A DUI runs on two tracks at once. The criminal case moves through the Superior Court on its own schedule; the DMV runs a separate administrative action against your license that starts the day you are arrested and gives you ten days to respond. Most people learn about the second track too late.
What you’re facing
These are the five things people actually say on the first call. Each one has an answer, and none of them require you to have decided anything yet.
A number is a reading, not a verdict. Breath instruments carry a documented accuracy-check history and blood carries a chain of custody and a lab record — both are discoverable. The fifteen-minute observation, mouth alcohol and a rising curve are each testable before anything is conceded.
That deadline is real, and it is separate from the court case. The APS hearing is requested inside the ten days, which ordinarily stays the suspension while the hearing is pending — so the license question stays live instead of being lost by default.
Restricted licenses, IID installation and enrollment timing are worked alongside the criminal case rather than after it. The driving question is not left sitting until sentencing, because by then the options have narrowed.
Licensing boards and immigration consequences are assessed before any plea is discussed. The disposition is chosen for what it does to your record — not only for the sentence attached to it.
The fee is flat and fixed in writing before anything is filed, and the strategy is agreed with you rather than presented to you. You know the number and the plan at the start.
A DUI runs on two schedules at once — the court’s and the DMV’s. From the first call to the last hearing you always know what is happening on each, why, and exactly where you stand.
Send the case review or call the 24/7 line. The first thing we establish is which of the two clocks is still open — because one of them cannot be restarted.
The DMV hearing is requested inside the ten days, which ordinarily stays the suspension while it is pending. The license question stays live instead of closing by default.
Reports, in-car video, calibration logs and the Title 17 record read in full. Strategy and a flat fee confirmed in writing before anything is filed.
Court and DMV each argued on their own record — motions, negotiation or hearing. Nothing is agreed on your behalf without your say-so first.
Attorney–client privilege attaches before you have hired anyone.
If the ten-day window is still open, you are told in the first minute.
Every position, plea and motion is explained and agreed first.
From the case files
Charged with four strikes and ten felonies and facing 21 years in state prison, the client left with no jail and no prison time — probation and community labor. June 2026.
↗Discuss your case
Two matters in July 2026, six counts between them — judicial diversion granted on every count, with all charges to be dismissed in one year.
↗Discuss your case
Four separate felony domestic-violence matters between December 2025 and July 2026 ended the same way: a mitigation package before the filing deputy, and the case rejected on the first scheduled court date.
↗Discuss your case
Two felony criminal-threats counts — both strikes — reduced to misdemeanors at the preliminary hearing, with judicial diversion granted and dismissal in twelve months. March 2026.
↗Discuss your case
A misdemeanor theft case dismissed on completing a theft class and community service — and a felony welfare-fraud matter reduced to a misdemeanor, then dismissed. December 2025.
↗Discuss your caseResults drawn from the firm's published Avvo case results (2025–2026). Case results depend on the unique facts and law of each case. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter.
First hours
None of these is unrecoverable on its own — but the ten-day window is, and it is running now.
Stage by stage
Two tracks, six stages — and one of them closes on its own. This is the shape of the case from the night of the arrest to the day the record is cleared.
| Case reference | First offense | Second offense | DUI with injury |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section | VC 23152(a)/(b) | VC 23152(a)/(b) | VC 23153(a)/(b) |
| Severity | Misdemeanor | Misdemeanor | Wobbler — misd. or felony |
| Custody exposure | ≤ 6 months | ≤ 1 year (min. 96 hrs) | ≤ 1 yr jail, or 16 mo–4 yrs prison |
| Base fine | $390–$1,000 | $390–$1,000 | $390–$5,000 |
| Probation | 3–5 yrs informal | 3–5 yrs informal | 3–5 yrs, formal if felony |
| DUI program | 3 months (AB 541) | 18 months (SB 38) | 18–30 months |
| License (DMV) | 4-month APS suspension | 1-year APS suspension | 1–3 years |
| Ignition interlock | Commonly ordered | Required | Required |
| Priorable | 10-year lookback | 10-year lookback | 10-year lookback |
| Strike | No | No | Only if a GBI enhancement attaches |
Typical reductions are wet reckless (VC 23103.5) and dry reckless (VC 23103); a wet reckless still counts as a prior for ten years. Figures are statutory ranges — the actual exposure moves with BAC, refusal, priors, and the courthouse. Confirm against current statute before relying on any number here.
Where cases turn
No defense is generic. These are the places a DUI most often turns once the reports, the video and the instrument records are read side by side.
Start your case review →→Every DUI begins with a reason to pull the car over. Where the video does not show the weaving, the drift or the wide turn the report describes, the stop itself is challenged — and everything gathered after it goes with it.
Alcohol absorbs for a period after the last drink. A sample taken an hour after driving can be measuring a peak that had not been reached at the wheel — which answers the 0.08 count without touching the impairment count.
Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations governs how breath and blood evidence must be collected and stored. Non-compliance goes to the weight of the result and, on the right record, to whether it comes in at all.
A breath machine measures deep lung air by assumption, not by observation. Reflux, dental work, recent vomiting and a shortened observation period all put alcohol in the mouth that the instrument reports as if it came from the blood.
Inner-ear conditions, injury, fatigue, footwear and body weight all affect balance testing. The tests were validated on a narrow population under controlled conditions that a roadside at night does not reproduce.
A blood vial passes through several hands and a refrigerator before it reaches a analyst. Gaps in the log, storage temperature and preservative levels are all discoverable, and all of them bear on the number.
Once a person is in custody, questioning without advisement makes the answers suppressible. What was said at the roadside and what was said after the handcuffs went on are treated very differently.
The full elements, presumptions and instruction references — folded so the page stays a page.
CALCRIM 2110
Two elements, and the second carries the argument.
CALCRIM 2111
CALCRIM 2100–2112
Go deeper
The pages below go charge by charge. Each carries the same structure as this one: what it is in plain English, what it carries, and where it is fought.
VC 23152(a)(b)
First-offense DUI Misdemeanor, no injury — the charge most people on this page are facing. Usually defensible, and frequently reducible. Page in preparation
DMV APS
The DMV hearing The ten-day administrative track that runs beside the court case, decides your license, and closes by default if nobody claims it. Page in preparation
VC 23153
DUI causing injury A wobbler — the point at which the range stops being jail and starts including prison. Charged where anyone was hurt. Page in preparation
VC 23152
Second and third offense Priors inside the ten-year lookback bring mandatory minimums, an 18-month programme and the interlock. The margin for error narrows — and so does the value of early work. Page in preparation
VC 23612
Refusal allegation The enhancement that attaches to the chemical test. It carries its own suspension, and it turns on whether the admonition was actually given properly. Page in preparation
VC 23103.5
Wet and dry reckless The usual reductions — a different charge, a shorter programme, a lighter record. A wet reckless still counts as a prior for ten years. Page in preparationFrom the desk
DUI Defense · 6 min read
Your First DUI in California: What Actually Happens Now The honest version — what the first month looks like, what a first offense really carries, and the two deadlines that matter more than anything else. Read the article ↗
DUI Defense · 5 min read
The Ten-Day Rule: How the DMV Hearing After a DUI Really Works California gives you ten calendar days to save your license after a DUI arrest. Here's what that hearing is, what it isn't, and why it's worth requesting every single time. Read the article ↗
Common questions
Almost never. A first DUI with no injury is charged as a misdemeanor. It becomes a felony only where someone was injured, where there are enough priors, or where a prior felony DUI exists.
Two things, separately. The DMV can suspend administratively regardless of the court case — that is the ten-day clock. The court can also order a suspension on conviction. Winning one does not automatically resolve the other.
If you are over 21 and not on DUI probation, field sobriety tests and the handheld roadside breath test are voluntary. The chemical test after a lawful arrest is not — refusing it carries its own consequences.
Frequently. Wet reckless under VC 23103.5 and dry reckless under VC 23103 are the usual reductions, and they matter — less exposure, shorter program, different license consequences. A wet reckless still counts as a prior for ten years.
A DUI is priorable for ten years for sentencing purposes. The conviction stays on the criminal record, and it remains on the DMV driving record for its own period.
Nothing is required — bring what you already have. Most useful: the citation and the pink temporary license, the arresting agency and report number, your own account written the same week, receipts or rideshare records that fix the timeline, any prescription or medical record relevant to the reading, and proof of work, schooling or any license you hold.
Ten days · then it narrows
The first conversation is free, confidential, and with Aaron — not an intake service. If the ten-day window is still open we will say so in the first minute, because that is the part that cannot be recovered later.
Draft — pending firm verification
Prepared 27 July 2026 by ByteZero Marketing for review by the Law Office of Aaron P. McAllister.
Primary sources: Veh. Code §§ 23152, 23153, 23103, 23103.5, 23536, 23538, 23575, 23612, 13353.2; 17 Cal. Code Regs. § 1219 et seq.; CALCRIM 2100–2112.
Figures are statutory ranges and are affected by priors, enhancements, and county practice.
Nothing on this page is legal advice, and no attorney–client relationship is created by reading it.
To be revisited if the statutes, jury instructions, or county procedures change.
