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DUI law in the District of Columbia
The criminal charge and your driving privileges are separate questions. Check both.
DUI law in the District of Columbia 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
- D.C. residents have 10 calendar days to request a hearing; people who live outside D.C. have 15.
- Count from when you are served with the Official Notice of Proposed Revocation. This is the DMV hearing about your license or driving privileges, not your criminal court date.
- DMV says your request must be received within that period. If you mail it, the postmark alone is not enough.
- Check the deadline on your notice and request the hearing promptly. This answer does not establish that you may keep driving while you wait.
- 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
- Ask D.C. DMV for a “show cause” hearing about the proposed revocation. DMV offers online and in-person requests.
- Use the Zendesk link on DMV’s Virtual Hearings page, or visit DMV Adjudication Services. DMV says you may choose a virtual or in-person hearing.
- DMV’s Major Moving Violations page also describes requests by mail to the Driver Improvement Office, PO Box 90120, Washington, DC 20090. The request must arrive within 10 calendar days after service of the notice for D.C. residents, or 15 for nonresidents.
- DMV asks you to present or include your driver license, the Order of Proposed Revocation, court disposition, and other relevant court documents. This licensing hearing is separate from the criminal case; attending court is not a substitute for requesting it.
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
- 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.
- 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 District of Columbia
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.
District of Columbia in detail
8 further District of Columbia 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.