Do You Need a Racine OWI Lawyer?

If you are arrested for an OWI in Wisconsin, you have 10 days to request an administrative hearing to keep your license. Penalties for a first offense typically include fines and license revocation, but no jail time, while subsequent offenses carry mandatory jail sentences.

Arrested for OWI in Southeastern Wisconsin? Call Cafferty, Scheidegger & Johnson, S.C., in Racine, Wisconsin, right away. There are often strategies to help you reduce or dismiss the charges you are facing.

The Governing Wisconsin Statute

Penalty tiers are set out at § 346.65. A first offense is a civil forfeiture of $150 to $300 and the only state in the country that does not criminalize a standard first OWI. A second offense within a 10-year window becomes a criminal misdemeanor with mandatory minimum jail. A fourth offense is a Class H felony with real prison exposure. Aggravating circumstances need careful review because the rules differ by tier: a minor passenger can create 2nd-offense-level penalties on a first offense, and BAC-based fine enhancements apply at the 3rd through 5th offense levels.

Probable cause for the stop, proper administration of field sobriety testing, and the calibration history of the breath-test instrument are contested points in nearly every OWI case. An experienced defense attorney examines every step.