The criminal case
DUI penalties in Maine
The offense, qualifying priors and statutory conditions matter—not just an arrest count.
DUI penalties in Maine 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 ordinary prior-OUI offense tiers; specified prior felony OUI or motor-vehicle criminal-homicide convictions can count regardless of age.
Penalty rules by offense number
- First offense
- No previous OUI within 10 years: minimum $500 fine and 150-day court-ordered license suspension. Refusal increases the minimum fine to $600 and ordinarily requires at least 96 hours in jail.
- At least 48 hours in jail applies when BAC is .15 or higher, speed is at least 30 mph over the limit, the driver eludes an officer, or a passenger is under 21. These are minimums, not the complete sentencing range.
- The refusal enhancement depends on the statutory warnings; operating with a passenger under 21 adds 275 days of suspension.
- 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
- An eligible driver with one OUI offense may obtain reinstatement after serving 30 days, with an approved interlock installed for the remaining suspension period.
- Other reinstatement conditions still apply. This is a conditional early-reinstatement route, not a universal one-year interlock term.
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
- A written request for a hearing to review the Maine Secretary of State’s suspension determination must be made within 10 days from the effective date of the suspension under 29-A M.R.S. §2483.
- The statutory trigger is the suspension’s effective date, not the arrest date. The separate 30-day period in subsection 2 concerns the Secretary’s hearing and decision after receipt of a written request, not the driver’s filing deadline.
- If the Secretary finds that lack of actual notice or physical incapacity prevented a timely request, subsection 3 requires the period to be waived and the hearing granted, but no stay may be granted under that late-request exception.
- Suspension under the cited rule
- Not published yet. We show a figure only once it has been confirmed against the official source and dated.
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
- No previous OUI within 10 years: minimum $500 fine and 150-day court-ordered license suspension. Refusal increases the minimum fine to $600 and ordinarily requires at least 96 hours in jail.
- At least 48 hours in jail applies when BAC is .15 or higher, speed is at least 30 mph over the limit, the driver eludes an officer, or a passenger is under 21. These are minimums, not the complete sentencing range.
- The refusal enhancement depends on the statutory warnings; operating with a passenger under 21 adds 275 days of suspension.