License After a Fredericksburg Third Offense DUI 

After a third offense DUI charge, a person’s driver’s license is permanently revoked and they can no longer get a restricted license. Also, if the person ever tries to get a license again, they must first appear before a circuit court and petition that the license be restored.

This is something that a court is not going to consider any sooner than three years after the revocation. In many cases, it is a much longer period than that before a court will consider giving a person a restricted license, which is usually the first step to restoring a full license.

Administrative Suspension

If a person is charged with a third offense DUI, they are going to suffer an administrative suspension of their driver’s license immediately, even before the court has reached a final verdict.

That is going to happen before the person gets to court and that suspension is going to continue as long as the case is pending.

Challenging a Revocation

There is no way to challenge the revocation of a driver’s license once a person has been convicted. That revocation is something that the judge has to impose.

The only way to reverse a revocation is to keep it from happening in the first place. The way lawyers do that is by beating the case and having a person be found not guilty at trial.

In Case of Acquittal

If a person is acquitted of a third DUI offense, their license is going to be reinstated immediately. There may be a process that the person has to go through to receive those physical licenses back from the Department of Motor Vehicles, but it is the person’s right and entitlement to have and use that license as soon as they have been acquitted.

Aggravating Factors

There are a number of factors that can serve to lead the prosecution to pursue penalty enhancements. These include prior offenses, the presence of minors in the car, and an elevated Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) level.

Prior Offenses

Prior offenses can serve as aggravating factors to a third offense DUI in Fredericksburg. If the prior offenses were within five years as opposed to within 10 years, they are going to include the blood alcohol is higher. Also, the court is going to take into account whether there was a child in the vehicle when the offense was committed.

Presence of Minors

Under Virginia law, having children in the vehicle during a DUI is going to trigger additional mandatory minimum jail time. In addition, it is something that in the mind of the judge is often going to cause additional jail time imposed because of the threat that driving while under the influence poses to innocent occupants of that vehicle.

Blood alcohol content

There are two levels of penalty enhancements in Virginia, which are dictated by blood alcohol content. The first one is, if a person is at 0.15 or above but less than 0.21, which is the first level. This will most likely lead to additional mandatory jail time.

The second is this: If a person is at 0.21 or higher, that is likely going to cause more mandatory minimum jail time as well as other penalties.

How An Attorney Can Help

An attorney who has local experience is going to have an advantage over anyone who does not, because they are going to know the people involved, what defenses are most likely to work, and the habits of judges and prosecutors. These things can provide a key advantage in defending a DUI case and in protecting your license after a Fredericksburg third offense DUI.