Legal Question in DUI Law in Wisconsin

You need to hire an experienced traffic lawyer as soon as possible, since there are rights which expire very quickly in OWI cases. For example, the right to have either a refusal hearing or an administrative review hearing to try to save your license both expire after ten days. Specific legal documents need to be filed within that time or lose all rights to challenge loss of your license for either of these reasons. Your license will be revoked even if you ultimately win your underlying OWI charge and are found not guilty if this has not been properly done, although a good lawyer might even still be able to assist in this regard via later negotiations if there is a valid defense to the underlying charge. Therefore, unless these hearing demands are properly made, you will lose any leverage you might have otherwise had to negotiate for the refusal to be dismissed. For first offense OWI's, the loss of license and other after- effects of a refusal are significantly worse than for the drunk driving, so it is extremely important to fight the refusal properly. However, the rules for this are so complex that the odds of your being able to do it yourself are very low. In WI, a first offense OWI is usually a civil offense, although it can become criminal if a minor was in the car or with high BAC (blood alcohol content) readings. My comments in this online forum are offered for public educational purposes only and are not legal advice, nor do they create any attorney/client relationship between us. Even if I were advising you, the background information which you provided did not include sufficient detail to allow any sort of reliable advice upon which you should rely. Finally, I may be able to represent you if you contact my Racine office and make arrangements formally retain me. I represent clients throughout the state of WI.