Your Rights and First Steps After a Michigan Drunk-Driving Arrest

Attorney Answer

Nothing you have told me yet shows a problem with the stop — and be wary of anyone who promises you one this early. What matters in the first couple of weeks is protecting your licence and locking down evidence before it disappears.

MCL 257.625 defines Michigan's operating-while-intoxicated offences: operating while under the influence of alcoholic liquor, a controlled substance or other intoxicating substance, or a combination; operating with an alcohol content of 0.08 grams or more under subsection (1)(b); operating with a high bodily alcohol content of 0.17 or more under subsection (1)(c); and operating while visibly impaired. The same statute carries the penalty and enhancement provisions. Which subsection you are charged under drives almost everything that follows, so find that out first.

Understand that you now have two cases, not one. The criminal charge is decided in court. Your driving privileges are handled administratively by the Secretary of State, on a different standard and its own schedule. The two can come out differently on the same traffic stop, and winning one does not resolve the other.

What you can do

1. Do not write out your own account of what happened. Notes you create yourself are not protected by attorney-client privilege, can be seized or subpoenaed, and can be used to impeach you if your testimony later differs. Instead preserve the records that already exist — texts, call logs, emails, receipts, photos and location history — along with the names and contact details of any witnesses, and give your account to your attorney verbally. 2. Read the paperwork you were given and separate the court notice from anything concerning your licence. The licence paper runs on the shorter clock. 3. Find out from the citation which subsection of MCL 257.625 is charged and what any test result was. 4. Have a lawyer request discovery in writing right away — dash and body camera video, the officer's report, and the maintenance, calibration and operator records for any breath instrument. Video in particular is overwritten on a schedule. 5. Say nothing about the facts to anyone but your lawyer, including on social media. 6. Do not drive until you have confirmed what your current licence status actually is.

⏱ Time limits apply. If you were handed any notice about your driving privileges, the window to demand an administrative hearing can be as short as one to two weeks from the date on that notice, and it runs completely separately from your criminal court date — it commonly expires while people are still waiting to be arraigned. The court date on your citation is a separate deadline. Which of these applies to you depends on the paperwork in your hand, so have it read now.