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The implied consent procedure really is a separate case and it’s separate for a reason. The legislature in Minnesota didn’t like the thought that criminal defendants were presumed innocent until proven guilty or had the right to a jury trial. And so they created this whole separate case that runs alongside the criminal DWI case. And they did it so they could make sure people weren’t presumed innocent and didn’t have a right to a jury trial. So what this process is is the officer checks a box on a form the night somebody’s arrested and as a result of that, they’ll lose their license. It can be for 90 days, it can be for a year, it can even be longed pending on the circumstances of the case. But this implied consent proceeding is a way of asking a judge to review that decision, that decision by the officer to check a box on a form and take somebody’s driver’s license. Any defense we can raise in the criminal case with a couple of rare exceptions we can raise those in the civil case and there’s some very unique defenses that can only be raised in the civil case that don’t necessarily apply in the defense unto the underlying DWI criminal case. But the takeaway is that to successfully defend a DWI we need to win both. We not only need to beat the criminal charges but we do need to beat this implied consent proceeding as well.
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Roseville, MN DWI defense attorney Dan Koewler explains the implied consent procedure.