DUI Lawyer in Athens, Georgia

There are only slight differences in Georgia between a conviction for DUI less safe and DUI per se but those differences may be very important to your individual situation. Call Mo Wiltshire to discuss your circumstances.

In Georgia we do not have a category of offense known as DWI we do not have a "wet reckless" category of offense either. We have driving under the influence DUI and boating under the influence BUI. Sometimes you will hear terms bandied about by persons who are simply uninformed and these terms may be confused for actual legal offenses in Georgia. 

A Georgia DUI conviction never goes away. Georgia has a 10 year "look back" time period for enhanced punishment purposes but there is no process to seal or restrict a DUI conviction. Once you are convicted of DUI in Georgia it never goes away. There is no expungement process available.

A DUI conviction in Georgia will show up on a criminal background check forever. Under current law, unless the Governor of the President issue you a pardon a DUI conviction will remain on your background checks and criminal records with the GBI through the Georgia Crime Information Center or the FBI through the National Crime Information Center indefinitely. 

Yes it will. Generally, a Georgia DUI conviction will be harmful to your insurance rates and coverage available to you for at least three years. There is a wide disparity in how different insurance companies treat DUI convictions but you can expect higher rates and less coverage for roughly 3-7 years. Some carriers and companies will drop your coverage entirely if you are convicted of DUI.

Generally, a Commercial vehicle DUI conviction will disqualify you from having a Commercial Driver's License and even if and when you can acquire one you are very unlikely to find a trucking company or motor carrier interested in hiring you.

No. Even if the officer seized your license you can appeal the suspension the new law allows you 30 days from the date of arrest to challenge the Administrative License Suspension or ALS. If you file the appeal in time you can continue to drive while you fight the administrative suspension.

In Georgia, it is difficult to get prosecutors to drop DUI charges but we do it all the time. You will definitely need to hire the right lawyer. There are many reasons why you could be arrested on the side of the road but once the case is investigated by your lawyer it becomes clear that the case needs to be dropped and the prosecutors can be shown this reality.

Obviously, having a great lawyer work for you is going to cost money. Having a great lawyer do anything is not cheap. You can find lawyers who will take your case for much less that what a great DUI lawyer will charge you but as with most things in life -- you are going to get what you pay for and there is no such thing as a free lunch. You can expect to pay anywhere from $3.5k to $10k for a really successful, winning DUI lawyer. The fee depends upon your prior record and the location and complexity of the case. We offer split fee arrangements at my firm Prior, Daniel & Wiltshire because we find it makes truly competent review and assistance more affordable to more people. Contact us for details. Don't cheat yourself by trying to go with a discount lawyer instead hire the very best lawyer you can afford.

This is a questions that really depends upon you and it depends upon where you case is being held. Can you live with the question of whether all the difficulty a DUI conviction is going to cause you could have been avoided? How will you know if you could have gotten a result that saves you money and drama later down the road? How important is it to you that you have a real shot to win your case? If you don't have a truly great DUI defense lawyer help you how will you know what is possible. 

If you were passed out in the line for an Egg McMuffin at 6:00 a.m. and then confessed to drinking, had a six pack in your lap and blew a big number of the Intox test you are unlikely to get your DUI reduced or dismissed but you may well still need a lawyer. You may desperately need help to minimize the sentence a try to save or restore your license or driving opportunities.

Yes. We do it all the time but it is a qualified yes. It is not easy to beat DUI charges. If it was easy everyone would be doing it. If you want to win your DUI case you need to hire the very best lawyer you can afford and you are off to a great start by doing research. There is a lot of information on this page about how to select a DUI attorney and what you should look for in a winning DUI attorney. We don't take every case and not everyone is a good fit for my firm. The principles of how to select a DUI attorney apply even if we decide that we cannot work together.

If you are arrested for DUI in Georgia, whether it is by a city police officer, a county deputy sheriff, a campus police officer or a Georgia State Trooper, the officer is supposed to read you Georgia’s  Implied Consent Notice. This written warning informs you of the stated requirement to submit to testing, the penalties for refusal of the request for testing, and the right to request an independent test. The officer is then required to ask whether you will submit to the chemical test designated by the officer. The test is almost always either blood, breath or urine. 

If you refuse the fact that you refused can be offered as evidence against you and the jury will be told of your refusal and given a specific jury instruction on how to treat that evidence. You will also be subject to an administrative license suspension via a Department of Public Safety Form 1205. You have only 30 days from the date of arrest to file an appeal of a 1205 ALS suspension of your license.