duistatelaws.com DUI and DWI law by state
Impaired-driving law is written state by state, and the spread is wider than almost anyone expects. The deadline to save your license runs from seven days to thirty depending on which side of a state line you were stopped on, and in one state it comes with a filing fee.
The same diagram as a table
| State | Days | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado | 7 | C.R.S. § 42-2-126(6)(a) |
| California | 10 | Cal. Veh. Code § 13558(b) |
| Florida | 10 | Fla. Stat. § 322.2615(1)(b)3. |
| Texas | 15 | Tex. Transp. Code §§ 524.031, 724.041 |
| Arizona | 30 | A.R.S. § 28-1321(G), (H) |
| Georgia | 30 | O.C.G.A. § 40-5-67.1(g)(1) |
Every state this site has read, with its deadline
A figure is in this table only if it was read out of that state’s own statute or a linked reproduction of it. Linked rows have a full page.
| State | Called | Limit | License deadline | Prior-offense window |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | DWI | 0.08 | 15 days | no lookback period at all |
| California | DUI | 0.08 | 10 days | 10 years |
| Georgia | DUI | 0.08 | 30 days | 10 years, measured from arrest dates |
| Florida | DUI | 0.08 | 10 days | 5 years for the second, 10 years for the felony third |
| Colorado | DUI | 0.08 | 7 days | none for the misdemeanor ladder |
| Arizona | DUI | 0.08 | 30 days | 84 months |
States with a full page
Start with the ZIP where the arrest happened
We will carry it up to the form. Nothing is sent until you press the button.
The thing every one of these pages has in common
An impaired-driving arrest opens two cases, and only one of them is the one people prepare for. The criminal charge is decided by a court on a timetable set by a docket. The license is decided by a state agency on a timetable set by a statute, and that second clock is already running when the first one has not started.
Every state on this site handles that second proceeding differently. Colorado gives seven days and revokes on the seventh. Florida starts the suspension the moment the notice is issued and says in terms that asking for review does not stop it. Georgia wants the request in writing within thirty days with a filing fee attached. California gives ten days and holds the hearing before the suspension begins if the request arrives in time. Arizona gives thirty and suspends on the thirtieth. Texas gives fifteen and suspends on the fortieth.
Not one of them notifies you again.
What to do in the first week, whichever state you are in
The order below is the same everywhere on this site, because the license proceeding is designed the same way everywhere: an agency acts first, a court acts later, and only the first one has a deadline measured in days.
- Find the notice, not the citation. The document that matters is the one headed with words like notice of suspension, order of revocation or temporary permit. It carries the date the clock started, and that date is frequently not the date printed at the top.
- Work out which day is day zero. Most of these statutes run from the day you were served or the day you received the notice, not from the arrest and not from the offense. Colorado and Florida are the tightest: in both, the temporary permit expires on the same day the request is due.
- Send the request in writing, to the agency. Not to the court. No judge starts this for you, and in Georgia the request has to arrive with a filing fee or it does not count.
- Then deal with the criminal case. It is slower, it is the one with the lasting consequence, and it will still be there in a fortnight. The license proceeding will not.
Two things are worth knowing about what the request buys. In most states a timely request stays the suspension until a hearing is held, which can mean months of continued driving. And in every state it puts the arresting officer under oath, on a record, long before any criminal trial — which is why the request goes in even in cases where nobody expects to win the hearing. Florida is the exception on the first point and worth reading separately: the request there does not stay anything.
What is deliberately missing
There are no average costs on these pages, because none were measured. There are no conviction rates, no attorney rankings and no reviews, because we are paid the same whichever attorney a reader speaks to and have no basis for any of them. And there are forty-four states without a page, because their statutes have not been read yet. That list will get shorter by reading, not by estimating.
Common questions
Why does this site not cover all fifty states?
Because it publishes figures read from a primary source and nothing else. Six states' impaired-driving statutes, licensing codes and record-relief provisions have been read and have pages. The rest will follow as their statutes are read, not before. A table with fifty rows and no citations cannot be checked and gives a reader no way of telling which of its rows anybody verified.
Is the license case the same as the criminal case?
No, and the confusion costs people their licenses. Every state on this site runs an administrative proceeding against the driving privilege that begins at the arrest, is decided by a licensing agency rather than a court, and ends by default if nobody asks for a hearing inside a deadline measured in days. The criminal case usually has not started by the time that deadline passes.
Does it matter whether my state calls it DUI or DWI?
Almost never for the consequences. It matters in two situations: where a state runs two separate offenses with two different penalty levels, as Texas and Colorado do, and when you are searching and the wrong term returns another state's law. The DUI vs DWI guide works through which states use which.
Which state on this site has the shortest deadline?
Colorado, at seven days from the notice, and the same seventh day is when the revocation takes effect and the temporary permit expires. Georgia and Arizona are the longest at thirty days, although Georgia charges a filing fee to make the request at all.
Before you go further
- DUI vs DWI — which states use which term and the two states where both exist as separate offenses
- How long a DUI stays on your record — three records, three clocks, and only one of them ends
- Refusing a breathalyzer — what implied consent costs in each of these states
- DUI expungement — where it exists, where it is a set aside, and where the answer is never
Free DUI case review
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Here is what happens after you submit:
- Your answers go to attorneys licensed in the state where you were arrested.
- Up to three of them may contact you using the details you gave.
- You decide who, if anyone, you speak with. You are not committed to any of them.
Submitting this request does not create an attorney–client relationship.