Occasionally, someone will get arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) in Orange County, and their driver’s license suspension will be up, but they still haven’t heard from the court about their court date. If this happened to you, we’re guessing you have questions. Can you go back to driving? Does this mean that your case somehow got lost in the shuffle over at the DA’s office? Continue reading as we explain.
Let’s say you got a DUI and you requested a DMV hearing within 10 days of your arrest, the time limit for requesting such a hearing. Unfortunately, the DMV sided with the police report and suspended your license. That license suspension is just about up, so you head over to the court on the date that your ticket said to and you find out that your name is not on the court calendar. So, you go to the DA’s office and ask them why you don’t have a court date.
They tell you that the court hasn’t pressed charges yet and to keep checking the court calendar for your name with a time and date to appear, or you should receive something in the mail with a court date. You’ve been checking the mail, and you still haven’t received anything about a date to appear. Now, the date to get your license back is quickly approaching, what do you do?
This is What’s Happening
Without a DUI conviction from the court, you simply had a DMV suspension, which is about to terminate. When you wait out the suspension instead of enrolling in a drunk driver class and obtaining an SR22 for a restricted license, all you have to do is go to the DMV and get your license back by paying the reissue fee.
However, the prosecution has up to one year from the date of your arrest to file DUI charges. So, you’re not out of the woods yet. If you are charged and convicted of DUI, you’ll have to:
- Enroll in DUI School
- Pay a fine
- Go on probation
- Get an SR22
- Apply for a restricted license
- Pay another reissue fee
- Contend with a DUI on your record
We hope this clears it up for you. You’ll need to fight your DUI charges in the near future, so don’t hesitate to reach out to us for a free case evaluation!