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DUI law in South Carolina
The criminal charge and your driving privileges are separate questions. Check both.
DUI law in South Carolina 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
- Within 30 days of issuance of the suspension notice.
- This is the administrative suspension procedure under § 56-5-2951. Its hearing-request period runs from issuance of the suspension notice, not from a criminal court date.
- A hearing request is separate from obtaining a temporary alcohol license or enrolling in the Ignition Interlock Device Program. The request alone is not a temporary driving license.
- Without a timely hearing request, the hearing right is waived and the suspension continues.
- 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 contested case hearing before the South Carolina Office of Motor Vehicle Hearings under its rules of procedure.
- This is the administrative suspension procedure under § 56-5-2951. Its hearing-request period runs from issuance of the suspension notice, not from a criminal court date.
- A hearing request is separate from obtaining a temporary alcohol license or enrolling in the Ignition Interlock Device Program. The request alone is not a temporary driving license.
- Without a timely hearing request, the hearing right is waived and the suspension continues.
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 South Carolina
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.
South Carolina in detail
8 further South Carolina 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.