Chicago Criminal Lawyer Blog
As one of the busiest and most experienced DUI attorney in Illinois, this may be one of the most common question I get whenever I speak to a client about their DUI case. The short answer to this question is no. But you should understand the consequences of refusing to submit to a breathalyzer, or chemical test, when you are placed under arrest for a DUI. Illinois is an implied consent state. This means that you give consent to a chemical test to determine the blood alcohol contact in your blood by merely driving a motor vehicle on a public highway or roadway in Illinois. So let’s discuss what happens if you are pulled over by a police officer and the police officer asks you to take a breathalyzer test, or provide a blood sample, to determine what the blood alcohol content (BAC) of your blood is and you refuse the request.
The Breathalyzer Test is the most common test used in Court to prove that your BAC was over the legal limit. In Illinois, if the BAC of your blood, was a .08 or above, you could be found guilty of a DUI. Another way of determining the BAC of your blood is a blood test. In Illinois, if a police officer has reasonable grounds to believe that you were operating a motor vehicle on the roadway while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, that police officer can request that you take a Breathalyzer or Blood test to determine what the BAC of your blood is. If you submit to a Breathalyzer Test, or a Blood Test, and the BAC was a .08 or above, in addition to facing a DUI criminal charge, the Illinois Secretary of State will suspend your license for 6 months because of the BAC reading of .08 or above. This is called the Statutory Summary Suspension. This is an automatic suspension of your license that happens once the arresting police officer notifies the Secretary of State of the Breathalyzer Test results or the Blood Test results. If you refuse to take a Breathalyzer Test or provide a blood sample, the Secretary of State will suspend your license for 1 year. The 6 month and 12 month Statutory Summary Suspensions will kick in 46 days after the date of your DUI arrest.
If your license is suspended due to a Statutory Summary Suspension, you may be allowed to have a Blood Alcohol Interlock Ignition Device (BAIID) installed on your vehicle which will allow you to drive during the 6 or 12 months of your Statutory Summary Suspension. However, in order to be eligible for a BAIID, you must not have had a DUI in the past five (5) years. In addition, a BAIID may be too expensive and too intrusive for some motorists. I recently represented a client who is an executive for a major corporation. He was concerned that if his employer found out about the DUI, he would lose his job. Since he would regularly go to lunch and dinner with his coworkers, he was concerned that they would find out about his DUI if he ever had to drive any of them to lunch or dinner. At the same time, he was required to drive his vehicle almost everyday as part of his job. For this client, the Statutory Summary Suspension was a major source of concern. I was able to solve this problem by getting the state to agree to Rescind the Statutory Summary Suspension as part of the ultimate resolution of his DUI case. However, if your license is suspended due to a Statutory Summary Suspension, the only way to legally operate a motor vehicle in Illinois is to have the BAIID installed in your vehicle. If you are caught driving without a BAIID during a Statutory Summary Suspension, you could be facing serious criminal consequences. Plus, if you are charged with driving you Statutory Summary Suspension without a BAIID, this could make it much more difficult for your lawyer to fight the underlined DUI case in Court.
Kane County Prosecutors and law enforcement officials have announced that Kane County will be conducting their 25th “No Refusal” DUI patrol over the St. Patrick’s Day Holiday.
I often receive phone calls from clients asking me if they can go back home after they are released from jail or whether they can contact their boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse after being released from jail. I usually tell those clients to come to my office and bring all of the papers that were given to them when they were released from jail. It is very important to keep all of your papers with you if you are arrested and released by the Police so that you may appear for court. You should bring all of your paperwork with you when you are meeting with your lawyer.
I’ve been handling DUI cases throughout Illinois for over 27 years. I have probably handled thousands of DUIs in my 27 years of being a criminal defense attorney. Looking back at all of the years and all of the cases that I have handled, I can tell you that most people charged with a DUI do not realize that they are probably looking at a mandatory suspension of their license in Illinois. For many people, this mandatory suspension of their license will have the greatest impact on their lives. It will affect their ability to get to and from work, and may even cause them to lose their job. This mandatory suspension, is called the Statutory Summary Suspension. Let’s talk about what the Statutory Summary Suspension is, at what it means for your DUI case.
In criminal cases, it is common for the prosecution to seek to admit into evidence things that were seized by the police as a result of the search of a residence. One of the first things that a criminal defense attorney does in a criminal case involving the search of a house is to determine whether the evidence seized by the police can be admitted in court.
On January 1, 2020, at 6 am, Possession of recreational Marijuana will become legal in Illinois. But, there will be limitations to the legalization of the Possession of Marijuana. Violating any of the restrictions in the new law can get you in trouble with the law for the Illegal Possession of Marijuana in Illinois. If you are an Illinois resident, or planning on visiting Illinois, and are thinking about taking advantage of the new law legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, you should be aware of what you can legally do, and what you cannot do under the new law. If you do not know what the rules are and what the limitations are, you could find yourself being arrested, receiving an expensive ticket, or even facing a criminal case for Possession of Marijuana.
The other day I received a phone call from a client who is living in New York. The client told me that about 8 years ago, while they were living in Illinois, they were arrested for a felony drug case. They appeared in Court and eventually plead guilty and received probation. While the client was on probation, they moved to New York and never checked in with probation after leaving Illinois. They were just denied a job when a background search revealed an outstanding warrant for a Probation Violation out of Illinois. The client wanted to know what they could do to clear up the warrant and if they could hire me to take care of the warrant without the client having to come back to Illinois. I frequently receive phone calls from people who have outstanding warrants. As a matter of fact, while I was writing this article, I received a call from a client who found out that an arrest warrant was issued against him last night for a Domestic Battery. The client wanted to know if there was any way that I could make a call or do something to avoid him having to turn himself in and appear in Court. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to take care of an outstanding arrest warrant. Let me explain.
Lately, many of the phone calls I receive start off with clients telling me that they received a “speeding ticket” and asking whether they can really go to jail for their “speeding ticket.” I ask them how fast they were going, and if they were going 26 miles per hour, or more, over the posted speed limit, I have to explain what they are facing. I start off by explaining that what they received is not a speeding ticket. At least it’s not what most people commonly considered to be a speeding ticket. It’s called Aggravated Speeding in llinois. Speeding 26-miles per hour over the posted speed limit is a crime in Illinois. It’s called Aggravated Speeding and can be found at If you did not know this, don’t feel bad. Most people do not realize that speeding 26-miles per hour over the posted speed limit is a crime in Illinois until it happens to them. Sometimes, lawyers don’t even know that driving 26-miles per hour over the posted speed limit is a crime in Illinois (more on that later.) Illinois has made speeding 26-miles per hour over the posted speed limit a crime that carries potential serious consequences. Just like any other crime in Illinois, driving 26-miles per hour over the posted speed limit carries a potential jail sentence that all Illinois driver’s should be aware of. Let me explain.
This morning I spoke to a client who made it out of a local store last night after shoplifting a couple of items without getting caught. The client wanted to know whether they could still be arrested for shoplifting and charged with a Retail Theft even though they were not caught inside the store. The client wanted to know how long they had to arrest him and charged him with a Retail Theft and what they should do if they were contacted by the police.