If you're convicted of a Los Angeles DUI charge, the court can punish you with consequences that include fines, jail time, license restrictions, and alcohol education classes. Contact the Los Angeles DUI attorneys at Lieber, Williams & Labin and have them fight to protect your rights in your drunk driving case and keep fines and other repercussions to a minimum.
In California, there are two factors that greatly affect the amount of the fine you'll pay in your Los Angeles DUI case - a state tax called a "penalty enhancement," and whether your drunk driving charge was filed as a misdemeanor or a felony. Both California's penalty enhancements and being convicted of a felony will greatly impact the amount of your fine in your Los Angeles DUI case.
The penalty enhancement attached to your Los Angeles DUI fine increases the amount by nearly threefold. California's penalty enhancement is 171 percent, which means that a $100 fine increases to $271. This penalty enhancement is applied to other California fines, such as traffic infractions, but drunk driving fines are already high, so the total amount is quite high.
Whether the prosecutor opts to charge you with a misdemeanor or a felony after your Los Angeles DUI arrest will also greatly affect the amount of your fine. Most first- and second-time California drunk driving arrests result in misdemeanor charges if there is no accident or injury involved. Fourth-time drunk driving charges and those that involve injury to someone other than the driver are always charged as felonies.
If you're convicted of a misdemeanor Los Angeles DUI charge, you'll have to pay a fine of $390 to $1,000, plus penalty enhancements. If you're convicted of felony DUI and placed on probation, the fine will be $390 to $1,000. If you're not placed on probation, you face a fine of $390 to $5,000.
If you're convicted of reckless driving in connection with your Los Angeles DUI arrest and are placed on probation, the judge has option of not requiring you to pay any fine at all, but can impose a fine of up to $1,000. If you're not placed on probation, you'll pay a fine of $145 to $1,000.
The fines and penalty assessments associated with a Los Angeles DUI conviction can impact you financially for years to come, so it's critical to have a top defense lawyer fighting for your rights. An experienced Los Angeles DUI attorney will aggressively fight your drunk driving charge and seek to minimize or even eliminate fines and other consequences.
