Comprehensive Arizona DUI Information
Arizona DUI Law
The law of impaired driving in Arizona is codified in Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 28. Title 13, which governs criminal law also applies, as do the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Rules of Evidence. Add to that the Ethical Rules, the Rules of Judicial Conduct, the Arizona Administrative Code and State and Federal Caselaw, and you can see that the law that governs DUIs in Arizona contains literally hundreds of thousands of pages of text.
The DUI statutes, which are cited in your citation (ARS 28-1381, 1382, 1382) are just the beginning. Judge made case law interprets these statutes, and gives meaning to them. The practice of DUI law is so vast and complex that it is rivaled only by DNA and death penalty litigation in its complexity. Yet DUI cases in Arizona are treated in a fast-food triage manner.
If you (or your representative) don't know the DUI law, there is NO time to become competent and educated in its nuances within the time frame that your case will unfold. Nevertheless, this section of this website provides you with the basic tools so that you will better understand the language used by your attorney, the prosecutor and the court as your case progresses.
We have broken this down into four sections, each focusing on a different area of Arizona DUI law:
- Caselaw: This section contains but a sampling of cases. Don't make the mistake of going to the Superior Court's website and reading and relying on lower court of appeals opinions. These opinions are one Judge's interpretation of the law, and are not binding on other Judges. Only opinions from the Court of Appeals and higher are binding on Judges, except on a case by case basis due to a special action or appeal.
- Process: Criminal procedure applies to your DUI case, and the rules of Criminal Procedure must be followed.
- Statutes: This section contains the skeleton of Arizona DUI law. The Statutes are the best place to start when trying to understand how the law works.
- Penalties: Although penalties in DUI cases are guided by statute, we provide this section as an easy reference because the most frequent question we get in our practice is what kind of penalties am I facing.