Whether you were a short drive home from your friend’s house after a party or you did not think that you were very intoxicated after leaving the bar, DUI charges can still have significant consequences in your life. More than 25,000 Minnesotans are charged with a DUI every year. A possible reason for this may be that many Minnesotans do not know the consequences of a conviction.
The penalty for first and multiple convictions
If someone is facing the consequences of a DUI conviction, state law only looks back as far as ten years when it comes to repeat offenses. Depending on how many violations you have in that time frame, the severity of your conviction increases. The consequences for a DUI conviction are as follows:
- First offense
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- 90 days in jail
- Up to a $3,000 in fine
- Second and third offense
- Minimum of one-month incarceration, as a combination of jail time and community service. Jail sentencing can be as much as one year.
- Up to a $3,000 fine
- Fourth offense
- Up to seven years in jail
- Up to a $14,000 fine
Depending on the severity of the crime, such as BAC levels or recklessness of the driving, the intensity of the charges may also increase.
Keep your record clean
Going from a third to a fourth conviction can result in thousands of dollars more in fines and years of your life in jail. Because of this steep increase in consequence severity, it is essential to treat even the first offense as a serious matter. Let an experienced criminal defense attorney defend you from these charges by fighting to get a court to drop them or negotiate to reduce the sentencing entirely.
