Best Criminal Defense Lawyers in Madison, WI

Because Wisconsin, like all states, permits only one driver's license to be issued to a person, a drunk driving conviction will always result in suspension or revocation of the person's commercial driver's license, or "CDL." A "CDL" is not a separate driver's license. It is actually an 'endorsement' conferring additional privileges to operate commercial vehicles requiring specific qualifications. It is an endorsement, however, based on issuance of a regular driver's license and, consequently, conviction of an offense requiring suspension or revocation of the driver's license always means that the "CDL" is revoked or suspended. This is true even if the person was not operating a commercial vehicle or 'as a CDL' at the time of the violation.

At the Administrative Review hearing only the issues listed on the letter from the Department of Transportation (DOT) giving notice of the hearing will be heard.

In Wisconsin, a drunk driving conviction is a permanent part of your driving record. Since 1998, Wisconsin has counted all lifetime drunk driving convictions, even those before 1998, in calculating whether a drunk driving arrest should be prosecuted as a third or greater offense. So, unlike other violations, a drunk driving conviction is never purged from your Wisconsin driver record unless it is a first OWI conviction and you have no other OWI convictions.

Wisconsin law allows a judge to order a vehicle to be seized for forfeiture whenever its owner is convicted of a third or subsequent offense drunk driving violation. In a case taken to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the scope of the law was limited to allow only a vehicle both owned by the driver and used by the driver to commit a drunk driving offense, 3rd or greater, to be forfeited. Forfeiture, moreover, requires a separate lawsuit be filed, after conviction of the drunk driving charge itself. So, if there's no conviction, there can't be a vehicle forfeiture. In 1999, the statute was amended to make this an explicit restriction in the law.

You received one ticket for drunk driving: "operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant." The second ticket was for having a "prohibited alcohol concentration," which means that you got a ticket for testing above the legal limit. Even though you got two tickets, the penalties for each are the same and, by law, there can be only one set of penalties imposed, regardless of whether you're convicted of one or both tickets.