If somebody’s convicted of DWI or in many cases if they’re convicted of a non-DWI offense like careless driving but there was still alcohol involved are going to see similar terms of probation. Depending on the circumstances of the case and the arguments of the attorney, the judge can say, obviously, don’t commit any new DWI’s while you’re on probation. They’ll typically also impose what’s called the chemical dependency evaluation and it goes by different names in different counties. But generally, it’s an interview where you’re meeting with somebody to determine if you’re not, you’ve got problem with alcohol and if you do have a problem with alcohol what types of classes or treatments would be appropriate?

So we typically say get a CDE, follow the recommendations. Lots of judges, especially on first time offences are going to order somebody to attend a MADD victim impact panel put on by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. That’s something else that many times we’ll ask our clients to do ahead of time. It’s better to provide that to the judge ahead of time than waiting for the judge to order it afterwards.

And finally, depending on the circumstances of the case, you can get some more severe terms of probation such as no use of alcohol. That in and of itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it’s often monitored in some very egregious ways. Sometimes you’ll be testing weekly, sometimes you’ll be testing more often than that and those random tests can get expensive and can be very inconvenient. But generally speaking, when you’re dealing with probation for a DWI offence those are the types of things you’re going to be looking at.