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A woman in Galesburg, Illinois was recently arrested for DUI after an accident. The driver fled on foot but police later apprehended her. She was arrested and transported to the hospital for treatment of her injuries.

While the police were no doubt concerned about the driver’s safety, they had a second motive in transporting her to the hospital. Her emergency room doctor was no doubt told that police suspected she has used alcohol and drugs. As a result, the doctor ordered blood tests, as alcohol or drugs in the driver’s system could affect the doctor’s decision about what medications to order.

The blood tests results the doctor ordered for treatment purposes will not be admissible in determining whether or not the driver’s license of the accused will be suspended due to registering over the .08 legal limit and whether she will be required to obtain an MDDP. On the other hand, those results are admissible in the DUI prosecution itself. This prosecution, if successful, could result in a driver’s license revocation, and the driver would then need an Illinois driver’s license reinstatement hearing.

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Two Springfield DUI police officers are among the Top 15 for DUI arrests in Illinois. These figures come from the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists (AIIM).

AIIM’S name suggests that it is a “grass-roots” organization. However, the fine print on its web page reveals that AIIM is nothing but a government-sponsored entity masquerading as something else (they had me fooled at first).

Anyone ever arrested in Illinois for DUI knows that while the government claims DUI enforcement is all about public safety, they sure make a lot of money off it. Towing expenses, bond, fines, fees, and so forth all benefit the state, the county, police agencies and some other special interests whose mission bears little, if any, relationship to public safety.

If you are convicted of DUI, even a first offense carries with it the potential of up to $2,500 in fines, not to mention probation fees, random drug testing (at your expense), head trauma funds, victim impact panel funds, and whatever else the authorities can conjure up to take money out of your wallet. The state police even charge a fee for arresting you!

There’s more: prepare to pay for high risk insurance that you must carry for 36 months, a drug and alcohol evaluation, 20 to 75 hours of alcohol counseling that will probably cost at least $25.00 an hour and possibly driver risk education courses.

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As a follow up to an earlier Blawg,, Illinois State Representative Ron Stephens has apologized for his recent Illinois DUI arrest.

Stephens’ legislative district encompasses Highland, Illinois. While speaking before that community’s City Council, Stephens for the first time publicly commented on his recent DUI arrest. He apologized for the “huge mistake” he made by driving impaired.

Stephens’ pharmacist’s license was suspended several years earlier due to his personal use of controlled substances that he used his license to obtain. When the suspension ended, his license to practice pharmacy was automatically reinstated.

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An experienced Illinois driver’s license reinstatement lawyer knows that Illinois will not issue a new driver’s license, renew an existing one or clear a hold so that you can obtain an out-of-state driver’s license if you have a fourth DUI arrest after January 1, 1999 that results in a conviction. In determining the number of convictions you have, Illinois will include out-of-state convictions even if the convictions do not appear on your Illinois driving record but appear on the National Registry/PDPS.

This leads to harsh results. Years ago, the law did not treat DUI seriously and there was no four-conviction rule. Yet the old DUI counts against you forever, even though you received it before the four-conviction rule applied.

This could result in your paying for a DUI you received 20 or 30 years ago but did not fight because it was “no big deal”. You have now, years later, been convicted of a fourth DUI from an arrest that occurred after January 1, 1999 and been informed that you can never drive again, not even for work.

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As any lawyer familiar with Illinois DUI laws is aware, since January 1, 2009, Illinois has allowed drivers suspended for DUI to obtain a driving permit upon installation of a BAIID machine. Some commentators have questioned whether the MDDP program is effective.

The BAIID machine is part of the MDDP program. Evidence exists that the BAIID machine provides false alcohol readings caused by pizza, mouthwash, cough medicine and other substances other than alcohol. Therefore, we arguably have a program that is not only ineffective but also unfair.

The MPPD program comes into play when your license is suspended before you conclude your DUI case. On the other hand, if you are convicted of the DUI, your license will be revoked and you must have an Illinois Driver’s license reinstatement hearing with the Illinois Secretary of State.

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State representative Ron E. Stephens has pleaded guilty to DUI in Macon County (Decatur) Illinois circuit court. This was his first DUI offense.

As any experienced Illinois DUI lawyer can tell you, this makes Stephens eligible for court supervision. Under a supervision disposition, you do not suffer a revocation of your Illinois driver’s license and thereby avoid an Illinois driver’s license reinstatement hearing.

In addition to protecting his driver’s license, Stephens was able to avoid jail time that could have resulted from a DUI conviction. Stephens was ordered to pay fines and court costs of $1,410.00. Furthermore, during the one year he is subject to the supervision of the Macon County courts, Stephens is to refrain from the consumption of any amount of alcohol.

As a Springfield, Illinois DUI and driver’s license reinstatement lawyer, I am familiar with nearby Macon County practices. The sentenced he received, as well as the fines and conditions of his supervision, are the same that any other Macon County DUI offender could expect.

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As reported, an alleged drunk driver was involved in a fatal crash and charged with DUI and reckless homicide. A reckless homicide conviction could result in prison time, and a conviction for DUI or reckless homicide will cause a driver’s license revocation, the length of which will depend upon the driver’s previous driving record and whether the conviction is for DUI or reckless homicide.

A knowledgeable, highly experienced Illinois driver’s license reinstatement lawyer will explain to you that the Illinois Secretary of State, Department of Administrative Hearings considers fatal accidents to be the most serious type of case his office hears. In the typical Illinois Driver’s License Reinstatement Hearing, the Secretary of State has only limited information about your Illinois DUI arrest. In a fatal accident case, he will have all the police investigate reports, accident reconstruction reports, photographs, a transcript of the county coroner’s inquest and jury verdict, the crash report, the autopsy, and the grand jury indictment or the criminal information or complaint filed against you.

For hearings involving fatality, the Secretary of State allows extra time on his calendar to hear the case. This is done because you will be questioned in detail about all the information in the materials that the Secretary of State has gathered from the State’s Attorney and the police. In addition, the Secretary of State will notify the family members of the deceased that you have requested a Driver’s License Hearing and will advise them of their right to appear and testify at the hearing.

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Ron Larson argues that DUI is nothing more than a scheme to extract money from the accused. He blames various actors involved in the DUI process for turning a DUI arrest into an expensive proposition. His solution is to remove all of them from the equation and automatically sentence someone charged with DUI to a year in prison.

Larson claims that DUI lawyers are an unnecessary expense. Let’s examine his thesis more carefully.

DUI is a crime. Under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, anybody in this country who is charged with a crime is entitled to legal representation. This right is considered so important that the United State Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that the government is required to provide a free attorney to anyone who is accused of a crime and cannot afford an attorney.

Therefore, the author’s solution- removing lawyers from the process- would require repeal of the Sixth Amendment. Were that to occur, no person charged with an offense- from speeding to murder- would have the right to a lawyer.

Under Larson’s concept, you would not be given the chance to defend yourself and a mere accusation would stand as proof of your guilt. This would place our country’s legal system on the same footing as those of North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela, where authorities imprison their political opponents on the basis of trumped-up charges that the accused has no right to contest through a lawyer.

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To much fanfare, in 2009 Illinois instituted a DUI prevention program. Its publicly stated purpose was to prevent drunk driving.

Under the Monitoring Device Driving Permit (MDDP), if you are an Illinois driver arrested for DUI, your license will be suspended for 6 to 12 months if you have not been arrested for DUI in the previous 5 years. During all but the first 30 days of the suspension, you are entitled to an MDDP.

The MDDP allows you to drive for any purpose. However, at your expense, you must have a device installed in your vehicle’s ignition and blow into a tube in order to start your vehicle.

The Illinois Secretary of State receives a fee for administering the program, as do the providers of the devices. Therefore, the providers and the Secretary of State had a financial interest in seeing that this program was put in place and continue to profit from keeping it going and maximizing its usage. Under current law, installation of the device is optional.

The assertion by advocates of the MDDP program that it has been successful, as evidenced by both its level of usage (6,500 devices installed in 2009) and reductions in fatal accidents, is questionable. They credit the program with reducing the number of fatalities, ignoring the impact of the recession and the corresponding reduction in miles driven. (These are the same folks who have brought us highly questionable claims of how often a person drives under the influence without being caught).

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The consequences in Wisconsin for DUI are quite less severe than those for a DUI arrest in Illinois. What do those penalties and other consequences include?

In Illinois, DUI is a Class-A misdemeanor for a first or second offense. The punishment is up to 364 days in county jail and/or a fine of up to $2,500.

The consequences of a first offense can be lessened if you are sentenced to court supervision. Court supervision is available only once in your lifetime and only if you have not previously been convicted of DUI.

In order to receive supervision, you must plead guilty to DUI but the judge does not enter a conviction on your record provided that you complete all of the supervision requirements, which includes staying out of legal trouble during the 1-2 years your supervision is in effect, paying all fines and other fees, completing the alcohol counseling, attending a victim impact panel or other requirements that your judge might choose to impose.

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We have provided effective advice and assistance to thousands of clients facing driver's license suspensions and revocations, both in Illinois and out-of-state, including students from area colleges and universities.

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