When someone is convicted of driving while intoxicated, in almost all cases, their license is revoked.  Depending on how serious the offense is, the license can be revoked for as much as a couple of years.  This no doubt puts a damper on someone’s life.  But if certain circumstances prevent someone from doing necessary daily tasks, there can be a provisional license that someone can ask for, in order to complete these daily tasks.  If the New York DWI lawyer works his magic, they can get the court to grant the offender with a Hardship License, which offers limited driving to the person while the suspension of the license is suspended for driving while intoxicated.

 

New York State permits Criminal Court judges to suspend the driving privileges of people merely accused of driving while intoxicated under a few different circumstances. The most common of these circumstances is when the blood alcohol reading from a test administered during the arrest process is over a certain limit (currently 0.08).  There is not much that can be done that will produce different results, since the law doesn’t take driving under the influence very lightly.

 

If a Criminal Court intends to suspend a driver's license as a result of this rule, there is not much else the DWI attorney can do, but the driver can make the argument that the suspension of the license pending prosecution would be an "extreme hardship".  There are certain circumstances that classify a person for “extreme hardship”, and not all cases allow a person to plea this.  The concept of extreme hardship is defined specifically for New York, in the New York traffic law.  The person should work with a specialist New York defense lawyer to determine if they will qualify. 

 

For the purposes of the New York Vehicle and Traffic Law "extreme hardship" is defined as a number of things, and can constitute extreme hardships. Such examples would include the inability of the person to obtain alternative means of travel to and from work, or to go from home to a place of medical treatment (for the person, or a person in the household). Also, extreme hardship licenses can be granted if the licensee is a student enrolled in an accredited school, college or university and travel to or from such a school, college or university is necessary for the completion of the educational degree or certificate. Believe it or not, this happens to be the most common reason for granting a Hardship license to DWI offenses. 

 

Of course, this requires that the determination with respect to the suspension be made at the conclusion of the DWI case arraignment and that the arraignment can be delayed no more than three days for the purpose of permitting a DWI attorney to gather evidence and obtain counsel to conduct the extreme hardship hearing.

 

While there are no set circumstances that a court judge has to follow, there are general guidelines that most follow in order to make a final judgment.  However, if the license is granted, and then taken advantage of, serious consequences will ensue, and not much leeway will be given at that point, considering what they have done for the DWI offenses in the first place.