DWI Team — Albany DWI Lawyers

Often not. Many employers act only when an employee loses the ability to drive for a driving-dependent job, or is convicted of a felony. Licensed professionals and CDL holders face separate reporting duties. We work to protect your driving privileges and to keep a conviction off your record so your career is not the thing that pays for the arrest.

A first-offense misdemeanor DWI under VTL 1192(2) or 1192(3) carries a maximum of one year in jail, and in practice jail is uncommon on a first offense without aggravating facts such as an injury accident, a very high BAC, or a child in the car. A first conviction does carry a fine, a state surcharge, a license revocation of at least six months, and an ignition interlock requirement.

Yes. A breath result is evidence that has to survive challenge like any other. We examine whether the stop was lawful, whether the twenty-minute observation period was kept, whether the instrument was calibrated and certified within the required window, whether the operator held a current permit, and whether the field sobriety tests were administered to standard. Any of those can keep a result out.

If you took the test and the result was .08 or higher, the court suspends your license at arraignment pending prosecution. If you refused the chemical test, you face a revocation of at least one year on the DMV side, separate from the criminal case. In both situations we can usually apply for a hardship privilege at arraignment and then a pre-conviction conditional license, which is what keeps most people driving to work.

Yes. A refusal triggers a DMV refusal hearing that runs separately from your criminal case, and the hearing is usually scheduled around fifteen days after the arraignment. The administrative law judge decides four questions: whether the stop was lawful, whether there was reasonable cause to believe you were driving while intoxicated, whether you were given the refusal warnings in clear and unequivocal language, and whether you in fact refused. Losing costs you at least a year of driving plus a civil penalty.

DWAI by alcohol under VTL 1192(1) is a traffic infraction and generally applies at a BAC above .05 and below .08. DWI under VTL 1192(2) is a misdemeanor at .08 or higher. The difference matters because a DWAI is not a crime, so it leaves no criminal record. Negotiating a DWI down to a DWAI is one of the most common good outcomes in an Albany County case.

Yes. New York law calls the charge DWI, for Driving While Intoxicated, where many other states say DUI. An Albany DUI lawyer and an Albany DWI lawyer defend the same charge under VTL 1192. New York also has a lesser charge, DWAI, for driving while ability impaired.

Aggravated DWI under VTL 1192(2-a) applies at a BAC of .18 or higher, or where a child aged fifteen or under was in the vehicle under Leandra's Law. It carries a higher fine, a longer revocation of at least one year, and an ignition interlock requirement. A high reading is also the reading most worth attacking, because it depends entirely on one instrument being calibrated, certified and operated correctly.

Pleading guilty at the first appearance accepts every consequence at once: a criminal record, the fine and surcharge, the license revocation, the interlock, and the insurance increase that follows. There is no way to undo it later. Have a DWI lawyer read the discovery first, which in New York has to be turned over on a statutory clock, and then decide.