whatever is happening in court.

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. The hearing is also narrow: it is not a retrial of the criminal case, and a dismissal in court does not undo a suspension that became final because nobody asked in time. 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.

What the administrative suspension looks like

• First result of 0.08 or more: a 90-day suspension. But under § 28-1385(I), if you did not cause death or serious physical injury, have no qualifying conviction in the prior 84 months, and complete MVD-ordered screening, the suspension is 30 days of no driving followed by at least 60 days of restricted driving. Under § 28-1385(J), an eligible person may instead request a special ignition interlock restricted driver license: issued in lieu of that suspension, with no 30-day waiting period.
• Refusing the test: a 12-month suspension. A second or subsequent refusal within 84 months is a 2-year suspension. Refusal carries its own consequences regardless of what happens in the criminal case, and officers often obtain a warrant and draw blood anyway.

A DUI case is rarely decided by the number alone. It 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.

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. Aggravated DUI is charged by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and handled in Maricopa County Superior Court in the downtown Phoenix criminal complex, at the Central Court Building, 201 W. Jefferson St., and the South Court Tower, 175 W. Madison St. It reaches that court by grand jury indictment or preliminary hearing; confirm the building and courtroom on your current notice. 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.