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DUI law in Montana
The criminal charge and your driving privileges are separate questions. Check both.
DUI law in Montana 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 the implied-consent refusal challenge, file a district-court petition within 30 days after the officer gives notice of the right to a hearing.
- File in the county where the arrest occurred. This section does not create an appeal to state court from a tribal-law suspension or revocation.
- 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
- File the petition in the district court for the county of arrest within 30 days after the officer's hearing-rights notice.
- The court may stay the suspension or revocation if the petitioner requests it; filing alone is not an automatic stay.
- The statutory hearing concerns the officer's basis for requesting a test and whether the person refused.
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% or more while driving or in actual physical control of a noncommercial vehicle on a public way.
- 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 Montana
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
- 0.08% or more while driving or in actual physical control of a noncommercial vehicle on a public way.
- Operating a commercial motor vehicle
- 0.04% or more while driving or in actual physical control of a commercial motor vehicle.
- Under-21 rule
- 0.02% or more for a driver under 21.
Montana in detail
8 further Montana 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.