A Lake Tahoe DUI attorney defends drivers arrested at Incline Village and Crystal Bay. A first offense in Nevada carries a driver’s license revocation of at least 185 days, an ignition interlock requirement, and higher insurance costs for years afterwards. Richard P. Davies, Esq. has defended clients across Northern Nevada for more than 20 years and can explain what your case is likely to involve.
Do I have to deal with the DMV as well as the court?
Usually, but not in every case. The Nevada DMV describes two separate types of penalty after a DUI arrest, one administrative and taken by the DMV regardless of what the court finds, the other criminal and taken by the court system.
Under NRS 484C.220, the administrative side is triggered by the test rather than by the arrest. An officer serves an order of revocation on a driver who refused testing, or whose test shows a concentration of alcohol of 0.08 or more, or who has a detectable amount of a controlled or prohibited substance. A criminal case can go ahead without that order ever being served.
Where both exist, they run on different schedules and answer different questions. The court decides whether you are guilty of the offense. The DMV decides whether you keep the privilege of driving.
The Nevada DMV states that reinstatement is not automatic even if criminal charges were reduced or dismissed. A good result in the courtroom at Incline Village does not hand your license back.
What happens to my license if I live in another state?
Nevada cannot take a license it did not issue. What it can revoke is your privilege to drive in Nevada.
Where the license is seized at the roadside, NRS 484C.220 allows a temporary license effective for only seven days including the day it is issued. That is the window in which the administrative side of a case is either contested or lost by default.
For someone who has already driven home to Sacramento or the Bay Area, that can be gone before the weekend is over. It is the most time-sensitive part of a Nevada DUI.
When the evidentiary test is a blood draw rather than a breath test, the sequence changes. The statute contemplates an officer who later receives a test result for a driver who is no longer present, and the paperwork follows once the laboratory reports back. You can drive home believing the license question resolved itself, then have the notice reach your home address weeks later.
Will my home state find out about a Nevada DUI?
Yes. The Nevada DMV reports DUIs and other traffic offenses to other state DMVs for ten years, and keeps the record of a DUI arrest and license revocation on your Nevada record for life.
What your own state does with that report depends on its law rather than Nevada’s. Other states have their own rules for out-of-state impaired driving convictions. That question belongs to a lawyer licensed where you live, and it is worth asking early rather than assuming nothing will happen.
To talk through where your case stands on both sides, call Richard P. Davies, Esq. at (775) 360-6894 for a free consultation.
Can I ignore a Nevada case if I live somewhere else?
No, and the consequence reaches well past Nevada. The Nevada DMV states that a revocation which is not reinstated remains on your record indefinitely, and that you will not be able to obtain a driver’s license in any other state. All 51 US licensing jurisdictions share this information through the National Driver Register, and there is no statute of limitations on it.
That is a block on getting licensed anywhere, not just a ban on driving in Nevada. It can sit unnoticed for years and surface at a renewal counter in the state where you actually live.
What happens if I drive in Nevada after the revocation?
You face a mandatory jail sentence. Driving in Nevada during a revocation carries a minimum of thirty days in jail or sixty days of residential confinement, and judges are barred from granting probation or a suspended sentence for it. An automatic additional year is added to the revocation period, running consecutively after the existing one ends.
A revoked Nevada privilege is easy to forget when you live somewhere else and your own license is still sitting in your wallet. Returning for a ski weekend before the earlier case is resolved is how that oversight turns into a new charge. An ignition interlock restricted license is the one exception the Nevada DMV allows.
How do I clear a Nevada revocation if I live somewhere else?
Usually by mail. The Nevada DMV assigns Nevada suspensions and revocations to a case worker in its Driver License Review Section, and says that in many cases a clearance letter can be sent to you. You can pay to clear your record and request the letter by mail or fax.
Clearing is not the same as reinstating, and the DMV is direct about the difference. A clearance letter clears your status in Nevada so you may become eligible for a license in another state. It does not reinstate your Nevada driver’s license.
Timing on the SR-22 catches people who try to get ahead of the process. The three-year requirement begins on reinstatement, and the DMV warns that a policy taken out beforehand will not count toward it. Any lapse in coverage restarts the three years from zero.
Where does a Lake Tahoe DUI case get heard?
A misdemeanor DUI from Incline Village or Crystal Bay is handled at Incline Justice Court, which can try the case from arraignment through trial without sending it anywhere else. How that court runs, including its limited public hours and its rules on appearing remotely, is covered on our Lake Tahoe criminal defense lawyer page.
Operating a boat while impaired is not a DUI at all. It is charged under NRS 488.410, which reaches motorboats, sailboats and personal watercraft, and it carries its own testing rules and its own penalties. An arrest on the water is a different case from an arrest on the road.
For the statutes, definitions and penalty ranges that apply to any Nevada DUI, our DUI defense page sets those out in full.
Talk With Richard P. Davies Before the Seven Days Run Out
The criminal case will take months. The administrative side will not wait that long, and it is the part people miss because they are focused on the court date printed on the paperwork in their hand.
You should not have to figure out the deadlines on your own. That is what a Lake Tahoe DUI attorney is for. Call Richard P. Davies, Esq. at (775) 360-6894 for a free consultation and get a straight answer about where your case actually stands.