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College students and congressmen alike can find unity in a common trait.  One that stains their driving and criminal record and supposedly hurts their employment prospects.  (Well I guess congressmen needn’t worry about that one).  The first thing racing through many peoples minds when faced with a charge of driving under the influence is:  “Now what?  What’s going to happen?  My parent’s are going go kill me!”.

You don’t have to stress yourselves out.  Yes, your parents will be disappointed.  But in most cases I’ve seen, it’s not the angry wrath that you feel coming from your parent, but disappointment.  It’s going to be very hard to tell your parents what happened.  I find that the best way to minimize the reaction is to send it through a lengthy email.  That will give them time to react to the situation in their head instead of reacting off the cuff over the phone or in person.  They will get their thoughts together before they call you.

As soon as you have told your parents, or your citizens (looking at you congressmen), then you have to face the legal system.  A DUI is looked at very seriously by state governments because of the cases that involve loss of life.  So, you should get an experienced DUI lawyer to assist you.

The most important thing, and I can’t stress this enough, is GET YOUR FINES TAKEN CARE OF!  Also, make sure you attend any classes they recommend, and get community service out of the way as soon as possible.  Procrastination can really hurt you when it’s time for your review and you still have 50 hours of service to the community.

Be prepared to go a long time without a license.  In Iowa, the punishment is 6 months without a license for your first offense.  Obey the law!  The judge will have no sympathy for you if you are caught driving with a suspended license, EVEN IF YOU HAVE FULFILLED EVERYTHING ELSE!  The judge will look at your file, and say.  “Well you’ve completed your service, you’ve paid your fines…looks to me like the only thing is your law violation. “  The judge will see this as an aggravated offense, since you willingly drove without a license.  Judges can be forgiving on initial DUI’s because they can identify and say you weren’t aware you were over the legal limit, however for driving with a suspended license they see that as “I know i’m not supposed to do it, but I’m doing it anyway”.

There, hopefully this helps out anyone in this case with some pointers.