Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs is against the law in the state of Utah. Because DUI is a criminal offense, you will be charged and tried in a court of law. If convicted, you face harsh penalties such as jail time, fines, and the loss of your driving privileges. You will also face administrative actions involving the validity of your driver’s license. Because all of these consequences have the potential to negatively impact your life, it is important that you contact a Utah DUI attorney immediately following your arrest for driving under the influence. While a Utah DUI lawyer cannot guarantee that he or she can win your case, having the benefit of specialized legal counsel can give you the best chance for doing so.

Utah DUI Arrest and Prosecution

When you are arrested for driving under the influence, you are given a notice that directs you to appear in a court of law. This court appearance is known as the arraignment and is a good time to have a Utah DUI attorney with you to help you feel more at ease and give you a better understanding of what will happen throughout the criminal proceedings. At your arraignment, you will be able to enter a please. Most people using the services of a Utah DUI attorney plead not guilty and schedule their cases for pre-trial conferences. If your attorney has a different strategy, the arraignment may be continued without you entering any plea as to your guilt or innocence. Choosing an action will depend on your Utah DUI lawyer and the strategy he or she plans to use. If you need more time to gather information, the action you take at the arraignment will be important so you can be granted more time. If you submitted to chemical testing, your Utah DUI attorney may get a court order to have the sample you produced split so it can be tested by an independent facility. This will allow your attorney to have the sample tested for a number of different things and determine how valid the sample is. This is an important part of preparing for your criminal trial.

After your arraignment, your case will progress to a pretrial conference. This will give you and your attorney the chance to meet with the prosecutor in your case, review settlement possibilities, and consider any plea bargain offers the prosecutor may extend. Because the courts often have many cases to deal with, you may have more than one pretrial conference. Your attorney’s strategy may include having several pretrial conferences to buy more time to investigate your case and gather evidence. Your attorney may also file several motions for the judge to order a specific action. You may try to suppress the evidence in the case or compel the prosecutor to turn over any additional information that will be used in your case. If the prosecutor in your case offers a plea bargain, your attorney must inform you about the plea bargain and let you know the benefits and drawbacks of accepting. If you accept a plea bargain, your case will end with you having to comply with all of the conditions of the plea bargain.

If you do not accept the please bargain, your trial will proceed and the prosecutor will try to prove your guilt. You may be prosecuted in one of two ways. One is where the prosecutor tries to prove your guilt by showing that you were under the influence of alcohol and drugs and that these influence impaired you to a level where you could not safely operate your vehicle. The other is by showing that your blood alcohol concentration level was 0.08% or greater as shown by a chemical test. If the prosecutor is able to prove you are guilty and get a conviction, you will face criminal penalties.

Utah DUI Criminal Penalties

The penalties for a DUI conviction in Utah vary with the level of offense and any aggravating factors present.

The penalties for a first DUI offense may include:

o 48 hours in jail or 48 hours of house arrest

o $700 fine

o Alcohol education

o Supervised probation

o Ignition interlock device installation requirement

o 90 days to 2 years of license suspension

A first offense is a Class B misdemeanor unless specific circumstances exist. A first offense will be classified as a Class A misdemeanor if the DUI results in bodily injury, there is a passenger under the age of 16 in the vehicle, or the driver is under 21 and a passenger is under 18. If serious bodily injury is caused, it will be classified as a third degree felony. The penalties for a second offense may include:

o 240 hours in jail or under house arrest

o $800 fines

o Alcohol screening and assessment

o Supervised probation

o Ignition interlock device installation

A second offense is classified as a Class B misdemeanor but may be classified as a Class A misdemeanor if bodily injury is caused, there is a passenger under the age of 16 in the vehicle, or if the driver is over the age of 21 and there was a passenger in the vehicle under the age of 18. It will be considered a third degree felony if you have had a prior DUI conviction or serious bodily injury was caused. The penalties for a third offense may include:

o 1500 hours in jail or house arrest

o $1,500 fine

o Alcohol screening and education

o Supervised probation

o Ignition interlock device installation

If you have three or more offenses in 10 years, a third DUI offense is considered a third degree felony. Because the penalties for DUI are so severe, it is important that you have a Utah DUI attorney represent you if you want to have a chance at winning your case and moving on with your life.