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DUI law in Delaware
The criminal charge and your driving privileges are separate questions. Check both.
DUI law in Delaware concerns both the criminal charge and the right to drive. The applicable licence process depends on the alleged conduct, test result or refusal, and the notice or court order. A criminal court date is not a substitute for checking a separate licence deadline. The cited rules below identify what has been verified for this jurisdiction.
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
- File the written hearing request with the Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles within the 15-day period provided after notice of revocation under 21 Del. C. § 2742.
- This deadline applies to the administrative revocations covered by § 2742(b) and (c). It is tied to the revocation notice, not a general deadline for every driver-license matter.
- Under § 2742(d), if no timely written request is filed, the revocation order becomes effective. A timely hearing request postpones that revocation’s effectiveness until an adverse final hearing decision.
- Suspension under the cited rule
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
- Hearing procedure under the cited rule
- Request a hearing of the Secretary in writing by filing with the Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles. The hearing is before the Secretary or the Secretary’s designee.
- File within the 15-day notice period in § 2742(d). This is the administrative revocation hearing described in § 2742, not a request for a criminal-court trial.
Criminal charge
The criminal case
- Forum
- A criminal court
- Clock
- Check court notices and orders; no case duration is predicted here
- Alcohol-concentration threshold
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
- First-offense penalty rule
- For a first DUI conviction: $500–$1,500 fine, up to 12 months imprisonment, or both. Any imprisonment imposed under this first-offense provision may be suspended.
- This is the DUI offense in § 4177—not the separate drinking-while-driving infraction in § 4177J. Other assessments, license consequences and aggravating circumstances are separate.
- Lookback period
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
Alcohol-concentration thresholds in Delaware
The cited provision controls the threshold’s scope. Underage and commercial rules can concern licensing as well as criminal liability; they are not all the same offense.
- Standard drivers
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
- Operating a commercial motor vehicle
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
- Under-21 rule
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
Delaware in detail
8 further Delaware topics — interlock, hardship licences, drug DUI, felony DUI, underage, commercial drivers, checkpoints and record relief — are part of the approved taxonomy and are not built yet.