Troy What Happens to a License After a Third-Offense DUI?

When you are arrested and charged with a third-offense DUI in Troy, what happens to your license can impact your life on a dramatic scale. Without a means of transportation, your ability to commute to and from work is immediately affected. Not only this, but the more looming concerns of a charge understandably can cause worry. You may find that your anxiety goes down after you decide to fight these charges with the help of a third-offense DUI lawyer.

What happens to the person’s driver’s license after a third offense Troy OWI charge will partially depend on the individual’s driving record. In the State of Michigan, the driving penalty is decided by the Michigan Secretary of State. When a charge such as a third offense drunk driving is encountered, it depends exclusively on that individual’s driving record. The way that the State of Michigan looks at it is that if there is a prior drunk driving charge of any kind; two within 7 or three within 10 years before the conviction for the next drunk driving, then the license will be revoked for between one to five years.

It is important to note that for the Secretary of State time period calculations, the look-back runs from conviction to conviction. Oftentimes on a case that is close to seven years, one of the key strategies is to try and delay the case so that a conviction would not enter within seven years of any prior. It would avoid a major drunk driving penalty of the revocation of one’s license.

It is also important to understand that if there are three drunk driving charges within ten years, that also could lead to and even longer revocation of a driver’s license. And if there has been a prior revocation of someone’s license within seven years, the revocation period jumps from one year to a period of a five-year revocation. In each of those cases, it is entirely dependent on the past record of the individual being charged, the conviction that resulted, and when the conviction occurred. The Secretary of State uses a formula. Based on whatever information they receive from the court; they would automatically apply the penalty based on that formula.

There are differences in how to challenge these suspensions on the license after a third offense DUI charge in Troy. After someone is charged with a drunk driving third offense in the State of Michigan, it is very important that they understand that a conviction of any kind is going to implicate their privilege to continue driving. They need to know before any conviction is entered what such conviction would lead to as far as the Secretary of State driver license penalty. Once the conviction has been entered, the only way to avoid the suspension or revocation of one’s license is to withdraw that conviction, which is a very difficult process. The only way to withdraw a conviction is to say that the conviction was proffered based on some incorrect or improper information, which is very difficult standard to get to. In some limited circumstances an appeal from trial conviction can successfully avoid a driver license sanction as well.

It’s also important to understand before any conviction is entered and before any plea is entered the exact penalty that will be applied based on the Secretary of State’s understanding of your driving record. Once Michigan has determined the prior record by checking the master driving record, the offender will be notified of the sanction by mail. Oftentimes on a third-offense charge, the license is revoked for a period of either one or five years. That means that the license would not be available to them at all, including the inability to obtain a work permit or any other kind of restricted driving privileges.

Oakland County does not have a sobriety court or drug court that allows drunk drivers to obtain restricted driving privileges on felony drunk driving. They would be required to wait out either the one or five-year revocation period before applying to the Secretary of State for driving privileges. If there is enough time between prior convictions, then there is a possibility that one’s driving license would only be suspended for a period and restricted for a period of time. That is dependent entirely on the individual’s prior driving record as to when the convictions occur, what type of convictions they were, and what type of new charge they are being charged with.

What happens to a license after a third-offense DUI in Troy most often depends on two things; the offender’s prior record relative to dates and types of convictions, and, the nature of the new offense. Depending on the interplay between the two, alleged offenders can have their driving privilege completely stripped for up to five years. To prevent this from happening, reach out to an attorney who may be able to help you avoid these consequences.