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Procedure

What Happens in the First 72 Hours After a DUI Arrest

Written from primary sources · Editor-reviewed · Law current as of 2026-09-19
By the duistatelaws.com editorial team · Published 2026-09-19 · Last reviewed 2026-09-19 · 8 min read
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The license proceeding is started by the driver, not by the court.

Key takeaways

  • Two proceedings start at the arrest: a criminal case and an administrative license case. They are decided by different bodies and only one of them has a short deadline.
  • The license deadline is measured in days and is not extended because the criminal case is slow.
  • Nothing that happens in the first 72 hours resolves the case. The only thing that can be lost in that window is the license hearing.

Hour 0 to 12: booking and release

Booking is administrative. Identity, prints, photograph, property, and a check for holds. Release comes either on a bond set by schedule or after a magistrate sets conditions. In most places this is measured in hours, not days.

What matters for later is what is handed over on the way out: the paperwork. It usually contains the notice that starts the license clock, and it is routinely mistaken for a receipt.

Hour 12 to 48: two cases, two clocks

This is the part that costs people their license. An arrest opens a criminal charge, which goes to a court on the court’s schedule, and a separate administrative action against the driving license, which is run by the state licensing agency on a schedule fixed by statute.

The court will not start the license case, will not remind anyone about it, and cannot extend it. If the hearing is not requested within the statutory window, the suspension takes effect without anyone reviewing the stop, the test, or the officer’s account of either.

Day 2 to 3: the first court setting

The first appearance is procedural. Charges are read, counsel is confirmed, conditions of release may be adjusted, and a date is set. No evidence is heard and nothing is decided. It is worth saying plainly because the gap between how serious the day feels and how little it determines is wide.

What actually has to be done in the window

One thing: request the license hearing, in writing, within the statutory deadline, in the manner the statute specifies. Everything else — evidence, testing records, the officer’s report, the decision about how to resolve the charge — has weeks or months of runway. The hearing request does not.

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