DUI Lawyer Redding: The Court Case and the DMV Case

What a DUI Lawyer Redding Drivers Hire Does in the First Ten Days

The first job is the one with the shortest deadline. Under Vehicle Code section 13558, a driver who wants a DMV hearing before the suspension takes effect must request it within 10 days of receiving the notice of suspension. Everything else in the case can be built afterward. That deadline cannot wait.

The notice of suspension is served by the arresting officer, or mailed by the DMV if the officer did not serve it. According to the California DMV, the order lets you drive for 30 days from the date it was issued, as long as you hold a valid California license. The 30 days is how long you can keep driving. The 10 days is how long you have to ask for a hearing before the suspension begins.

The criminal case follows its own timeline. The arrest report goes to the prosecutor, who decides whether to file and what to file, and the first court date comes after that. For how those early steps usually unfold, see what happens after an arrest and what happens at arraignment.

[CLIENT CONFIRM: Whether Jacob Levin requests and conducts the DMV administrative per se hearing for DUI clients, or refers that hearing out. This page describes the DMV process without saying who handles it until that is confirmed.]

What Does Vehicle Code Section 23152 Charge?

Section 23152 makes it a crime to drive under the influence, and separately to drive with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or more. Most DUI cases charge both. Subdivision (a) is about impairment. Subdivision (b) is about a number. They are proved in different ways and challenged in different ways.

Under subdivision (a), the prosecution has to prove you were driving under the influence of alcohol. That case is built from the officer’s observations: the driving, the stop, speech, balance, and the field sobriety tests. Each is an interpretation that can be tested against video and against how the tests are supposed to be given.

Under subdivision (b), the question is the number. The statute measures alcohol in grams per 100 milliliters of blood or grams per 210 liters of breath, and it creates a rebuttable presumption: if a chemical test taken within three hours of driving shows 0.08 percent or more, the law presumes you were at 0.08 percent or more while driving. Rebuttable means it can be answered with evidence.

The same section also covers driving under the influence of a drug under subdivision (f), driving under the combined influence of alcohol and a drug under subdivision (g), and a 0.04 percent limit for drivers of commercial vehicles under subdivision (d).

Past results do not predict future outcomes. Every case depends on its own facts and circumstances.

When Does a DUI Charge Fall Under Section 23153?

Section 23153 applies when a driver who is under the influence, or at 0.08 percent or more, also does an act forbidden by law or neglects a duty imposed by law while driving, and that act or neglect proximately causes bodily injury to someone other than the driver. It can be filed as a felony.

The prosecution does not have to prove that a specific Vehicle Code section was violated to show a neglected duty. Subdivision (c) of the statute says so directly. It does have to prove causation, and causation is where many of these cases turn. Another driver’s conduct, the road, and the actual mechanics of the collision all bear on whether impairment caused the injury or simply coincided with it.

On a first violation, Vehicle Code section 23554 provides for state prison, or county jail for 90 days to one year, and a fine of $390 to $1,000. Under section 13352, a conviction also carries a one-year license suspension.

What Happens on a First-Offense DUI in California?

A first violation of section 23152 is punished under Vehicle Code section 23536: 96 hours to six months in county jail, at least 48 hours of it continuous, and a fine of $390 to $1,000. When the court grants probation, section 23538 requires a fine in that range and completion of a licensed DUI program.

The length of the program depends on the facts. Under section 23538, a first offender whose blood alcohol was under 0.20 percent is referred to a program of at least three months and 30 hours. A first offender at 0.20 percent or more, or who refused a chemical test, is referred to a program of at least nine months and 60 hours. No credit is given for program activities completed before the date of the offense.

On the license side, a first conviction brings a six-month suspension under Vehicle Code section 13352, and the license is not reinstated until the DUI program is completed and proof of financial responsibility is filed. The statute also provides a route to a restricted license tied to program enrollment and a certified ignition interlock device. Those rules were amended in 2025 and depend on dates, so we check the version in effect for your arrest.

A second offense within 10 years of a prior conviction is punished under section 23540 by 90 days to one year in county jail.

What Happens If You Refused the Chemical Test?

Under Vehicle Code section 23612, a driver lawfully arrested for DUI is deemed to have consented to a chemical test of blood or breath. Refusing after arrest triggers a one-year DMV suspension on a first refusal under section 13353, and it can add terms to the sentence if you are later convicted.

Two different tests get confused here. The handheld breath test an officer may offer at the roadside before an arrest is a preliminary alcohol screening test. Section 23612 treats it as a field sobriety test, requires the officer to tell you that you may refuse it, and says that taking it does not satisfy the chemical test required after arrest. The implied consent obligation attaches to the test requested after a lawful arrest.

If you refused that post-arrest test, the DMV consequence is a one-year suspension for a first refusal, and a two-year revocation if the refusal comes within 10 years of a prior DUI conviction or a prior administrative suspension. In court, section 23577 adds penalties on conviction when a willful refusal of a breath or urine test is pled and proven, and section 23538 sends a first offender who refused to the longer nine-month program.

Whether something was a refusal at all is a factual question. Section 23612 requires the officer to tell you what refusing will cost, and what was actually said is part of the record.

How Is the DMV Case Different From the Court Case?

The DMV case decides only your driving privilege. The court case decides guilt and punishment. They run on separate tracks and apply different standards of proof, and a result in one does not bind the other, with one important exception: an acquittal in court requires the DMV to reinstate an administrative suspension.

The two cases also affect each other. Vehicle Code section 13353.2 says the DMV’s findings have no collateral estoppel effect on the criminal case, so losing at the DMV does not decide the court case. If you are acquitted, the DMV must reinstate the license. If the prosecutor declines to file for lack of evidence, or the court dismisses for insufficient evidence, you gain a renewed right to a DMV hearing, which must be requested within one year of the arrest.

Where a Redding DUI Case Is Actually Contested

A DUI file looks settled because it is full of numbers. Those numbers come from a stop, a set of observations, a machine or a lab, and a clock, and each can be examined.

The stop comes first. If there was no lawful basis to pull the car over, a motion under Penal Code section 1538.5 can ask the court to suppress what followed. After that come the field sobriety tests and the chemical test itself: how it was taken, stored, and analyzed, and when.

Jacob Levin interned in the San Francisco and Shasta County District Attorney’s offices, where his work included DUI cases, and every case in this practice is prepared as though a jury will decide it. For the background behind that approach, see about Jacob Levin and case results.