The criminal case
DUI penalties in California
The offense, qualifying priors and statutory conditions matter—not just an arrest count.
DUI penalties in California depend on the charged offense and its statutory conditions. Prior convictions, their dates, and aggravating factors may change the applicable rule. An arrest count alone does not establish the offense tier, and a minimum sentence is not the complete sentencing range. The cited rules below are not predictions of a particular case’s outcome.
The lookback period
- How far back priors count
- 10 years for the repeat-offense rule in § 23540, measured between qualifying violations that result in convictions.
- This states the specific § 23540 rule, not a guarantee that every older conviction is irrelevant to every DUI sentencing provision.
Penalty rules by offense number
- First offense
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
- Second offense
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
- Third offense
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
Driving privileges, ignition interlock and insurance requirements need separate review under their own rules. A commercial-driving restriction may have different triggers from a restriction on an ordinary licence. No consequence is assumed merely because it appears in this list.
- Ignition interlock, first offense
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
The two legal questions
The criminal charge and driving privileges can involve different proceedings. The notice, order and cited rule identify the applicable process.
Driving privileges
The licence case
- Forum
- The agency or court identified by the applicable licence proceeding
- Clock
- Check the applicable notice or order for the deadline and its starting event
- Deadline to request a hearing
- Request the DMV hearing within 10 days after receiving the suspension or revocation notice to seek a hearing before the order takes effect.
- This is the initial notice-based hearing right—not a renewed-hearing exception measured in years. The notice identifies the applicable order.
- Suspension under the cited rule
- Ordinary APS test-failure suspension: four months without a qualifying prior event in 10 years; one year with a qualifying prior. Separate under-21 rules and restricted-license conditions apply.
- The order generally takes effect 30 days after service. That start date is not the suspension's length.
- Qualifying conviction-and-interlock restricted-license conditions can terminate the four-month or one-year APS period. The under-21 zero-tolerance/refusal provision requires at least one year.
Criminal charge
The criminal case
- Forum
- A criminal court
- Clock
- Check court notices and orders; no case duration is predicted here
- Alcohol-concentration threshold
- 0.08%
- First-offense penalty rule
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.The cited rule may describe a range or a minimum with conditions, not a predicted sentence.