Dallas DWI Lawyer - Articles

10 Ways a DWI Conviction Will Affect Your Life

• By pleading guilty or being found guilty by a jury for a DWI charge you will have a DWI conviction on your record. Because it is a conviction, the law does not allow you to clear the DWI off of your record even after you complete either terms of probation or a jail sentence.
• You will either have to pay probation fees and report to a probation officer each month during the probationary period issued by the court; or you will have to serve a jail sentence.
• You will be required to attend select classes and DWI education programs as part of your sentence. Additionally, depending on the circumstances you may have to have an interlock device installed, complete community service hours, and pay a court fine.
• Your license will be suspended anywhere from 90 days to 2 years depending on the circumstances of your conviction.
• Your insurance will raise double and possibly triple what they were before for a period of at least three years.
• You will have to pay a surcharge to the Texas Department of Public Safety of at least 1,000.00$ per year to maintain the privilege to drive. The fee is 2,000.00$ per year for a breath or blood test result above 16.
• You will have to check "yes" to the common question that appears on job applications asking: Have you ever been convicted of a crime.
• You may have to update your employment file with your employer or school depending on the rules letting the respective parties know about the conviction.
• Police officers will be able to see that you have a DWI conviction by your driver's license number and will be more apt to conduct a subsequent DWI investigation because of that.
• If you are ever charged with DWI again the punishments will potentially be much larger.