DUI Defense in Utah County

A DUI charge in Utah moves fast, and it moves on two tracks at once: the criminal case in court, and a separate administrative license action through the Driver License Division. Missing a step on either side can cost you months of driving privileges even before the criminal case is resolved. Most of the DUI arrests Dallin sees in Utah County start the same way — a traffic stop in Lehi, American Fork, Orem, or Provo that turns into field sobriety tests and a breath or blood draw — and most of them have more room to fight than the arresting officer's report suggests.

What Utah's DUI law actually says

Utah Code § 41-6a-502 makes it illegal to drive, or be in actual physical control of a vehicle, if you have a blood or breath alcohol concentration of 0.05 or greater — the lowest per se limit in the country. You can also be charged even below 0.05 if the state believes alcohol, drugs, or a combination of the two left you unable to safely operate the vehicle. A related statute, § 41-6a-517, covers driving with any measurable amount of a controlled substance in your body, regardless of whether it actually impaired you — a charge that catches people who test positive for something they took days earlier and had no idea would show up.

How a DUI is classified in Utah

A first or second DUI is typically a class B misdemeanor, which can carry a class A misdemeanor exposure if the BAC was 0.16 or higher, if a passenger under 16 was in the vehicle, or under a handful of other aggravating circumstances. A DUI becomes a third-degree felony if the driver caused serious bodily injury to someone else, has two or more prior DUI convictions within the past 10 years, or has a prior felony DUI or automobile homicide conviction. Utah law also treats DUI as a strict liability offense — meaning intent generally isn't an element the state has to prove — which is exactly why the fight in most DUI cases happens over how the evidence was gathered, not over what the driver meant to do.

What a conviction actually costs you

Beyond fines and possible jail time, a first DUI conviction triggers a 120-day license suspension through the Driver License Division — a civil action that runs separately from the criminal case. A BAC of 0.16 or above typically requires the court to order an ignition interlock device as a condition of probation. Repeat offenses within 10 years bring license revocation of up to two years and escalating mandatory jail terms. None of this happens automatically the moment you're arrested — it happens if and when the case ends in a conviction, which is exactly the point where good representation matters most.

A note on plea in abeyance

Utah's plea-in-abeyance program lets some charges be dismissed after a period of compliance — but the legislature specifically carved DUI out of it. A guilty or no contest plea to a DUI charge cannot be held in abeyance under Utah law. That doesn't mean there's no room to negotiate; in the right case, a class B misdemeanor DUI can sometimes be entered as a conviction for impaired driving instead, under a separate statute, which carries a one-degree reduction. Whether that's realistic depends heavily on the specific facts, so it's worth an honest conversation before assuming either outcome.

Common defenses

Every DUI case turns on a specific sequence of events, and each link in that chain is a potential point of challenge: whether the initial stop was legally justified, whether field sobriety tests were administered and scored correctly, whether the breath test machine was properly calibrated and maintained, whether the chain of custody on a blood draw was intact, and whether the officer's report actually supports the conclusions it draws. Because Dallin spent years on the prosecution side of these cases, he knows which of those links are usually solid and which ones are usually the weakest — and where it's worth spending the fight.

How to get in touch

If you're facing a DUI charge in Utah County, call (435) 294-6806 or email Assistant@LittlefieldLegal.com to schedule a free 30-minute consultation with Dallin directly.