The order handed over with your other paperwork did not come from a judge. It comes from the motor vehicle division, it takes hold on the thirtieth day, and the request that stops it has to arrive before then.
Call (480) 741-9606No obligation · Written for Tempe · Maricopa County
Six boxes, about thirty seconds. You pick when to be called back, and that is when the phone rings.
Or call (480) 741-9606Under A.R.S. 28-1385, an officer serves an order of suspension that "is effective thirty days after the date it is served." If a valid license is surrendered on the spot, the officer issues a temporary driving permit good for thirty days. That gap is why the loss of driving privileges often feels like it happens a month after the arrest. On a test result of 0.08 or more, the department shall suspend the license or the right to apply for not less than ninety consecutive days. Reinstatement afterward depends on completing department-ordered screening.
The request for a hearing or a summary review must reach the department within thirty days after the date of the notice, or the order of suspension becomes final. A summary review may be asked for any time before the effective date instead of a hearing. A timely hearing request stays the suspension until the hearing happens, though a surrendered license is not handed back; the department may issue temporary permits that run no later than its final decision. If the department decides at the hearing to suspend, that suspension starts thirty days after written notice. Nothing here is automatic, and nobody sends a reminder.
Section 28-1321 handles refusal. A driver must be told that the license or permit will be suspended or denied for twelve months, or for two years on a second or subsequent refusal within eighty-four months, unless the driver expressly agrees to the test and completes it successfully. Failing to expressly agree, or failing to complete the test, is deemed a refusal. Reinstatement after the period runs is conditioned on completing alcohol or other drug screening. A refusal hearing is narrow: reasonable grounds, whether an arrest occurred, whether there was a refusal, and whether the person was informed of the consequences.
Section 28-1385(I) softens the ninety days for a defined group. The department shall suspend for at least thirty consecutive days and then restrict privileges for at least sixty additional consecutive days, if three things hold true. Nobody was killed or seriously injured in the conduct that produced the case. There is no conviction under 28-1381, 28-1382 or 28-1383 within eighty-four months of the commission date, with commission dates controlling that count. And the driver gives the department satisfactory evidence of completing ordered screening. Skip the screening and the department may impose the full ninety days instead.
Five issues define the scope on a test-result suspension. The first two are whether the officer had reasonable grounds for believing that a driver was operating, or in actual physical control of, a vehicle while impaired, and whether that person was arrested for one of the listed offenses. The third is whether a test showed 0.08 or more, or 0.04 in a commercial vehicle or a vehicle for hire, or a listed drug without a valid prescription. The last two ask whether the testing method used was valid and reliable, and whether the results were accurately evaluated. Two of those five are about the test itself. That is the part of a license case worth building.
In place of the suspension, on request, the department shall issue a special ignition interlock restricted driver license to a person who meets the same three conditions listed above. There is a price that is not money. Once that license is issued, the person waives any right to an administrative hearing contesting the action against the license under either 28-1385 or 28-1321. A driver suspended for a first refusal may also apply after completing ordered screening, must keep a functioning device for the rest of the suspension period, and cannot use that route on a second refusal inside eighty-four months.
Households in The Lakes and around Kiwanis Park sit well away from the light rail line that runs through the campus core, and a sixty-day driving restriction reshapes commuting, custody exchanges and shift work all at once. The temptation to drive anyway is the expensive part: a DUI committed while a privilege is suspended, canceled, revoked or refused is charged as aggravated DUI, a felony, under 28-1383(A)(1). Reinstatement is also its own transaction with the department rather than the court, carrying its own fees plus proof of future financial responsibility on an SR-22 form, which the insurer prices separately.
Because the criminal charge and the administrative suspension travel together, a written fee agreement should say plainly which of the two it covers. Arizona's professional conduct rule flatly prohibits a contingent fee for defending a criminal case, and it requires the basis or rate of any fee to be communicated in writing. Administrative work is billed on scope as well: the request, the record, the witnesses, and whether an interlock license ends the fight early.
DUI License Suspension Lawyer in Tempe. Call (480) 741-9606 and a Tempe lawyer reviews the claim and the deadline that applies. Nothing is signed on that call.
Call (480) 741-9606The Tempe City Prosecutor’s Criminal Division prosecutes misdemeanors occurring in Tempe, including traffic and criminal complaints involving DUI. The same office states that felony cases occurring in Tempe are prosecuted by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Why it matters: A standard misdemeanor DUI and an aggravated-DUI felony allegation can begin on different local prosecution paths. The charge and venue listed on the paperwork determine where a lawyer needs to look for the case and which court process applies.
Source: tempe.gov
Arizona’s Governor’s Office of Highway Safety reports DUI figures separately for ASU Police: 19 in 2023 and 55 in 2024. The agency’s 2025 figure is listed as preliminary statistical data.
Why it matters: Tempe’s university footprint can place an arrest in a distinct law-enforcement record system. The arresting agency printed on the citation helps identify where reports, video, dispatch material, and other case records may begin.
Source: gohs.az.gov
Arizona’s basic DUI statute reaches driving while impaired “to the slightest degree” and a 0.08-or-higher alcohol concentration within two hours of driving. A separate statute sets the extreme-DUI range at 0.15 to less than 0.20 and the higher, commonly called super-extreme, range at 0.20 or more. The stated first-conviction jail minimums are ten consecutive days for the basic statute, thirty days for 0.15–0.199, and forty-five days for 0.20 or above, subject to statutory sentencing provisions.
Why it matters: A Tempe reader needs to know that a number below 0.08 does not itself resolve an impairment allegation, and that 0.15 and 0.20 are legal threshold lines rather than casual labels. The cited subsection and reported result shape the evidence review and sentencing exposure.
No obligation · Written for Tempe · Maricopa County