Vermont DUI After a Crash and a Refused Breath Test

Attorney Answer

Plead not guilty on the 30th. That is not a claim of innocence — it is what preserves every option while a lawyer looks at the evidence, and it can be changed later. But the more urgent clock is not the court date at all: you have seven days from receiving the license suspension notice to demand a hearing, and if it has already run you may have lost that fight without a word being said in court.

Two separate proceedings came out of that night. The criminal DUI case under 23 V.S.A. § 1201 is the one with the court date. Running alongside it is a civil license suspension under Vermont's implied consent scheme, and it has its own paperwork, its own deadline, and its own hearing.

Under 23 V.S.A. § 1205, within seven days following receipt of the notice of intention to suspend and of suspension, you may request a hearing before the Criminal Division of the Superior Court by mailing or delivering the request form supplied with the notice to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles. Note two mechanical details people get wrong: the request goes to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, not to the court, and the clock runs from your receipt of the notice. Miss that window and the hearing is forfeited and the suspension takes effect.

The test sequence you describe matters. 23 V.S.A. § 1202 establishes Vermont's implied consent chemical test procedure, including the right to consult counsel before deciding whether to take the test and the statutory advisements the officer is required to give. You describe three attempts that did not produce a result and a refusal recorded on the fourth request. Whether the advisements were given, whether you were offered the opportunity to consult a lawyer first, and why the earlier attempts failed are all questions § 1202 puts on the table. That is exactly the kind of detail that gets lost if you plead guilty at arraignment.

There is also a challenge available to how the case started. In State v. Lussier, 171 Vt. 19, 757 A.2d 1017 (2000), the Vermont Supreme Court held that a defendant in a civil suspension proceeding may challenge the reasonableness of the underlying stop under 23 V.S.A. § 1205(h)(1), which permits the court to consider whether the officer had reasonable grounds, and that the exclusionary rule's bar on unlawfully obtained evidence extends to civil suspension proceedings under Chapter I, Article 11 of the Vermont Constitution. Be clear-eyed about what that gives you. It establishes the right to litigate the question, not a guarantee of winning it — in Lussier itself the companion defendant's stop, for a single inoperable taillight, was upheld. In your situation there was no roadside stop at all; you were contacted after the fact, which raises the related question of what grounds the officer had.

On the choice of lawyer: apply for the public defender now rather than at the courthouse door. Vermont's public defender system handles DUI cases routinely and there is an application and an eligibility determination, sometimes with a co-payment. If you do not qualify, a private DUI attorney is the alternative. Either way, having someone before the 30th is worth far more than showing up prepared to explain yourself.

What you can do

1. Find the notice of intention to suspend in the paperwork you were given tonight, and identify the date you received it. 2. Fill out the request-for-hearing form that came with that notice and mail or deliver it to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles within seven days of receipt. Send it certified or hand-deliver it, and keep proof. 3. Apply for a public defender immediately, and say the arraignment is on the 30th. 4. Plead not guilty at arraignment. You can always change it later; you cannot un-plead guilty. 5. 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. 6. Do not discuss the night with the neighbor, your friend, your mother, or anyone on social media. Those people can be witnesses. 7. Do not drive if your license is suspended. A driving-while-suspended charge on top of this is a self-inflicted wound.

⏱ Time limits apply. 23 V.S.A. § 1205 gives you seven days from receipt of the notice of intention to suspend to request a hearing, by delivering the supplied form to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles. That deadline runs independently of your criminal court date, and it depends on when you actually received the notice — check that date today. If it has already passed, tell a lawyer immediately rather than assuming nothing can be done.