Legal Question in Traffic Law in Wisconsin
My license was suspended after an OWI last year; I did the assessments/classes and paid all the fines and my license was eligible for reinstatement 6 months later. I got pulled over before I physically made it to the DMV and was given a ticket for driving without a license (first offense). I reinstated my license immediately after, and have been driving legally ever since, but am required to appear in court. Should I get myself a lawyer? Am I likely to spend time in jail?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Since your license revocation was apparenty related to an old drunken driving conviction, it was likely charged under a more punitive subsection than other persons driving after revocation would be charged under (such as those who were revoked for excess demerit points, failure to pay a fine, etc.). You are therefore likely facing jail for this offense although perhaps not mandatory jail, and definitely need to get an attorney and attend your court date in person. Failure to appear is likely to result in an arrest warrant. The fact that you completed your driver improvement plan and OWI counseling is too your benefit, but not enough to get the charges automatically dismissed. Please be aware that my responses to you in the public web forum do not make me your attorney and that I am not representing you or taking any action on your case. Instead, these answers are intended for public educational use only and may also contain lawyer advertising materials. Regardless of this, however, you are still welcome to contact me during business hours at my in Racine if you still have questions, or see me on the web at www.jayknixonlaw.com. For a list of my other answers on Law Guru, please see my profile link here at lawguru.com.
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