What is an Aggravated DUI? An Aggravated DUI is any DUI that is a third offense within seven years. For example, if you have a prior DUI six years ago, four years ago, and now you’ve been charged again, that this charge will be an Aggravated DUI. More commonly, an Aggravated DUI is any DUI in which your license was suspended when you got the DUI. That one is a serious one, because a lot of people fail to appear in court and deal with minor traffic tickets, their license is then suspended, and suddenly they are facing an Aggravated DUI. There is a third type of Aggravated DUI, that’s with a child in the car when you’re driving and you get a DUI, you can read more about that here.
David Cantor explains the Penalties for a 1st Offense Aggravated DUI in Arizona:
For an Aggravated DUI in Arizona, the mandatory minimum is four months in prison. Think about that – prison – what happens to your job? Your mortgage? Your family? This is 24 hours a day, no work release. It’s four months of actual prison time. The fine is normally waived, but you’ll still have to do a substance abuse screening for $100 and take 36 hours of classes which runs you $1,000. You’ll lose your license for three years and then after that, for the next two years, you’ll have to get an ignition interlock device on your vehicle – that runs approximately $3,000 for that two-year period.
What is an ignition interlock device? That’s a breath testing device that’s installed on your steering wheel. You have to blow into it to start your car and every fifteen minutes after your car is running you have to blow into it again. Every 90 days, you have to take it down to the facility where they download the chip to make sure you haven’t been driving with alcohol in your system.
Insurance-wise, you’ll be required to obtain an SR-22. That is a special provision in which you pay the insurance company to tell the DMV if your insurance lapses. And they will charge you $500 per year for three years for that privilege. On top of that, your insurance will go up $3,000 a year higher than it is now for the next three years – that’s $9,000.
Let’s recap the Costs of an Aggravated DUI in Arizona:
- 4 Months in Prison
- Substance Abuse Screening & 36 Classes: $100 + $1,000: $1,100
- Ignition Interlock Device $1,500 per year: 2 years $3,000
- SR-22 $500 per year: 3 years $1,500
- Increase in Car Insurance Premiums $3,000 per year for 3 years: $9,000
Total Costs after 4 months in Prison and 3 years license revocation: $13,54,5
Other repercussions besides losing your job, professional status as a doctor, nurse, pilot, lawyer, if you trade stocks and have an SEC license, a real estate license, government or military – you are going to lose your job if you get convicted of this felony. You’re also going to lose your right to vote and your guns rights. That attaches to any type of felony.
Please review our Case Victories section of our website. You’ll see that we win Aggravated DUI cases all the time. We either get them dismissed or reduced to a misdemeanor DUI, which means instead of doing four months in prison you could be doing just one day in jail. The Aggravated DUI costs – approx $14,600 – can drop dramatically if we get the felony reduced. Or, we can just get the charges dismissed or win it in certain situations, if the flaws of the case are there. You’d be surprised how often that happens.
If this situation applies to you, a family member or loved one, fill out a form on our website or call us at (602) 307-0808 to set up an appointment. It doesn’t cost you anything, but it takes about 30 minutes of your time, and hopefully we’ll be able to find a way out of this for you.