If you are found NOT GUILTY, not only do you have the right to have your record expunged or erased but your driver’s license suspension will also be lifted.
In most cases, I charge $3500.00 to represent you in all aspects of a misdemeanor DWI short of a trial. A refusal trial is typically $7500.00 and a breath or blood trial is typically $10,000. Expert witness fees are additional and are recommended in all breath or blood trials and in some trials that hinge on Field Sobriety Test results.
In many cases, it is less expensive to proceed to trial than to pay all the probation fees, required DWI classes and license maintenance fees (surcharges). And in almost all DWI trials, the punishment after trial is probation or credit for the time you have already served in jail.
Typical punishment for a “plea bargain for probation” in a DWI trial is:
Two years probation
Reporting to probation once per month
$60 per month probation fees
up to a $2,000 fine
An 8 hour, DWI Education program ($50)
A one hour drug and alcohol evaluation ($25)
A three hour MADD Victim Impact Panel ($25)
24 to 80 hours of community service restitution
A $25 payment to Crime Stoppers
Random urine tests for drug screening
And the possibility of being revoked and sent to jail for 120 to 180 days.
