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Posted on December 12, 2024 in Blog,DUI
If you are charged with Driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol or drugs in the state of Arizona, you will likely face the prospect of serious penalties upon conviction. These can include time spent in jail or in an Arizona state prison, hefty fines and surcharges that can amount to many thousands of dollars, and long-term stigma on your public record that can follow you wherever you go even years after your sentence is complete.
Because of these consequences, having skilled and experienced legal counsel on your side is essential in defending a DUI charge. This is where Rosenstein Law Group can help. Our firm has DUI attorneys with many years of experience helping our clients realize the best possible outcome in DUI cases, whether negotiating with prosecutors for lesser charges or putting up an aggressive defense in court.
Call our office at (480) 248-7666, at any hour, on any day, to speak with an Arizona DUI defense lawyer and to set up a free consultation to evaluate your case. If you prefer, you can also reach us here to ask a question about DUI charges or to set up a free initial case evaluation.
Arizona has the following statutes that make driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs illegal. The statutes cover multiple forms of DUI offenses in order of increasing severity:
We address each of these kinds of DUI next.
The basic definition of DUI in Arizona is that if you are impaired while driving a vehicle, or are in “actual physical control” of it, and are under the influence of liquor, or a drug, vapors or any combination(s) thereof.
One measure of impairment is to measure your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level. This is usually done through a breath sample or a blood sample. In Arizona, once you reach a certain BAC level, the law presumes you to be impaired:
Other than BAC measurements, another way that a police officer can decide that you are impaired is by observing your driving before making a traffic stop on you, and by getting you to submit to field sobriety testing the results of which are used as evidence of possible impairment.
You do not need to be driving to be charged with DUI in Arizona.
If a police officer finds you in your vehicle and concludes based on observation and interaction with you that you are impaired, then this can be grounds for a DUI charge if the officer believes that you were in “actual physical control” of a vehicle while impaired.
No Arizona statutory criteria exist to define what is considered as being in “actual physical control”, but court cases in Arizona have identified some factors that police (and juries at trial should it get that far) are to consider, including but not limited to:
The definition of DUI above is for the threshold DUI level or misdemeanor DUI. Depending on your BAC level, Arizona law has more serious DUI classifications, including extreme DUI, super extreme DUI, and “aggravated” DUI (which is a felony).
By BAC level, a misdemeanor DUI in Arizona is between 0.08 and below 0.15. If your BAC level is 0.15 or above but below 0.20, this qualifies as extreme DUI.
If your BAC level is 0.20 or more, this is a super extreme DUI.
A conviction for extreme DUI or super extreme DUI is still a misdemeanor offense. The difference is in the applicable mandatory minimum penalties upon conviction.
As the name implies, an aggravated DUI in Arizona is a felony-level DUI that has one or more aggravating circumstances.
In Arizona, you have committed an aggravated DUI if you are found to have done any of the following:
Even for a first-time misdemeanor DUI, the penalties that Arizona can impose on you for a DUI conviction can be severe.
The table below summarizes the mandatory minimum sanctions you face based on each successive level of first-time conviction for DUI.
| Penalty | Misdemeanor DUI | Extreme DUI | Super Extreme DUI | Aggravated DUI |
| Incarceration | 10 days in jail, 9 of which can be suspended upon successful completion of alcohol and/or drug treatment and counseling | 30 consecutive days in jail, no eligibility for suspension of sentence or probation in lieu of sentence | 45 consecutive days in jail, no eligibility for suspension of sentence or probation in lieu of sentence | If Class 6 then it depends on your BAC (see table to left)If Class 4, four months in prison |
| Fines and surcharges | At least $1250 | At least $3500 | At least $4750 | At least $3500 |
| License Suspension | Minimum 90 days unless refused to submit to testing | Minimum 90 days unless refused to submit to testing | Minimum 90 days unless refused to submit to testing | Up to three years revocation |
Because of the potentially severe penalties that go with a DUI conviction in Arizona, having an experienced DUI attorney is important in putting up the most effective defense. A good defense lawyer can make the difference between receiving the maximum penalty or a reduced charge, your case being dismissed, or you being acquitted.
Here are some of the defenses that, depending on the circumstances of your case, may be available to you during negotiations with a prosecuting attorney or at trial.
Although you can be charged with DUI for being in actual physical control of a vehicle, in some cases, if you pull over onto the side of the road or into a parking lot, you may be able to argue that you did so to relinquish physical control over the vehicle to avoid driving while intoxicated.
The rationale behind the “shelter rule” is that it is better to encourage an impaired driver who, recognizing his or her impairment, to stop driving than to try to keep going because of the fear of being found in actual physical control and cited and/or arrested.
The police must follow established procedures during a DUI traffic stop, including how they gather evidence against you. If they deviate from these procedures, then a court may conclude that the evidence was collected improperly and disallow it from being used against you.
Another procedural requirement for police is not to violate your civil rights when questioning you or after your arrest. One example of such a violation would be failing to properly inform you of your Miranda rights prior to questioning when you are in-custody or detained or violating those rights after your arrest and/or detention.
BAC-level-based evidence is not always infallible. If the equipment used to measure your BAC level is not properly maintained and/or calibrated, this could lead to an incorrect sample reading; in other cases, if the police do not carefully follow chain of custody procedures when processing and storing evidence gathered against you, this could cause corruption and/or contamination of the evidence and result in it not being admissible in court.
Not every criminal defense attorney in Arizona is a qualified DUI defense lawyer. The best possible legal representation against a DUI charge requires specialized training and considerable experience in pre-trial negotiations and trial defense.
At the Rosenstein Law Group, we help our clients through what might be the hardest, most difficult time in their lives when facing a DUI charge and its possible penalties. Our attorneys have more than 100 years of combined legal experience, and we have successfully handled thousands of DUI cases throughout the entire state of Arizona.
We work tirelessly to resolve your case and will stand by your side throughout the entire legal process.
Do not wait to speak to an attorney; get our skilled attorneys working on your case immediately without risk. Contact us online or reach us 24/7 by calling (480) 248-7666.