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DUI law in Louisiana
The criminal charge and your driving privileges are separate questions. Check both.
DUI law in Louisiana 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
- For an administrative hearing under R.S. 32:667–668 after a DWI arrest, the written request to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections must be made within 30 days from the date of arrest.
- The period runs from arrest, not from a later court appearance or the arrival of delayed chemical-test results.
- A person unable to request a hearing within 30 days because of incarceration, hospitalization or another cause acceptable to the department may submit documentation establishing that inability. A request under that exception must be submitted no later than 90 days from arrest; this is not an automatic 90-day extension.
- 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
- Make a written request to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections for an administrative license hearing under R.S. 32:667–668. The temporary license receipt, or a separate form issued to the arrested person, provides a way to request it.
- The ordinary request period is 30 days from arrest. The documented-inability exception in R.S. 32:667(A)(2)(b) has a 90-day outer limit and is not an automatic extension.
- Upon receiving a hearing request, the department issues a document extending the temporary license through completion of the administrative proceedings and forwards the record to the Division of Administrative Law for a hearing.
- This administrative license hearing is distinct from the criminal DWI case.
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 Louisiana
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
- 0.02% or more for an operator under 21.
- If the underage operator instead violates the general BAC provision in R.S. 14:98(A)(1)(b), subsection B directs charging under that provision.
Louisiana in detail
8 further Louisiana 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.