TL;DR
- A DUI/DWI in New Jersey is generally treated as a traffic offense, rather than a criminal offense, but it can still carry serious penalties.
- A DUI/DWI conviction remains on your driving record and cannot be expunged like a criminal conviction.
- A DWI can affect how future offenses are treated for 10 years, particularly if you receive another DWI during that period.
- Consequences can include fines, higher insurance premiums, license restrictions or suspension, ignition interlock requirements, and possible jail time.
- Even though DWI cases are handled in traffic court, an experienced DUI/DWI attorney can help challenge the charges and protect your rights.
After a conviction for driving under the influence (DUI) in New Jersey, you will have a record of your charges in various government sources, such as driving and court records. These records can show up in employment or licensing background checks, potentially jeopardizing your future professional opportunities. But how long does a DUI stay on your record?
In New Jersey, DUI convictions stay on court and driving records permanently.
However, the negative effects of a DUI conviction can lessen over time. Understanding the consequences of a New Jersey DUI on your record can help you pursue legal strategies to respond to an intoxicated driving charge.
Does a DUI Stay on Your Record Forever in New Jersey?
A DUI conviction goes on a person’s driving and municipal court records. However, unlike driving record points, the state currently has no means for a driver to remove a DUI from their records. As a result, any party who retrieves a complete set of a person’s driving and municipal court records will find information about the person’s DUI conviction.
Why Can’t a New Jersey DUI Be Expunged?
Unfortunately, New Jersey does not allow drivers to get a DUI record expunged.
New Jersey allows people convicted of certain crimes to expunge their criminal records after serving their sentences and completing a waiting period. However, New Jersey considers DUI a traffic offense rather than a criminal conviction. N.J.S.A. 2C:52-28 specifically states that the state’s expungement laws do not apply to Title 39 motor vehicle and traffic offenses.
State law currently does not provide a mechanism for a driver to expunge a DUI conviction from their driving or court records. Although a person can expunge a criminal offense related to a DUI, they cannot expunge the record of their DUI conviction.
Allowing DUI expungement would contradict New Jersey’s sentencing laws for DUI convictions, which impose increased penalties for repeated DUI offenses. Keeping DUI convictions on record also furthers the state’s interest in promoting road safety by allowing employers, licensing bodies, or insurers to review a person’s DUI history.
Understanding the Different Records a DUI Can Affect
Because New Jersey does not consider DUIs as criminal charges, a conviction will not create a criminal record for a driver. However, the offense will be documented in:
- The records of the municipal court that presided over the driver’s case
- The defendant’s driving record
Driving and municipal court records can appear during certain background checks for employment or professional licenses. Different employers will look back into an applicant’s records over varying numbers of years. However, jobs that require driving or certain professional licenses will conduct more detailed background checks, which can reveal older DUI convictions.
DUI charges can also affect insurance records. When insurance companies determine policy premiums for drivers, they typically review the past three to five years of a driver’s record. As a result, a DUI conviction can increase auto insurance premiums for several years. Some insurance companies may keep internal notes on a driver’s DUI conviction, which may continue to affect the driver’s premiums for even longer.
How the 10-Year Step-Down Rule Works
DUI convictions in New Jersey stay on records permanently so that police and judges know how many prior DUIs a driver has when charging or sentencing a driver for another impaired driving offense. New Jersey’s DUI laws impose increased penalties for a second or subsequent DUI conviction, even if prior convictions occurred in other states. However, New Jersey also has a 10-year step-down rule when counting prior DUI convictions.
Under this rule, when 10 or more years have passed between a person’s first and second DUI offenses, a court will treat the person’s second offense as a first offense for sentencing purposes. The same rule applies to subsequent DWI convictions.
The rule does not expunge DUI convictions more than 10 years old. Convictions older than 10 years remain visible on driving and court records and may be noted by courts or apply under repeat DUI offender laws in other states.
What Can a DUI Defense Attorney Do to Help?
When you face a DUI charge in New Jersey, an experienced criminal defense attorney can work to minimize the potential consequences by helping you fight to avoid a conviction that causes you to have a DUI on your driving and court records.
The experienced team at the Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall can help you pursue legal challenges to a DUI charge, such as:
- The legality of the stop – A driver might seek to exclude the state’s evidence by challenging the legality of the traffic stop, arguing that the arresting officer did not have reasonable suspicion of intoxicated driving, a traffic violation, or a criminal offense.
- The field sobriety tests – Drivers who submit to field sobriety tests during a DUI stop may challenge the officer’s testimony about the tests by highlighting issues that could have affected test results, like performing the test on uneven or slippery ground or the driver’s medical conditions.
- Post-arrest chemical testing – Drivers might challenge the reliability of breath or blood test results by noting problems that may have affected testing, such as failure to follow proper protocols, use of uncalibrated or contaminated equipment, or failure to maintain the chain of custody for testing samples.
- Evidence of driving – A driver may assert that the state lacks sufficient evidence to prove that they operated a motor vehicle while under the influence.
If you’ve been convicted of DUI, our defense attorneys can explain how the conviction will appear in state records and how it may affect your auto insurance, professional licensing applications, and future employment opportunities.
Call Our New Jersey Criminal Defense Attorneys for Help Today
Dealing with a DUI-related matter in New Jersey? Get the legal advice you need to answer your questions and protect your interests.
At the Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall, our criminal defense lawyers have over 250 years of experience representing New Jersey drivers accused of DWI. That level of knowledge and familiarity with the justice system has enabled us to successfully defend countless DUI charges.*
Here’s how one client described working with us on his DWI case:
“I was thinking the worst when I was charged with DWI. It seemed like there wasn’t much of a chance of keeping my license or getting around the surcharges and other penalties. I called a bunch of lawyers and I quickly picked up on the fact that some guys were really only going to hold my hand and basically plead me guilty. This wasn’t what I heard from Jonathan or his DWI guru Colin. All DWI lawyers are not the same – there is a big difference as I learned.” – Jason
Contact our team today for a free case evaluation to learn more about what happens to a criminal record for DUI in New Jersey.
*Each case is unique, and past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
