A DUI charge does not mean that a person has a drinking problem. In fact, most people arrested for drunk driving do NOT. However, in some cases, a drunk driving arrest can be a sign that someone’s relationship with alcohol has become troublesome. How do you tell the difference? In this article, we’re going to look at both the personal and legal side of this. Even if you don’t have any kind of alcohol use disorder, it will be helpful to understand how the courts are going to evaluate your drinking habits in the context of a DUI case. This article is important for anyone facing a DUI charge, mea ..read more

Anyone who does not live in Michigan but has a hold from this state on his or her driving record needs what’s called a “clearance” to get it off. That hold will prevent him or her from either obtaining or renewing a license in their state of residence. Our firm handles about 200 license appeal cases each year. Nearly half of our clients are people who live outside of Michigan and need a clearance. Accordingly, we know how this works, having successfully done it thousands of times over. When a person wins a driver’s license restoration case, his or her Michigan driver’s license is restored, and ..read more

As practicing criminal defense lawyers who concentrate in DUI and driver’s license restoration cases, my team and I spend all our time in the Greater-Detroit area courts of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and the surrounding counties. A key part of that is handling loads of DWLR (Driving With License Revoked) and DWLS (Driving With License Suspended) cases. As we’ll see, this area of the law is very much related to the larger driver’s license restoration process. To begin our review here, note that a suspended license charge and a revoked license charge are essentially identical, and covered under the ..read more

In our work as Michigan DUI lawyers, we answer a lot of questions about this. Accordingly, the purpose of this section is to emphasize the importance of what happens to your driver’s license in a 2nd offense Michigan DUI case. Under Michigan law, if you are arrested for and then subsequently convicted of a second Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) offense within 7 years of any prior DUI conviction, your driver’s license will be revoked. This is an automatic and legally required penalty. Unlike penalties such as community service or a jail sentence, a judge has no power to alter license conseque ..read more

The Michigan agency that handles all driver’s license restoration and clearance appeals is called the “Office of Hearings and Administrative Oversight,” or OHAO., for short. It is a sub-division of the Michigan Secretary of State that oversees every part of the license reinstatement appeal process. The acronym “OHAO” is just the latest designation for a department that has changed its name 4 times in the last several years. It was originally called the “Driver’s License Appeal Division,’ or DLAD, until sometime in the early 2000’s. How to win a Michigan license reinstatement appeal before the ..read more

As Michigan DUI lawyers, my team and I know that a DUI can be experienced differently depending on the person’s gender. In fact, the DUI experience is likely to be different just because of a person’s gender, social status, and/or cultural background. To be sure, there is plenty about DUI cases that is the same for everyone, but there’s a lot more to the story than just that. In this short article, we’re going to focus on gender, and specifically how the DUI experience will be different for men versus women. There can be profound gender differences in the DUI experienceIt’s important to emphas ..read more

It may come as a surprise that a medical marijuana card is one of the most common obstacles to winning a Michigan driver’s license restoration case, but it’s true. This topic is so misunderstood that it needs to be regularly addressed on this blog. There is no doubt that much of the confusion arises because recreational marijuana is legal in Michigan, and medical marijuana has been allowed by law for even longer. Thus, people often say things like, “but it’s legal!” That misses the point entirely. Drinking is legal, as well, but any use of alcohol will kill a license appeal dead in its tracks ..read more

Anyone facing a Michigan DUI charge who goes online and spends time on legal websites can quickly get information overload. Some of the stuff lawyers put up these days will have a person thinking that in order for a DUI case to survive in court, the police officer has to run expert tests in biology, chemistry, and physiology, along with being an expert in the law and police procedure,. All too often, the DUI information found online seems gets too caught up in the nitty-gritty while overlooking the big picture. In this article, we’re going to zoom out and reset our focus on the big-picture rea ..read more

In Michigan, there is a very specific license appeal process a person must follow to regain driving privileges after having his or her license revoked for 2 or more DUI’s. Everyone who has lost the ability to drive has probably said, a million times over, “I need my license back.” Not being able to drive isn’t just inconvenient; it can have a seriously negative impact on a person’s life. As a driver’s license restoration law firm, we know, first-hand, how hard it can be try and get by without driving. Understand the Michigan license appeal process.There are those who just take their chances, a ..read more

Everyone facing a DUI charge wants to know what’s going to happen to his or her driver’s license. In this article, we’re going to look exclusively at 1st offense DUI cases, where there are essentially 3 possible DUI license penalties. This means that, early on, the best answer to the question “What will happen to my license” is “it depends.” In this article, we’re going to take a quick look at each possibility, and explain how all of this works. Understand the Michigan DUI license penalties in 1st offense cases.Let’s begin with the best possible outcome – that the whole case gets dismissed. If ..read more