TL;DR

Founding attorney Richard S. Sterger says parents should first read all the paperwork police hand over and act quickly on the DMV side, because there are only 10 days from the date of arrest to request an APS hearing to challenge a license suspension. If your child was cited and released, the arraignment may be a month to three months away, so there is time to find a lawyer. A child held at Juvenile Hall faces a detention hearing within 48 to 72 hours and needs an attorney right away.

• Drivers under 18 go into the juvenile delinquency system. Drivers aged 18 to 20 go into the adult system, but a different set of DUI penalties still applies to them because they are under 21.
• Read every paper police give you. In the adult context this usually includes a bail statement that lists the court appearance date.
• You have 10 days from the date of arrest to request an APS hearing with the DMV. If you miss it, a juvenile faces a one-year suspension whether the reading was over 0.08, between 0.05 and 0.08, or under zero tolerance.
• Sterger says children should know the right to remain silent should not be given up freely. Telling a child to 'tell them everything' is not necessarily good advice.
• After a citation and release, the arraignment is typically a month, six weeks, or even three months out. A detained child faces a detention hearing measured in 48 or 72 hours.
• In California, police can send a juvenile case to community diversion without referring it to the DA. The DA can also decline to file a delinquency petition and refer the child to a community organization instead. Early contact with a lawyer can sometimes make this possible.

How is a juvenile DUI different from an underage DUI?

Richard S. Sterger: One of the areas that I actually find the most fulfillment practicing in is juvenile and young adult, because we have a lot more tools and opportunity to find more rehabilitative forms of dealing with cases. We understand that the stakes are very high. I have five kids myself that range from 27 down to two 12-year-olds that are still in the house. And so I understand the thoughts that parents are going through when they learn that their child's been arrested or the police are calling regarding an arrest. That's probably where I start: as a parent, trying to understand how people are approaching the situation.

When we're dealing specifically with DUI, another important thing to understand is that there's two categories. We're talking about juvenile DUI, and we're talking about underage DUI. And it's important to understand the distinction. You have children that are under 18 that will not be treated as adults in the criminal system. They're going to go into a completely different system, the juvenile system, the delinquency system, versus an 18 to 20 year old, or just less than 21 year old, who is going to go into the adult system. But because they're involved with the DUI situation, they have a different set of penalties that are going to apply even in the adult situation.

Another important thing to understand, and a lot of people don't really get, is that they'll walk away from their DUI arrest with a stack of paper and they don't really pay attention to the paper. They think that these are my release papers, and they're not looking at them. It's important to look at two papers, particularly in the adult context. Usually, you're going to have your bail statement, which is also going to list when your court appearance date is. So that's an important thing to have.

What should parents do first after a teen's DUI arrest?

Richard S. Sterger: The first thing to do: any paperwork that your child is given, or that you're handed from the police department when they hand your child back to you in a juvenile context, make sure that you read all the paperwork.

Number two is understand that the administrative hearing is going to be governed by some very strict deadlines, particularly the request for an APS hearing. If you want to have the opportunity to challenge the suspension of a driver's license, you only have ten days from the date of arrest in order to request that hearing. If you don't request it in the ten days, you're basically just conferring to the DMV the authority to suspend the license. And in a juvenile's context, that means whether it was an actual over 0.08, or it could be a 0.05 but under a 0.08, or it could be the zero tolerance, you're going to be looking at a one-year suspension. So it's important that people act quickly with respect to the administrative hearing with the DMV.

Everybody needs to educate their children that when they come in contact with the police in a situation where there's been an incident, potentially where they've been involved, they know that the right to remain silent isn't something that should be given up freely. The right to counsel, the right to not incriminate yourself, is critically important to creating an equitable justice system.

So many times I find people say things that are then taken out of context later when they're taken in as part of the investigative process. The police are there to protect and serve. They're there to serve as people that can assist you when you need them. But when they're coming out and they're investigating a crime, you really need to be careful about what you say to police. There's nothing wrong with invoking your Fifth Amendment right or your Sixth Amendment. Now when I say that, that applies primarily to people that are over 18 years old. When you're under 18, the police really should not be talking to you without your parents present. In fact, that's what the rule is.

It will happen in certain situations, but that's one to be careful about. I see all too often that even parents will tell their kids, well, you need to tell them everything. And that's not necessarily true. And that's also why grabbing an attorney quickly, or taking advantage of an attorney that'll be made available to you, is an important step to make.

How fast do you need a DUI lawyer after an arrest?

Richard S. Sterger: Let's deal with the two sides. As long as you're prepared to contact the DMV and set up an APS hearing, you can take that off the calendar. That's something you can do. You can do it by phone. And then an attorney can step in and represent you in that. I don't like being somebody that says, oh, you've got to hire us immediately. That's more of the sales pitch than the reality. You're going to have an arraignment. If you've been released on bond, it's not going to be anytime soon. You're going to be out a month. You might even be out six weeks. You could be out three months before you actually end up at your arraignment. So there is time.

A lot of the role that I fill in those early days is informative. Sharing our experience, sharing our expertise, being able to get people back to this place where it's not the obsessive thought and the obsessive googling and the obsessive ChatGPT-ing and Claude-ing to try and understand a system that still may not give them a perfect answer in context of what's going on in their situation. We're there to answer those questions. We're there to hold their hand in the early days because they're usually the toughest days. So there's a benefit to contacting us early. It's not this kind of, if you don't have me today, you're in a lot of trouble.

Now I'm saying this in the context of a DUI that results in a citation, a release, and the person's going to be out on their own recognizance. There's issues if you were involved in an accident and you've been detained. You're being held at Juvenile Hall. You're going to have a detention hearing. That is completely different. You're going to need an attorney right away. If your child has been detained, you need an attorney because that detention hearing is going to come up in a matter of hours, not a matter of weeks.

They measure it in terms of 48 hours, 72 hours. We're talking days, but it's not going to be weeks. And you have to be prepared to address that situation immediately.

Can a juvenile DUI be diverted before charges are filed?

Richard S. Sterger: Additionally, a reason to contact [us] in the juvenile context is that a lot of times, we can deal with the DA or with the police, if we're brought in quickly enough, so that the diversion can happen in advance. I'm not going to say that this is something that happens on a regular basis, but it can, where we step in and get a case diverted. In California, particularly for juveniles, the police have the option to do community diversion without ever referring to the DA for charges to be filed. The DA's office can decide not to charge or issue a delinquency petition in the case and instead refer out to a community organization and a plan that would be a diversionary outcome. So there are reasons that you could contact me very quickly in a juvenile setting, that we may be able to rush in and try and get an outcome very quickly.

That's typically going to be dictated a lot by where the BAC is. The reality is I see very few cases sub 0.08. When those cases come in, you're probably talking about the party situation where the stop is being made because of something that they were called to, or a DUI checkpoint, and you have to be a juvenile driving through it. The conduct that usually results in you being pulled over is usually highly correlative to being over a 0.08.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do we have to request a DMV hearing after an underage DUI arrest?

Richard S. Sterger says you have 10 days from the date of arrest to request an APS hearing to challenge the license suspension. If you miss that window, a juvenile is looking at a one-year suspension. This applies whether the reading was over 0.08, between 0.05 and 0.08, or under zero tolerance.

Does a teen under 18 arrested for DUI go to adult court?

According to Sterger, children under 18 go into the juvenile delinquency system rather than the adult criminal system. Drivers aged 18 to 20 go into the adult system. Even there, a different set of DUI penalties applies to them because they are under 21.

Do I need to hire a DUI lawyer the same day my child is arrested?

If your child was cited and released, Sterger says there is time. The arraignment may be a month, six weeks, or even three months away, and you can request the APS hearing yourself by phone. If your child is being held at Juvenile Hall, the detention hearing comes within about 48 to 72 hours, so you need an attorney right away.

Can a juvenile DUI be handled without formal charges?

Sterger explains that in California, police have the option to send a juvenile case to community diversion without referring it to the DA. The DA's office can also decline to file a delinquency petition and refer the child to a community organization. He notes this does not happen on a regular basis, but early contact with a lawyer can sometimes make it possible.

Should I tell my teen to tell the police everything?

Sterger says that is not necessarily true. He says children should know the right to remain silent should not be given up freely, because statements can later be taken out of context. He also says police should not be questioning a child under 18 without parents present.

Edited for length and clarity from a recorded conversation with Richard S. Sterger.