If you receive a license suspension for DUI, you face serious penalties if you are caught driving during the suspension period. 75 Pa.C.S.A. Section 1543 deals with Driving Under Suspension ("DUS"). DUI-related DUS cases require a mandatory minium jail sentence of 60 days and a mandatory fine of $500.00, plus court costs. In addition, your license will be suspended for another year. The suspensions and fines are higher if you have alcohol or drugs in your system, even if you are not drunk or high. Repeat offenders get significantly higher penalties as well.

Drivers who are convicted of a DUI-related DUS risk entering the "death spiral" for drivers: a period of license suspension that is so long that they will give up on obeying the law, and they will simply drive without a license, get caught, and go to jail over and over. This is why it is so important to avoid driving for any reason during any DUI suspension.

An issue that sometimes comes up for license suspensions is where an individual has a suspension for a non-DUI issue and for a DUI, the entire suspension will be treated as a DUI suspension, even if PennDOT records show your DUI suspension as "served." Court decisions have determined that, until your license is reinstated, as long as you have any sort of DUI suspension added into a basic license suspension, the entire suspension is subject to the driving under suspension DUI-related penalties.

If you have questions about license suspensions and DUI, you should call attorney Joseph N. Gothie, Esq., at (717) 848-8455 to set up a free, confidential, no-risk consultation to discuss your case.

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