Generally speaking, the court procedure for a DWI can be broken up into two separate cases. The one most people think of is the criminal case. On average, we’re going to go to court together two to four times. The first couple hearings re going to be formalities, procedural, we’re going to get things done behind the scenes but not much will be accomplished in court. But eventually we do have the right to hold a suppression hearing and if we need it, we can actually hold a jury trial. And that’s all geared toward preventing the state from imposing criminal penalties in the criminal case.

Now there’s a separate case that has nothing to do with criminal punishments like jail, fines or probation that strictly has to do with a person’s driver’s license and sometimes their license plates. We call that the implied consent hearing. And unlike the criminal case where we can end up going to court two, three, maybe four times the civil case is usually just one hearing and it just has to do with the driver’s license. That’s also a hearing that most people don’t need to attend I can just appear on their behalf. Although every defense we’re raising in the criminal case we’re raising them on the civil case as well.