Last reviewed: Checked against the current California code on this date.
This walkthrough runs entirely on your own device. Nothing you tap is saved, stored, or sent anywhere. It is general information about how a first DUI case moves, not legal advice.
This is general information about a first California DUI, not legal advice, and using it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Timing, penalties, and local practice vary by county, and your case may have facts this tool cannot account for. Talk to a California attorney about your situation.
One arrest, two cases
Everything above hangs on one fact that surprises almost everyone. A single DUI arrest opens two separate cases, run by two separate places that never talk to each other.
The DMV case is about your driver’s license and nothing else. The court case is the criminal one, the one with the judge, the fine, the class, and probation. You can win one and lose the other.
The walkthrough shows the order things happen in. The full first DUI guide goes deeper on every stop, including the plea offers and the restricted license. Keep it open in another tab.
The 10-day clock runs from the notice, not the arrest
You have 10 days to ask the DMV for a hearing about your license. Miss the window and the suspension goes forward on schedule.
The 10 days run from the day you receive the notice of suspension, not from the arrest itself (Vehicle Code 13558). In a breath test case those are usually the same day, because the officer hands you the notice at the scene. That form also works as a temporary license, good for 30 days.
Blood cases are the wrinkle. Blood results take time, so the officer may never serve the notice.
When that happens, the DMV mails the notice to the address it has on file. Your 10 days run from when you receive it. A notice that lands 3 weeks after the arrest starts a fresh 10-day window.
Do not lean on the wrinkle. If you are not sure you were served, call DMV Driver Safety within 10 days of the arrest anyway. The call costs nothing and the deadline forgives nothing.
A request made in time freezes the suspension
Ask within the 10 days and the suspension is stayed, meaning put on hold, until your hearing happens. The DMV confirms the hold and issues a temporary license to cover the gap. The form from the scene covers the first 30 days, and the stay covers the wait after that.
Do it even if you have no plan to fight the suspension. The hold alone is worth the phone call.
The stay does not cover every case.
- If you refused the test. A hearing request generally does not put a refusal suspension on hold. Refusals run by harsher rules all the way down, and the full guide has a section on them.
- If the 10 days already passed. You can still ask for a hearing later, but it will not stop the suspension. Without a timely request, the suspension takes effect 30 days after you were served the notice.
The court case moves on its own clock
The criminal side starts with the arraignment, which is the first court date. You enter a plea there. If you cannot afford a lawyer, that is where you ask the judge for one, out loud.
What happens at arraignment walks through that whole morning.
After that come pretrial dates and negotiation. Most first DUIs end in a negotiated plea, not a trial, so the quiet middle stretch is where the outcome actually gets decided. Long silences between court dates are normal, not a bad sign.
If your paperwork shows a court date, show up on that date. Go even if the court’s website shows nothing filed. Charging decisions take a long time everywhere, and longer on lower level cases.
If a date already slipped past you, start with the missed court date guide.
The class: 3 months for most people
A first DUI resolved with probation comes with a licensed DUI program. For most people that means the 3-month program.
It becomes a 9-month program in two situations: a blood alcohol result of 0.20 or higher, or a refusal to take the chemical test (Vehicle Code 23538). Other DUI pages list 0.15. The number in the statute is 0.20.
Two suspensions that overlap instead of stacking
Count the license penalties and it looks like double punishment. The DMV’s own suspension for a first offense at 0.08 or higher runs 4 months. A conviction in court then triggers its own 6-month suspension.
The relief is in the fine print. When both come from the same arrest, they run at the same time, and the total cannot be longer than the bigger of the two. A first offense means 6 months of suspension, not 10.
Whether you can actually drive during those months is a separate question. It mostly runs through the ignition interlock rules (a breath tester wired to your car). Those have their own moving parts, and the full guide covers them.
The 96 hours, honestly
On paper, a first DUI carries a minimum of 96 hours in county jail. At least 48 of those hours must be served in one continuous block (Vehicle Code 23536).
Off paper, it is the softest number in the whole sentence. On a clean first DUI, most people serve nothing past the night they were booked. That is a county call, not a promise.
The fine and the class are the real punishment.
Between those two truths sits county habit. The law lets the court schedule the hours around your work days. Time in a work furlough program (you serve the time but still go to work) or home detention counts toward them too.
Whether a county imposes the hours at all varies courthouse to courthouse. So does what the hours get converted into.
The one piece that does not bend is the 48-hour block. However the rest gets split or converted, the statute still wants 48 of those hours served in a row.
That is the honest limit of a walkthrough like this one. The statutes are statewide. What a county does inside them is habit, and habit is not written down anywhere you can look it up.