What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey
Well, the day came and the day went. Some of you have been very helpful and provided some great information, so I want to post some of the details of my court appearance yesterday.
Charged with DWI in NJ with a BAC of over .10. It was .178. Also charged with not wearing a seatbelt. Have a prior DUI charge in PA that was dismissed to ARD in 2000. Yesterday was pretty much cut and dry. Prosecution described everything about the stop. No real surprises. What was interesting was the judge questioning the prosecution. My belief is that some things could of been questioned about the officers report, but not enough to go to trial and fight it and cost quite a bit of money.
In the end I left the court with the the following. This is only applicable to my New Jersey driving privledges. Seven month suspension in Jersey effective yesterday, 12 hours of IDRC safe-driving classes, 700.00 fine & court costs. Basically the brunt of it. I know that things could of turned out much worse as he did not apply a jail sentence nor did he apply ignition interlock in NJ.
On the flip side, my counsel informed me that when PennDot picks this up that it will "most" likely be a 12 month suspension & ignition interlocking as I went through ARD in 2001 and for all intensive purposes this will be considered a 2nd offense.
Since these are so common, I just saw that someone went through the same thing I did, but states were reversed. Good luck to you. The outcome was not bad, but wasn't good either. I feel better that it is over though and I can start the process. Plan on taking the classes before august is out.
Irish
Well, the day came and the day went. Some of you have been very helpful and provided some great information, so I want to post some of the details of my court appearance yesterday.
Charged with DWI in NJ with a BAC of over .10. It was .178. Also charged with not wearing a seatbelt. Have a prior DUI charge in PA that was dismissed to ARD in 2000. Yesterday was pretty much cut and dry. Prosecution described everything about the stop. No real surprises. What was interesting was the judge questioning the prosecution. My belief is that some things could of been questioned about the officers report, but not enough to go to trial and fight it and cost quite a bit of money.
In the end I left the court with the the following. This is only applicable to my New Jersey driving privledges. Seven month suspension in Jersey effective yesterday, 12 hours of IDRC safe-driving classes, 700.00 fine & court costs. Basically the brunt of it. I know that things could of turned out much worse as he did not apply a jail sentence nor did he apply ignition interlock in NJ.
On the flip side, my counsel informed me that when PennDot picks this up that it will "most" likely be a 12 month suspension & ignition interlocking as I went through ARD in 2001 and for all intensive purposes this will be considered a 2nd offense.
Since these are so common, I just saw that someone went through the same thing I did, but states were reversed. Good luck to you. The outcome was not bad, but wasn't good either. I feel better that it is over though and I can start the process. Plan on taking the classes before august is out.
Irish