DUI While Without a License in Salisbury

If a person is driving without a license in Salisbury and they have contact with a police officer, and if that police officer decides to charge them with a DUI, then the officer can also charge them for driving without a license. This would be a separate traffic charge in addition to the DUI. Under Maryland law, that person is not supposed to be driving a motor vehicle, but that would be its own separate violation of the transportation article and that would be a separate ticket that would be included with the DUI citations.

If an individual finds themselves in this situation, facing two charges, it is critical that they contact a Salisbury DUI lawyer for advice and defense.

Multiple Charges

When an individual is stopped by a police officer in Salisbury and the officer investigating determines that they should be cited for DUI, it is very typical for the officer to also include every potential violation of the transportation article. This way, a person could be charged with a DUI and also receive multiple other additional citations and that would not be at all unusual. When someone goes to court, their attorney can argue every single separate ticket. There potentially is an argument to be made for each citation that was charged, and oftentimes what happens is the defendant may decide to plead to one ticket and all of the other tickets are dismissed.

Aggravating Factors

Driving without a license is not an aggravating factor for a DUI charge, as defined by statute. However, it certainly does make it worse for the defendant, if the defendant charged with both driving under the influence of alcohol and driving without a license. For some judges, driving without a license is one of their pet peeves and it can influence their opinion of the defendant. For some judges, it is not unusual for them to give an additional sentence for driving without a license or make sure that the individual enter with a fine for the driving without a license. Some judges don’t get as bothered by that as others, it just depends on the judge.

Driving on a Suspended License

A lot of the same things still apply if someone is charged with a DUI while driving on a suspended license. It is just an additional citation that the officer can and will write. What it means is that the potential penalties the individual faces are greater for a DUI. For a DUI, the maximum penalty is one year and the judge will give whatever sentence the judge might typically give for the DUI. But then on top of that, the individual can also receive a separate sentence for driving on a suspended license because that is a separate violation and depending on why the license is suspended, it can also carry up to one year in jail and a fine. The individual would be facing more jail time and more fines because they were violating more parts of the transportation article.

Most judges will take a license suspension into consideration and if thire license was suspended because of a DUI and they are then stopped for another DUI, then a judge is going to give them additional time for the driving on a suspended license ticket as well.

Hearing the Cases

These charges are not different cases and every citation that the officer wrote will be heard at the same time on the same trial date. Therefore, when someone gets a court notice and they have been given a trial date, then that trial date applies to every single ticket that the officer issued.