I was arrested last night for a dui. I made an illegal you turn and a officer pulled me over. I don't remember what I blew on the breath test, and I failed the soberity tests that were given to me. I moved from Illinois to Arizona. I lived here for a year now. This is my first offense, and the first time I've ever been arrested and pulled over. What should I do? Today is August 12 and my court hearing is August 30. Should I get a lawyer? Or just go to court on the 30 and hear from the judge? Also was are the consequences for my first offense?

Hi thomas:

Don't know what can happen, but none of it is good. You should get a lawyer - he'll know.

excon

GET AN ATTONREY

Well you could lose your licence, get a bid find and go to jail.

But that seldom happens on the first offense.

With that said, each judge has a different idea, of justice and about DUI

You can assume you will get your licence suspended for a certain amount of time, and will need to get a hardship licence to get back and forth to work. And you can be sure this will greatly raise the cost of your car insurance. And you can be sure you will have a very large fine and most likely some probation time.

There are many things, first was the U turn really illegal? Many are legal, I don't know Arizona laws on U turn but U turns in our states are legal in many places. So if your U turn was legal, then there was no probable cuase to stop you, thus the evidence they got would be wrong.

And attorneys can do a lot of things for DUI, but a good DUI attorney will be costly. In Atlanta a good DUI attorney will cost about 5000 to show up in court for you.

Find out what classes are required for a first time DUI and get them done before court if possible and present the court with documentation. Next, attend some AA meetings and keep the documentation for the judge. If possible, be prepared to pay the whole fine on the day of sentencing. Get an attorney. If you do all of these things, the judge will know you have it together and assume this was a one time mistake and more than likely go a little easy on you. By that I mean your punishment will be more towards the minimum and not the max. Another very important thing, dress for sucsess, not like you just came from the skate park or a rap concert!

Since DUI is treated so seriously nowadays it is probably well worth your while to at least consult with an attorney. It may not be necessary to retain him/her but at least get some good, solid legal counsel concerning this matter.

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Originally Posted by thomaslee26

i was arrested last night for a dui. I made an illegal u turn and a officer pulled me over. I dont remember what i blew on the breath test, and i failed the soberity tests that were given to me. I moved from Illinois to Arizona. I lived here for a year now. This is my first offense, and the first time ive ever been arrested and pulled over. What should i do? Today is august 12 and my court hearing is august 30. Should i get a lawyer? or just go to court on the 30 and hear from the judge? Also was are the consequences for my first offense?

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The consequences are different in every state but what happen to me was I was fined 800 dollars and was put on probation and had to go to an alcohol class. I was pulled over for illegal u-turn and illegal left hand turn and wreckless driving. If you want to get the least possible sentence you want to get a lawyer. They usually cost 100 to 150 dollars per hour. But they are worth it and make it a lot easier on your sentence. You might get jail time depending on your age, I had to spend the night in jail and I'm 19, and they game me 48 hours more I had to serve. All these fines, probation, and jail depend on what state your in and your record. I would say you would get your license suspended for 330 days with restrictions like you can drive to work and school and that's it. You will probably get probation and be fine usually 500 to 1000 dollars for first dui and you will have to attend a alcohol class.
Don't be worried so much about it, in the end it's not as bad as you think. I had an MIC before I got my dui and my sentence was even that hard, so don't loose rest over it. :cool: