Frequently Asked Legal Questions

Will I lose my driver’s license? Can I wait until my court date to take actions?

If you wait until your court date to take action, it may be too late. You could lose your license – even before you go to court. You must either demand an “administrative suspension hearing” or a “refusal hearing,” depending on whether or not you submitted to a police blood test or breath test or refused to do so. Either way, the time limit is ten (10) days. If you don’t demand a hearing, you’ll lose your license, regardless of what happens in court. This isn’t part of the court case, so you can’t wait until you go to court to take care of it. You need to act promptly.

Call Cohen Law Offices at 715-514-5051 immediately!

You received this form because you submitted to a breath or blood test and the result was over the legal limit for blood alcohol content (BAC over .08 for a first offense or .02 for a fourth or higher offense). You have ten (10) business days, not including holidays or weekends, from the notice date on that form to file an administrative review request (the yellow form). If you hire Cohen Law Offices within that 10-day period, their office will complete the form for you and request an administrative review hearing on your behalf with the Department of Motor Vehicles. The Notice of Intent to Suspend form will serve as your temporary driving permit for 30 days from the date of the notice. Please read the Notice of Intent to Suspend form for any additional information. At the end of that 30-day period, your driving privileges will be suspended if:

(a) An administrative review request was not filed in a timely manner, or

(b) The administrative review hearing was lost (meaning that the suspension of your license was upheld).

At that point, you may be eligible for an occupational license.

Call Cohen Law Offices at 715-514-5051 immediately!

You received this form because you are alleged to have refused the breath or blood test and you have an additional “refusal” charge with your OWI charge.

You have ten (10) business days from the notice date on that form to file a demand for refusal hearing. If you hire Cohen Law Offices within that 10-day period, their office will submit a Demand for Refusal to the court. The Notice of Intent to Revoke form will serve as your temporary driving receipt for 30 days from the notice date.

Provided that you hired Cohen Law Offices within the 10-day period, your operating privileges will not be revoked while your OWI case is pending. The court will schedule your case for a refusal hearing where the court will determine if your refusal to submit to the breath or blood test was proper. The outcome of that refusal hearing will determine if your driving privileges will be revoked.

If you are convicted of the refusal, there is a mandatory minimum one-year revocation of your operating privileges.

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.

For those who are subject to federal regulation, a drunk driving conviction will be considered a "major" violation and, thereby, can result in legal disqualification under applicable federal rules.

Insurance carriers often have their own rules governing employment of drivers with drunk driving convictions. Though each insurance company makes its own rules, trucking companies who haul interstate frequently are unwilling to hire or retain drivers with a drunk driving conviction because their insurance carriers will not allow them to do so. Companies who only haul inside Wisconsin generally are not subject to such strict insurance requirements.

There are also specific drunk driving offenses that focus on those who operate a commercial motor vehicle after having consumed alcohol. Operating a commercial motor vehicle with an alcohol concentration of 0.04 or more is illegal in Wisconsin. A driver who tests at or above that level will receive an immediate 24-hour out-of-service order, in addition to the citation for violating the 0.04 prohibited alcohol concentration law.

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.

If you hire Cohen Law Offices, they will receive that letter giving notice of the hearing and will provide you with a copy of it along with the police reports.

Our attorneys will meet with a hearing examiner from the Department of Transportation to determine if your operating privileges will be suspended during the time of the court proceedings.

Cohen Law Offices will then be notified of the results of that hearing by mail, usually within one (1) day after the hearing occurs.

If you win at that hearing, your operating privileges will not be suspended during the court proceedings. If you lose at that hearing, your operating privileges will be suspended thirty days after the notice date on the Notice of Intent to Suspend and our attorneys will send you a letter with detailed information on how to get an occupational license.

Please note that the results of the administrative review hearing do not affect the outcome of your case in court.

Probably, but you may have to wait a while first. Wisconsin allows an immediate occupational license after a first offense conviction, but there is a waiting period, which can be from 30 to 90 days in other circumstances. Also, you cannot get an occupational license if you've already lost your license for some other reason in the preceding 365 days. Lastly, you'll have to file proof of insurance with the motor vehicle department to qualify for an occupational license. This is normally done by getting an SR-22 from your insurance agent, and is likely to lead your insurance carrier to raise your rates and possibly reduce your coverage. Driving under an occupational license is limited. Generally, you may drive for work purposes or for "homemaking," but you are limited to not more than 12 hours in a single day and 60 hours in the total week, according to a schedule that is maintained in the DOT files.

An occupational license may be obtained through the Department of Transportation if your driving privileges have been suspended, provided you were valid to drive before you were charged with OWI. Before going to the DOT, you must obtain SR-22 insurance.

You may not obtain an occupational license before your suspension date begins. If your driving privileges were administratively suspended, Cohen Law Offices will send you a letter with detailed information about SR-22 insurance and obtaining an occupational license.

Please note that there may be other factors with respect to your driver's record history that may prohibit you from obtaining an occupational license. For example, the Department of Transportation prohibits a person with two or more suspensions or revocations within a 12-month period from obtaining an occupational license.

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.