Can Drivers Face Additional Charges with a DUI Conviction?

Interviewer: Are there other charges levelled against the driver in addition to the DUI?

Almost Every Driver Will Receive at Least 2 Charges

Brian Sloan: Yes. Just about everyone who’s charged with DUI is going to receive two or more charges. At the very least, it’s going to be DUI impaired to the slightest degree by alcohol, drugs, paper releasing substances, medication or a combination thereof. Usually, a second charge is either going to be DUI with blood alcohol level at or above a point 08 or it’s going to be DUI drugs or prescription medications in their system.

It Is up to the Officer’s Discretion How Many or How Few Charges They will Issue against the Driver

A person can be charged with extreme DUI. They can be charged with super extreme DUI. It is completely up to the officer to decide what ancillary charges to put in that citation. Sometimes, officers will literally charge for every infraction that they saw. They will charge speeding and making a wide turn and failure to use the turn signal and failure to maintain a single lane.

And then some officers will just say, “Well, I got him on DUI. I’m not going to bother charging minor infractions.

I’ve seen people with three pages with the citations and each citation holds five charges simply because the officer felt compelled to do so. Here is a common scenario I see more recently, which is a driver who is charged with DUI as well as speeding as a civil traffic violation.

A DUI with a Speeding Charge: in Arizona, the Charge Could Be a Civil or Criminal Traffic Violation

And speeding can technically be charged as it’s still a traffic violation or the criminal traffic violation. Let’s say speeding it is charged as a civil traffic violation and I seem to see this mostly out of Phoenix Municipal Court.

If someone is charged with two counts of DUI and speeding, the DUI cases are in court. They are find that a person is entitled to a jury trial. Speeding definitely is not required to be a jury trial worthy offense.

Many Drivers Receive Notice about Fines Associated with the Speeding Violation, Which They Sometimes Pay Prior to Consulting an Attorney

So, sometimes, people who receive letter in the mail indicating, “You are charged with the DUI. You’re also charged with speeding. Here is your fine for speeding. Pay off this fine and the speeding charge will go away but you still have to deal with the DUI charges.”

Some people will pay it. I’ve seen the bills. Sometimes, there are a number of other charges, such as 70 dollars here or a hundred dollars there.If they had not already paid those charges, these are charges that I would very likely be able to get dismissed if I was able to negotiate a full payment on behalf of my client.

Now, it’s definitely an issue that they would want to discuss with their attorney. I don’t want them to ignore notices that look like bills coming from courts.

Always Inform Your Attorney about Notices You Receive from the Courts—In Some Cases, Charges May Be Dismissed and the Client Is Not Responsible for Payment

Now, if they received something like that and they’re being represented by an attorney, they will just bring that to the attorney’s attention so that the attorney can properly advise them and every time that my client has shown me a bill like that, I tell them to ignore it because I’m very likely going to get that charge dismissed.

There’s no point in paying off something that I’m just going to again dismiss later on.

On Rare Occurrences, the Police May Charge the Driver with both a DUI and a Reckless Driving

Interviewer: Is it possible to receive both a DUI and a reckless driving?

Brian Sloan: It’s rare. Usually, an officer will not charge a reckless driving just because they charge with DUI. It happens very seldom but if there is really some severe driving involved, such as driving up on people’s lawns, driving into bushes, going exceedingly fast, sweeping all over the road, driving on the wrong side of the road. Every now and again, you’ll see the DUI accompanied by reckless driving charge.

By Brian Douglas Sloan

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Why Attorney Brian Douglas Sloan?

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“I am one of only a handful of Phoenix DUI Lawyers that focuses solely on DUI Defense representation.”

I have spent my entire career focused on DUI Defense representation, having personally defended more than 4,100+ DUI clients in the past 18+ years.

If you’re looking for a divorce attorney, tax attorney, or civil attorney, then I can comfortably say: "I’m not the one for you".

Coming up with traditional, as well as outside-the-box motions and defenses for my clients, often with good results, is the hallmark of my practice.

Lawyers that say they are "aggressive", or "will fight for you", are a dime a dozen. They use these phrases because that is what they think people want to hear. The truth of the matter is, being "aggressive" rarely gets the client anywhere in these court systems. Being "aggressive" isn’t the same as being good, and is often used to put on a show for a client to hide the fact that they aren’t doing anything meaningful for the client.

The same is true for the lawyers that claim to do DUI Defense... and Criminal Cases..., and Accident cases..., and Divorces. A Jack-of-all-Trades is a master of none. By handling all different sorts of cases, they take away from their ability to truly focus on DUIs, and keep up to date on the latest changes in DUI Defense Representation.

What I offer is intelligent, quality DUI Defense, at an exceptional price.

I am one of only a handful of Arizona DUI Lawyers that focuses solely on DUI Defense representation.

I have not only taught other lawyers how to do DUI Defense Representation at statewide seminars, but I produce DUI Legal Guides used by defense lawyers across Arizona.

I am one of the most award-winning DUI Defense Lawyers in Arizona; have been recognized nationally, including in a 2022 issue of USA Today; and there are only a few lawyers in Arizona who have personally defended more DUI cases than I have. I am also one of the most reasonably-priced DUI Lawyers, as I pride myself on charging a Flat Rate only for the legal services you need, and not for the legal services you don’t.

I am also the lawyer who people call once they realize that their original lawyer screwed something up, gave them false hope or false promises, or simply just took their money and didn’t do much on the case. You would be surprised at how often this happens.

Save yourself the trouble of hiring the wrong lawyer, and hire the right DUI Defense Lawyer from the start.

You can reach me on my personal cell phone: 480-720-7839.

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