Sami Azhari, Attorney at Law
NOTE: This article has been updated to reflect the law as of 2020. The penalties listed are the most recent penalties pursuant to 625 ILCS 5/11-501. The penalties for an arrest for driving under the influence in Illinois were increased in 2011 and those penalties exist today. A second offense of DUI is still a […]
Attention: This article was originally published April 01, 2014. The information has since been reviewed for accuracy and is up-to-date as of December 2019. Drive too fast and you might go to jail. No, seriously. And if you have been pulled over for speeding by a State Trooper, you may have been told the same […]
If the defendant is found guilty of driving under the influence, the court will proceed to sentencing. It is during the sentencing stage of a case that a person risks having his driver’s license revoked, and being incarcerated in jail. As of 2019, the law in Illinois allows the judge to sentence the defendant to […]
Most people with multiple drunk driving offenses do not assume they will be (legally) behind the wheel for quite a while following their arrest. Illinois has strict mandatory driver’s license suspension laws that make it difficult for even first time offenders to start driving again. For those with more than two or three convictions, they […]
For years, DUI offenders have had to worry about their driver’s licenses and the possibility of incarceration. But recently, prosecutors have given defendants another cause for concern. The government can seize a DUI offender’s vehicle, and after a process called civil forfeiture, sell the vehicle at auction and keep the proceeds. The process takes place […]
In the year 2017, driving under the influence remains one of the most highly politicized offenses in Illinois courts. There is no offense that will get a prosecutor fired quicker for giving a good deal than DUI. In these cases, Assistant State’s Attorneys are always wary of how it will look after they give the […]
The Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists (AAIM) has released the results of its 2011 survey of police departments across the state concerning DUI. The non-profit advocacy group takes a survey each year of all police departments and uses the information to compile statistics about arrests by each department, county, etc. The police departments’ participation in the […]
The Illinois Secretary of State releases a publication every year that provides statistics about arrests for driving under the influence. The annual DUI Fact Book says that the number of arrests for drunk driving each year in our state is just under 50,000. To be clear, this is the number of arrests, and so it […]
An arrest for driving under the influence in Illinois is recorded, in most respects, for all time. This is a distressing fact for someone who has never been arrested before. One bad decision can make for a lifetime of regret. But it does not have to be that way. The record of a DUI arrest […]
A person who is arrested for driving under the influence is confronted with two problems. First, he faces criminal penalties imposed by a court of law. At the present time, a first offense of DUI is categorized as a Class A misdemeanor offense. The potential penalties include up to one year in jail and a […]
- by Sami Azhari, DUI Lawyer
