Our Location

40 N. Central Ave, Suite 2300
Phoenix, AZ 85004

Free Consultation

(602) 307-0808
Call Now, Open 24/7
July 28, 2019
Posted on Author By dmcantor Categories Blog

Statute of Limitations for Felony DUI in Arizona

Driving under the influence (DUI), is a very serious offense with serious consequences in the State of Arizona. If you are charged with a DUI in Arizona, especially if the charge is a felony, you should hire an experienced attorney who knows the law to handle the matter for you.

What is a felony DUI in Arizona?

In Arizona, you can be charged with a felony or aggravated DUI if any of the following is true:

  1. This is your third DUI charge within 7 years
  2. You were charged with driving under the influence while your license is suspended
  3. You were charged with driving under the influence with a child under age 15 in the car.

What is the Statue of Limitations for a Felony Aggravated DUI in Arizona?

The statute of limitations for a felony DUI in Arizona is seven years. That means that the prosecutor can charge you with a felony DUI for up to seven years after the date of the offense.

Sometimes, if you are charged with a felony DUI and the blood results are not back in time for the court date, the matter is dismissed. However, that does not mean the case is gone forever. Once the blood results are in, assuming the BAC is over the legal limit, the case can still be reinstated within the seven-year look back period.

Because of the possibility of reinstatement even after your case is dismissed, you or your attorney should perform routine warrant checks approximately every month to make sure there is no outstanding warrant for your arrest. If no warrant has been brought within three years from the date of the offense, there is a good chance you will not be charged, even though there are four more years left on the statute.

Things can get tricky if the charge is filed after you have moved from the address where you lived at the time the offense occurred. If a summons cannot be served because the address on record is no longer correct, the summons will be returned to the court and a warrant will be issued for your arrest. That means it’s possible that you can be pulled over years later on a routine traffic stop and arrested for a felony DUI based on the outstanding warrant.

If you or a loved one has been suspected of a Felony DUI in Arizona please email us or give our offices a call at (602) 307-0808 for a Free Case Review.

 

 

 

July 24, 2019
Posted on Author By dmcantor Categories Blog

Aggravated DUI with Child in Car – Arizona DUI

A DUI with a child in the car is referred to as “Aggravated DUI with Kid in Car”. This is a felony charge and carries more severe penalties than a typical misdemeanor DUI charge in Arizona.

In this short video, David Cantor explains what an Aggravated DUI with Kids in the Car means:

If you are stopped for a DUI with a child in the car under the age of 15, you will be charged with an Aggravated DUI and will usually be arrested on the scene. Your car will be impounded, and either a family member or Child Protective Services will be contacted to take the child home.

Depending on the results of the blood or breath test and if you do not have a prior DUI conviction, you can be sentenced to as little as 10 days in jail or as many as 45 days. Fines and jail costs range from $3,300 for a typical conviction to nearly $9,500 for a Super Extreme DUI with a blood or breath test blood alcohol content registering .20 or higher. The penalties are increased for a driver with prior DUI convictions, especially if the conviction occurred within the last seven years.

You will also lose your driver’s license for one year. If you choose to drive once your license has been reinstated then you will be required to have an Interlock Ignition Device installed on the car’s steering wheel at a cost of $1,500 per year ($3,000). This device requires a driver to blow into it in order to start the car and requires that the driver continue to blow into it every 15 minutes while the car is in operation. Every 90 days, you will be required to go to an interlock facility to have the device’s chip downloaded, in order to verify that you have not driven the vehicle with alcohol in their system.

Also, you will be required to have an SR-22. Under this high-risk auto insurance provision, the insurance companies report the driver to the DMV any time there is a lapse in coverage. The SR-22 policy is usually $500 per year and required for 3 years ($1,500). If you choose to continue to drive you can also expect an increase in your car insurance premiums. The average premium increase after a DUI conviction is $3,000 per year for 3 years ($9,000).

If convicted of any felony DUI, expect to lose any professional licenses, the right to vote, and any gun licenses. If you are engaged in a child custody dispute, you will be presumed unfit as a parent based on this conviction.

DM Cantor has been successful in many Aggravated DUI cases with children in the car. We can and will work to have the charges reduced to a regular misdemeanor DUI in order to avoid the more severe penalties that come with a felony conviction. Call (602) 307-0808 today to schedule a free initial consultation. The consultation will take about 30 minutes and will allow us time to review your case. Our offices can be reached 24 hours a day via email or by calling us at (602) 307-0808.

September 26, 2013
Posted on Author By dmcantor Categories Blog

Third Offense Felony Aggravated DUI Penalties

Watch as David Cantor explains a 3rd Offense Felony Aggravated DUI in Arizona:

A third offense felony Aggravated DUI in Arizona is a DUI in which an individual has any two prior allegable felony convictions. These priors do not necessarily have to be Aggravated DUI charges, but they can be any prior felony convictions. For example, if an individual has two prior felonies for possession of marijuana and theft, the DUI is considered a third offense felony Aggravated DUI. Even if the individual did not complete any jail or prison time on the two priors, the new Aggravated DUI will result in severe punishments.

When convicted of a third offense felony Aggravated DUI in Arizona, the individual will be required to complete a mandatory minimum of six years in PRISON. However, the prison time can reach a maximum of 15 years, with a presumptive prison term of 10 years. As a result of the prison term, individuals will most likely lose their mortgage and home, and their license will be lost for years. The standard offer by the state of Arizona is six years in prison. However, if the prior felonies are found to be lacking information such as a missing fingerprint, paperwork (particularly from out of state priors) or an attorney-client waiver form, the sentence can be significantly reduced. For example, rather than serving six to fifteen years on a third offense, the individual might then only serve four months in prison on the basis of a first offense Aggravated DUI.

There is no reason to sugar coat the punishment, a 3rd offense felony Aggravated DUI charge is very, very serious. The presumptive PRISON sentence is 10 years, how does that sound? As stated above, if you have previous DUI charges, we might be able to help you get those thrown out so they don’t count, thus making the current charge less than a 3rd offense felony Aggravated DUI. What is your future worth to you?

 

For a Free Case Consultation, please call our offices at (602) 307-0808 to schedule an appointment. Our offices are available 24 hours a day by phone or by email.

September 11, 2013
Posted on Author By dmcantor Categories Blog

First Offense Felony Aggravated DUI Penalties in Arizona

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.

Call Now Button