Available 24/7 and Obligation Free
Available 24/7 and Obligation Free
Available 24/7
Available 24/7
From the night of the arrest, two things are at stake at once: your driving privileges and a criminal charge. Our Syracuse DWI lawyers handle both, from arraignment in Syracuse City Court or a town court to the last date on the calendar.
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Talk To The DWI Team — 24/7(315) 200-1086Serving Syracuse and every town in Onondaga County, from Clay and Cicero to Camillus, DeWitt and Manlius.
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The DWI Team was founded in Syracuse, and Onondaga County's courts are the ones we know best. Every file starts with the arrest report, the breath test paperwork and any video, checked line by line.
*Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Any result at .08 or above usually means a suspension at arraignment, morning or evening. The hardship privilege request is prepared before we walk in, so it can be made on the spot.
Onondaga County's DWI Bureau weighs plea offers with an alcohol evaluation in front of it. We line that evaluation up early, so the request for a reduction goes in complete.
When the reason for the stop, the field sobriety tests or the breath instrument's records fall short, we challenge them at a suppression hearing.
Syracuse City Court, Onondaga County Court and the District Attorney's office all work out of the Criminal Courthouse at 505 South State Street. The town courts keep their own schedules, and we prepare for the one on your ticket.
Even a first DWI in Syracuse is a misdemeanor, and a conviction can come up in job applications, professional license renewals and insurance quotes for years. Arrests inside the city go to Syracuse City Court, and arrests anywhere else in the county go to the town or village court where the stop happened.
Our Syracuse DWI attorneys take DWI cases only and bring more than 30 years of combined DWI defense experience. The DWI Team began here in Syracuse in 2018, when attorney Dennis J. Nave and Sean Kelsey, the firm's Chief Executive Officer, set it up as the DWI practice of Nave Law Firm, and the office is on Walton Street downtown. We work with the calibration and maintenance records for the breath instruments that Syracuse Police, the county Sheriff and State Police troopers rely on.
Your arrest is the first page of the file, and we read every page after it.
Thousands of New Yorkers charged with DWI have hired us, and the review never changes: the reason for the stop, the twenty-minute observation, the instrument's records and every page of paperwork.
"We will be there for you during, and after, your arrest."
The case against you started at the roadside. Some Syracuse arrests are arraigned the same evening at the county's centralized arraignment court, and others leave with a ticket for a later date in City Court or a town court. Either way, that first appearance is where your license can be suspended.
Before You Talk To Anyone
Anything you told the officer has likely been written down already. Keep the rest of that night to yourself, at the courthouse and online, until a lawyer has heard it.
A .08 or higher breath result leads to a suspension pending prosecution, imposed at arraignment in the evening court or in Part 4 the next morning. Asking for a hardship privilege right then is how most clients keep getting to work.
Most of Onondaga County drives to work, so a suspension reaches your paycheck quickly. People in licensed jobs, from nursing and teaching to commercial driving, may also owe their board a report, and the defense plan accounts for it.
Morning arraignments in City Court are handled by the District Attorney's Municipal Courts Bureau, and the DWI Bureau prosecutes alcohol and driving cases after that. How that bureau weighs an offer shapes how we prepare yours.
What you do this week shapes what the DA sees when your case comes up for an offer.
Whether you call it a DUI or a DWI, every charge below comes from New York Vehicle and Traffic Law section 1192, and in Onondaga County the District Attorney's DWI Bureau prosecutes them.
Charged at .08 or higher, and a misdemeanor the first time. A conviction under VTL 1193 brings fines from $500 to $1,000, the state surcharge, a revocation of at least six months and an interlock. Standard DWI offenses →
Charged at .18 or higher, with fines between $1,000 and $2,500, at least a one-year revocation and an interlock. Under Leandra's Law, a passenger aged fifteen or under makes it a felony. Aggravated DWI →
A traffic infraction at a reading above .05 and below .08, with no criminal record attached. It is also the lowest charge a DWI can usually be pleaded down to under state law. DWAI →
Saying no to the chemical test starts a separate DMV proceeding under VTL 1194. If the refusal is upheld you lose your license for at least a year and pay a $500 civil penalty, and the refusal can be raised at trial. Chemical test refusal →
Repeat DWIs within ten years, children in the vehicle and crashes with serious injuries are felony cases, and they leave City Court or the town court for Onondaga County Court. Felony DWI →
A required interlock that gets bypassed, tampered with or left off a car you drive is its own charge, separate from the DWI. Interlock offenses →
Suspension begins at arraignment for readings of .08 or more, revocation follows a conviction, and a refusal brings its own year-long DMV revocation.
Court fines plus the mandatory surcharge, $750 to the DMV over three years as a driver responsibility assessment, the cost of installing and monitoring an interlock, and insurance that stays expensive for years.
A conviction goes on your criminal history, where background checks and licensing boards can find it, and the court can require the DMV's Impaired Driver Program, a series of classroom sessions you attend in person.
Syracuse City Court, Onondaga County Court and the District Attorney's office share one building, and the town courts around them each run their own way. Defending DWI cases here means knowing both.
Arrests inside the city go to Syracuse City Court at the James C. Tormey III Criminal Courthouse, 505 South State Street. The court has eight parts with judges rotating every two weeks, morning arraignments are heard in Part 4, and evening arraignments go to the county's centralized arraignment court, which sits every day of the year.
Onondaga County has about 26 town and village courts, from Clay and Salina to DeWitt, Camillus and Manlius, and assistant DAs attend them for hearings and trials. Felonies are transferred to Onondaga County Court in the same South State Street courthouse. For arrests in neighboring Oneida County see our Utica and Rome DWI page, and for Jefferson County our Watertown DWI lawyers.
Syracuse Police make most arrests inside the city. Outside it, the Onondaga County Sheriff's Office, New York State Police Troop D and town departments in DeWitt, Manlius, Camillus, Cicero and Geddes make DWI arrests, and Troop T patrols the Thruway. A Thruway stop goes to the town court for the stretch of road where it happened.
We start with the ticket, the stop and the test result. Before your first court date we have picked out the parts of the case worth pressing.
New York's discovery statute puts the DA on a deadline to share its evidence. From it we pull the breath instrument's calibration history, body and dash camera footage where it exists, and the officer's notes, and we move to suppress anything gathered unlawfully.
We put together what the DWI Bureau needs to consider an offer, the evaluation included, and push for a dismissal or a reduction. If the offer is not good enough, we try the case.
DWI is the only kind of case we take: first offenses, repeat charges, CDL drivers, and drivers licensed in another state, college students among them. Doing one thing all day is how we notice what a general practice misses.
Syracuse is where the firm started, and we track how City Court, the town courts and the DA's DWI Bureau have handled past cases when we plan yours.
Every Syracuse file is worked by attorneys, paralegals and advocates together, so no single reading of the evidence decides your defense.
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From 300+ Google reviews
*Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
View Our Google Profile Results from four DWI cases we handled in New York.
Stop thrown out, license back the same day
A trooper approached a client parked at a Thruway rest stop after a 911 call about erratic driving made nearly 30 miles away. He was arrested on a .10 breath test. We rejected a DWAI offer and argued the trooper had no legal basis for the stop. The judge agreed, dismissed the case, and his license was restored that day.
Asleep in a parked car, case dismissed
A CDL driver with a .12 reading was charged with DWI while sleeping in his parked car with the engine on for heat, planning to walk home in the morning. Witness letters showed the car never moved. The prosecutor agreed to an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal.
Head-on crash, no license loss
A client turned the wrong way onto a one-way street and was in a head-on collision with no injuries. He blew a .05 and was still charged with two counts of DWI. We challenged the charges and showed the insurance had been paid, and the prosecution offered a three-point traffic ticket. He never lost his license.
Security clearance protected
A military veteran drove into a ditch, walked home, and told police where to find him when they called. He was charged with two counts of DWI on a .09 reading. The ADA agreed to non-alcohol traffic tickets, so he avoided an alcohol conviction and kept serving.
*Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Attorney advertising.
What people ask us most after an arrest in Syracuse or anywhere in Onondaga County.
Syracuse City Court sits in the James C. Tormey III Criminal Courthouse, 505 South State Street, Syracuse, NY 13202, and its criminal division's number is (315) 671-2760. Morning arraignments are held in Part 4, and arraignments in the evening go to the county's centralized arraignment court, which sits every day of the year. An arrest outside the city is arraigned in that town or village court.
Prosecution is handled by the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office, on the fourth floor of the same courthouse at 505 South State Street. Its Municipal Courts Bureau covers City Court arraignments, and its DWI Bureau prosecutes alcohol and driving cases across the county, every vehicular fatality included.
Defense lawyers submit DWI cases to the DA's DWI Bureau through its pretrial negotiation process, with an alcohol evaluation from an OASAS-approved provider, any treatment reports, and proof that damages were paid if there was a crash. State law narrows the options for DWI plea bargaining too: VTL 1192(10) generally requires a guilty plea on a DWI charge to be at least DWAI, with an exception only when the DA finds the evidence will not support an alcohol charge.
Often, with the right paperwork. A test result of .08 or above means a suspension pending prosecution at arraignment, whether that is the evening court, Part 4 or a town court. A hardship privilege can be requested at that hearing, and many drivers qualify for a pre-conviction conditional license after it, which covers trips to work, school and medical appointments.
The law stays the same and the courtroom changes. Onondaga County has about 26 town and village courts, each with its own judges and schedule, and assistant DAs come to them for hearings and trials. A felony charge moves to Onondaga County Court wherever it started.
Most often when the driver has a DWI conviction from the previous ten years, which makes the new charge a class E felony. Leandra's Law makes it a felony when a passenger is fifteen or younger. Felony cases move to Onondaga County Court in the Criminal Courthouse on South State Street, where state prison is a possible sentence.
Some do. Cases fall apart when the stop had no legal basis, when the breath test was given out of procedure, or when the car was never actually driven, and our case results include all three. Many more end in a reduction.
For most people, yes. A first-offense DWI is still a misdemeanor, and a conviction leaves a criminal record along with a fine, a revocation and an interlock. The first appearance decides whether you keep driving, and the evaluation the DWI Bureau asks for takes time to arrange, so a lawyer helps most early.
You can, and refusing the chemical test brings its own penalties. You face a DMV refusal hearing, a revocation of at least a year if you lose it, and a $500 civil penalty, and the prosecutor can tell a jury you refused. The DWI charge goes ahead on the officer's observations.
Pricing is set at the free consultation, based on the charge and the court. Before you retain anyone, our Best Price Promise lets you bring a lower quote from another DWI-focused attorney for the same services, and we will match or beat it or give you a $50 gift card.
It is. Most states use DUI, and that is the word most people type into a search, while New York's Vehicle and Traffic Law calls the offense DWI. A Syracuse DUI attorney and a Syracuse DWI lawyer defend the same charge under VTL 1192, and at the DWI Team they are the same people.
Usually, yes. New York shares conviction information with other states through the Driver License Compact, and your home state then applies its own rules to the New York conviction.
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(315) 200-1086Shopping for a Syracuse DWI lawyer? Ask each one how they would handle your stop, your test result and the DMV hearing. Then ask us.
