There are a lot of questions that clients have for their DUI Attorneys Charleston right after they get arrested, beginning with asking what’s going to happen to them. There is a misconception that your license isn’t at risk of being suspended unless you have several DUI arrests, but that isn’t true. Right after your original DUI charge, your license is at risk of suspension. The police have to inform the DMV of your arrest within 48 hours, and at that point, the process to suspend your license begins.
Once you receive a notice of license suspension, you have 30 days to file a request for a hearing to challenge the suspension. If you do that, you can continue to drive until the hearing. If you don’t file the request, then your license will be suspended on the date shown on the notice. DUI Attorneys Charleston can help you not only with your criminal case but they can also represent you at the hearing with the DMV to request that your license not get suspended. The DMV suspension after your arrest is different from getting your license suspended after you’ve been to court and had a criminal conviction for DUI.
There are other confusing points that clients ask DUI Attorneys Charleston about taking a chemical test to determine your blood alcohol content. In West Virginia, if law enforcement asks you to take a chemical test and you refuse, the state can suspend your license for a minimum of 45 days or even longer. That’s because West Virginia has a law for implied consent. If you have a driver’s license, you’ve implied your consent to take a chemical test if requested.
If the results of your chemical test show your BAC to be no higher than .15, you have a non-aggravated offense. If you are convicted, your license can be suspended either for 90 days or for 15 days instead, followed by 120 days of having a blow tube installed in your car. If you have a BAC that is over .15, you have an aggravated offense, and your license can be suspended for 45 days and then having the blow tube in your car for 9 months.
