First Offense DUI Tennessee

Getting arrested on a first offense DUI charge in Tennessee can be a very scary and tramatic experience.  Maybe you were out with some friends on a Friday night and had a couple of drinks and felt that you were fine to drive yourself home and on the way home you end up getting stopped for DUI.  People that find themselves in this situation tend to procrastinate too long because frankly they just don’t know what they should do next.

They end up getting mixed signals from the police department, courts, dmv and more.  Not to mention that they start receiving all kinds of unsolicited offers from every lawyer in the area in the mail.  Who wouldn’t be confused in this situation?

Here is the first thing you need to be aware of, you only have ten days in which to schedule your DMV hearing if you hope to have any chance at retaining your driving privileges.  You could handle this on your own by calling the DMV and setting up a hearing, but I’m going to tell you right now that this would be a big mistake.

First off, since this is your first ever DUI offense in Tennessee, you have never had to deal with the DMV when it comes to a DMV hearing.  Second, since you don’t know how the whole process works, the DMV is more than likely going to tell you to call in at a certain time and your DMV hearing will be done over the phone, big mistake!

You are going to want to have an experienced Tennessee DUI lawyer present with you at the DMV hearing.  You need to make sure that your DUI lawyer has experience in representing clients at DMV hearings.

What’s that you say, you haven’t hired a lawyer yet.  The number one most important thing you can do to help yourself out right now is to get off your butt and find a qualified DUI lawyer to represent you in court and at your DMV hearing.  Let me repeat that, you need to find and hire a qualified DUI lawyer right now !!!

You have a zero chance of success with the DMV hearing by attending it on your own.  You’ve never been to one before, you don’t know what to say, you don’t  what evidence to present and how to present it.  So don’t even try!

You will end up paying a DUI lawyer a few hundred bucks to represent you at your DMV hearing, it will be money well spent if you are able to at least walk out with a restricted license.  At least then you can still drive yourself to work, that’s pretty important.

You also need to be aware that a first offense DUI in Tennessee comes with a 1 year driver’s license suspension, so if you are not able to get a restricted license, you won’t be driving for a year.

As far as jail time, you will be looking at 48 hours of jail time.  You will also have to pay $350 to $1,500 in fines.  You will be required to attend an alcohol assessment and treatment program as part of your probation and you will have to serve 24 hours of community service.  The community service will more than likely be picking up trash along side the highway.

I know that’s a lot of negatives, but lets rap this up by putting a positive spin on this.  If you find and hire an experienced DUI lawyer to represent you in court and you win your case, there won’t be any fines, alcohol assessment program, community service and you won’t end up with a criminal record, which is a good thing.

If you only learn one thing from reading this blog post, make it this: You need to find and hire an experienced Tennessee DUI lawyer right now! You have zero chance of beating the charges against you or for that matter getting them reduced.