 Hi, I'm David Cantor with the Law Offices of David Michael Cantor and today I'm going to talk about misdemeanor DUI statute of limitations. Now a lot of times people ask us how long do they have to charge me with a DUI if I was pulled over. Well on a misdemeanor they have one full year to charge a person. Now where it gets tricky is if they charge somebody and then we get the case dismissed let's say for a discovery violation. What does that mean? They don't have blood results yet or they haven't given us the police report and it gets dismissed it can be refiled. Now they have a choice. They can either refile it up until the full one year from the date of violation or six months after it was dismissed whichever is longer. So for example on January 1 if you got a DUI they dismissed it in March they'd have all the way till January. If you got the DUI in January 1 and they dismissed it in September 1 they would have up until March of the following year to charge you with that DUI. So you should contact a lawyer who knows what they're doing if you're going to find out whether you can be properly charged or not or whether a statute of limitations has run. Now in blood cases this is where it gets tricky. A lot of jurisdictions will draw your blood and then they'll release you without actually giving you a ticket and they'll say well once we get your results then we're going to charge you. Well where it gets tricky is a lot of people move and they'll send a summons to the last known address and they won't forward that summons. So if you live in an apartment and then you've moved it's possible there's a warrant out for your arrest. And that can be problematic. Now sometimes we've seen where they charged after the last day had run and they don't bother telling you this. You have to hire an attorney who knows what they're doing so they can spot that and get the case thrown out for a statute violation. DMV issues. Here's another problem. The DMV hearing is completely separate from the criminal hearing. So a lot of times they draw your blood they'd send you on your way and then you get something in the mail called the corrective action notice that says we are going to suspend you for 90 days. And you're like well wait a second I wasn't even charged with the DUI. That's because your DMV is completely separate from the criminal court case. Bottom line is if you're stopped for a DUI whether they give you paperwork or not come on in and see us right away. You can call us and we'll set up an appointment at no cost to you for your initial consultation or you can go to our website 24 hours a day and send a contact form and we'll get back to you right away.