As Rancho Cucamonga drunk driving criminal defense lawyers, we were interested to see that the governor has signed a bill allowing longer driver's license suspensions for people with multiple DUI convictions. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Sept. 28 that the governor has signed the bill, which would allow judges to revoke driver's licenses for up to 10 years for defendants who are convicted after two or more previous drunk driving convictions in the last decade. Currently, such people can only lose their licenses for up to three years. The bill will take effect at the beginning of 2012, so it will not apply to intoxicated driving convictions in the next 15 months.
The bill was sponsored by San Mateo Assemblyman Jerry Hill, a Democrat. Hill told the newspaper that his bill could take as many as 10,000 repeat drunk drivers off the road each year. In 2008, he said, 188,000 people were convicted of drunk driving in California. Of those, he said, 9,164 drivers (4.8 percent) had two previous convictions and 3,200 (1.7 percent) had four or more. However, the bill does not make longer-term license suspensions automatic; judges would be able to decide on an individual basis whether to impose a longer license suspension. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal highway safety organization, said one-third of the 1.5 million Californians arrested each year are repeat offenders. The agency also said 310,000 Californians have three or more past DUIs, possibly making them eligible for the law.
As Mission Viejo DUI criminal defense attorneys, we were pleased to see that this law does not tie judges' hands when it comes to sentencing for intoxicated driving. Rather than mandate a decade of license suspension, the new law will allow judges to choose the length of license suspension that they believe best fits the facts of the cases before them. This is a welcome contrast from many other "tough on crime" laws. However, we are not so sure that longer license suspensions are the answer. People with serious addiction problems are not generally deterred from driving when their licenses are taken away; that's a big part of why a third of those arrested for DUI are repeat offenders. That means the longer license suspensions are most likely to affect those who aren't targeted by the law -- people who have made mistakes but are not alcoholics. Lack of mobility could harm such people's attempts to work, care for families and get back on the right track.
Howard Law, P.C. knows how important a driver's license is for simply living an adult life, here in Orange County and in most parts of California. When forced it rely on public transit or rides from friends and family, many people find it's much more difficult simply to get to work or school on time. If they are looking for a job, as many people are, lacking reliable transportation is a huge disadvantage. As it happens, drivers arrested for DUI have an opportunity to defend their licenses -- but many drivers who come to our Tustin intoxicated driving criminal defense lawyers, don't realize this. Every Californian facing a DUI is entitled to a separate administrative hearing at the DMV to determine whether they drove while intoxicated -- but they have to request it within ten days of their arrests. When we can take cases early enough, we take care of this for our clients and coordinate that defense with the defense in the underlying DUI.
An intoxicated driving charge doesn't necessarily lead automatically to a conviction -- you can and should fight it, with help from Howard Law, P.C.. To learn more and tell us about your situation, you should call us toll-free at 1-800-872-5925 or contact us through the Internet.
