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THE D.W.I.
PROCESS - HOW IT WORKS
After
The Arrest
The
police officer will have given you a Citation (pink
color), Datamaster evidence ticket (pink color) and
Notice of Intention to Suspend (white and yellow
copies). The citation is an order for you to appear in
court. The Datamaster evidence ticket shows your blood
alcohol level (B.A.C.) result, and other particulars
about the Datamaster breath testing machine that
analyzed your breath.
The
Notice of Intention to Suspend (white copy) must be
mailed to the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles
within 7 days of the date that the arresting officer
either hand delivered or mailed the notice to you. If
you do not mail the request for a hearing within 7 days,
you lose the right to contest the suspension of your
license or driving privileges in Vermont. The yellow
copy is your temporary license. It is extremely
important to know that the civil suspension process is
entirely different and separate from the criminal D.W.I.
charge. It is easier for the State to win a Civil
Suspension Hearing than obtain a D.W.I. conviction. You
can lose your Vermont license or driving privileges
through the civil suspension process without being
convicted of D.W.I. For more information regarding the
civil suspension process
click
here.
Arraignment
This is
the date given in your citation for you to appear in
court to answer the D.W.I. charge. It will also be the
Preliminary Hearing for the Civil Suspension case, where
the State must turn over any documents concerning your
D.W.I. arrest and processing that it intends to use at
the Final Civil Suspension Hearing. The arraignment
itself only takes 5 minutes, but your case will be one
of many also scheduled to be heard that day.
If you
live out of State and hire me to represent you I may be
able to avoid your having to travel to Court for the
arraignment or for other hearings as well. The
arraignment date triggers a 31 day period during which
any challenges to the evidence in the D.W.I. and Civil
Suspension cases must be filed.
Motions Hearing/Civil Suspension Final Hearing
Based
upon the documents provided by the State at arraignment,
the video and/or audio of the D.W.I. arrest and
processing, and any other source of information, motions
may be filed and a hearing scheduled. This will allow
for attack against the State’s evidence concerning the
legality of the stop, the admissibility of the breath
test, or some other element of the State’s case. There
are also important evidentiary issues which the judge
may be asked to rule on at this time.
Often the
Motions Hearing is combined with the Civil Suspension
Final Hearing, where the State will ask the judge to
suspend your Vermont license or driving privileges. At
the end of this hearing, the judge will either issue an
oral decision from the bench or write a written ruling
based upon testimony and evidence from the hearing. It
normally takes 30 to 60 days for the judge to issue a
written decision.
Calendar Call and Trial
Your case
will come up for Calendar Call (Status Conference) every
3 weeks unless there are pending motions in your case.
At Calendar Call there will be discussions with the
State’s Attorney regarding settlement of the D.W.I. and
Civil Suspension charges. If these negotiations are
unsuccessful the case will be placed either on the next
scheduled Calendar Call or on a jury trial list. It
normally takes several months for a D.W.I. case to be
given a date certain for jury selection and trial.
In
Vermont, very few cases actually get tried to a jury. If
your driver’s license or non-resident driving privileges
are suspended by the judge after the Civil Suspension
Hearing, you may be eligible for reinstatement before
your D.W.I. case even is heard by a jury. Vermont law
does provide that time spent under suspension due to a
Civil License Suspension is credited toward any license
or driving privilege suspension arising from a D.W.I.
conviction.
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