Ten consecutive days in jail is where a first Arizona conviction starts, and almost nobody walking out of booking near Mill Avenue has been told that. What the statute gives back, it gives back only for finishing screening.
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Six boxes, about thirty seconds. You pick when to be called back, and that is when the phone rings.
Or call (480) 741-9606A.R.S. 28-1381(I)(1) sentences a first conviction to "not less than ten consecutive days in jail," and the same paragraph withholds probation and suspension of sentence "unless the entire sentence is served." The relief appears further down. At sentencing the judge may suspend all but one day if the person completes a court-ordered alcohol or other drug screening, education, evidence-based psychotherapy or treatment program. If that program is never finished and the person was not placed on probation, the court must issue an order to show cause on why the remaining jail term should not be served. One day served with nine held back is the realistic minimum, and it is conditional the whole way.
The same section reaches driving while under the influence to the slightest degree. It separately reaches an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more within two hours of driving, where the alcohol came from drinking before or during the drive. There is also a route for a listed drug or its metabolite in the body. A complaint can carry more than one of those counts at once, each resting on different proof, and a conviction on any of them is a class 1 misdemeanor. Reading the cited paragraph numbers on the charging document is the first useful hour of work.
Under 28-1387(B) the judge shall order a convicted person to complete screening at a facility approved by the Department of Health Services, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, or a probation department. If the judge decides more is needed, education or treatment follows under court supervision. The person pays those costs unless the court waives some or all of them after weighing ability to pay, and the facility reports back on whether the program was completed. This is also the gate on everything else, because the interlock period does not begin until the screening, education or treatment requirements are finished.
A provision most people never hear about sits in 28-1387(C). Once someone sentenced under 28-1381(I) has served twenty-four consecutive hours, and the court has confirmation that the person is employed or is a student, the sentence must allow that employment or schooling to continue. The limit is twelve hours a day and six days a week, unless the court finds good cause otherwise and puts the finding on the record. Remaining hours are served in custody. For an undergraduate at the university mid-semester, that paragraph decides whether the term survives the sentence. Sentences under the second-offense and extreme statutes require forty-eight consecutive hours first.
The city prosecutor's criminal division handles misdemeanors occurring in Tempe, including DUI complaints, while felony matters go to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Your arraignment date comes from the officer's citation, a summons issued by the court, or the release order handed over at the jail. Three pleas are available there, no testimony is taken, and the judge at arraignment will not dismiss anything. The municipal court's own criminal page fixes its outer limit: "In no instance will sentences exceed the maximum levels of $2,500 fine plus surcharges and/or 6 months in jail and/or 5 years probation." Diversion alternatives exist for some offenses, and eligibility information is given at arraignment.
Section 28-3319(D)(1)(a) requires a certified ignition interlock device for twelve months after a 28-1381 conviction, and subsection (F) starts that clock when screening, education or treatment is complete and the driver is otherwise eligible to reinstate. Subsection (H) then allows the department to defer the remainder, beginning six months after installation. The driver has to have been sentenced under 28-1381(I) and to have finished an alcohol education program of at least sixteen hours. A functioning device must have stayed on every vehicle driven, with no two attempts to start one at 0.08 or more during the restriction. There must also have been no injury or property-damage crash at the time of the offense. The deferment is permanent unless a new DUI arrest lands during it. A documented medical condition substitutes monthly alcohol and drug screening for the device.
A.R.S. 13-905 lets a person apply after fulfilling the conditions of probation or sentence and being discharged, with no filing fee, and DUI is not among the excluded categories. The order dismisses the charge and releases the person from penalties, except those the transportation department imposes under the licensing sections it names. A conviction set aside can still be alleged as an element, used as a prior, and pleaded in a later prosecution, and the Department of Public Safety must annotate the criminal history without removing any of it. Sealing under 13-911 is a separate petition, available three years after a class 1 misdemeanor sentence is completed and all money is paid.
Arizona's ethical rule bars a lawyer from arranging, charging or collecting a contingent fee to defend a criminal case, so nothing about a defense fee here can be built on the verdict. The rule also requires the scope of the work and the basis of the fee to be put in writing. What moves a fee is scope: whether a test result is contested, whether records are subpoenaed, and whether the matter is tried.
First-Offense DUI 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) 741-9606Arizona’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.
The 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
No obligation · Written for Tempe · Maricopa County