Legal Question in DUI Law in California

Failure to complete court-ordered community service would be a violation of probation. He could be ordered to serve anything up to the maximum sentence for a first offense DUI, which is six months in jail. There may be a warrant for his arrest.

However, there is a chance the court did not take steps to revoke his probation. If that's the case, his probation would have terminated long ago and the court would not be able to impose additional punishment.

If his license is suspended in California due to failure to appear in court or complete a court-ordered DUI program, Illinois will not give him a new license until he clears up the situation in California. Both states belong to an interstate compact on drivers licensing and recognize suspensions imposed in other states.

It's extremely unlikely, but possible, that he would be arrested if he walked into a DMV office in Illinois to apply for a license. California wouldn't have him extradited on a misdemeanor case.

His first steps should be checking with California DMV to see the status of his license. He can also review the Sacramento courts website to see if there is a warrant for his arrest, or if his probation is terminated.

A Sacramento DUI lawyer could help him get this matter resolved. After twelve years, it makes no sense that he hasn't taken the initiative to do something sooner. An outstanding arrest warrant would probably come up on background checks and could seriously hurt his chances at employment, destroying the value of the degrees that he worked to hard to achieve.