duistatelaws.com Colorado gives you seven days. Not seven business days, not seven days from the first court date — seven days from the notice the officer handed you, which is also the day the revocation takes effect and the day your temporary permit expires. It is the tightest license deadline of any state on this site, and it runs while the criminal case has not started.
Key takeaways
- Colorado runs two charges. DUI is the ordinary offense; DWAI is a lesser charge for impairment to the slightest degree, and it has no BAC floor.
- Above 0.05 the statute creates a permissible inference of impairment. That is the band DWAI is usually charged in.
- 7 days is the whole window: permit expiry, revocation date and hearing deadline are the same day.
- A first DUI carries a mandatory minimum of five days, suspendable only on completion of an alcohol and drug program.
- There is no lookback on the misdemeanor ladder, and three priors from any year make the fourth offense a class 4 felony.
- Colorado DUI is a state offense, so a municipal court cannot hear it — it goes to the county court of the county you were in.
to demand a hearing from Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles, counted from the notice you were served. C.R.S. § 42-2-126(6)(a). This proceeding is separate from the criminal charge, it is decided by the DMV rather than by a judge, and nothing about it happens automatically.
The same diagram as a table
| State | Days | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado | 7 | C.R.S. § 42-2-126(6)(a) |
| California | 10 | Cal. Veh. Code § 13558(b) |
| Florida | 10 | Fla. Stat. § 322.2615(1)(b)3. |
| Texas | 15 | Tex. Transp. Code §§ 524.031, 724.041 |
| Arizona | 30 | A.R.S. § 28-1321(G), (H) |
| Georgia | 30 | O.C.G.A. § 40-5-67.1(g)(1) |
DUI, DUI per se, and the charge in between
Most states have one impaired-driving offense and argue about where its edge is. Colorado has drawn a second offense inside that edge and given it a name. Section 42-4-1301 creates DUI, DUI per se at 0.08, and driving while ability impaired — DWAI — which is committed by a person who drives “while impaired by alcohol or by one or more drugs”, with no figure attached to it at all.
The evidentiary ladder in subsection (6) is what makes DWAI operational. At 0.05 or below there is a presumption that the driver was not under the influence and not impaired. Above 0.05 but below 0.08, the statute creates a permissible inference that the ability to drive was impaired. At 0.08 or above, a permissible inference that the driver was under the influence. So the roughly 0.05 to 0.08 band is not a legal no-man's-land in Colorado; it is the band DWAI was drafted for.
DWAI is a real conviction with real consequences and it is not a formality. It is a misdemeanor, it counts as a prior for everything that follows, and three priors of any combination of DUI, DUI per se and DWAI make the next one a class 4 felony. What it does not do on a first offense is revoke the license, because the express consent revocation in section 42-2-126 is keyed to excess BAC or refusal rather than to the conviction.
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The ladder, and the word “consecutive”
Section 42-4-1307 sets the sentences, and the difference between the first offense and the second is not really the length. It is one word. A first DUI carries a mandatory minimum the court may suspend if the person completes an alcohol and drug program. A second carries ten consecutive days during which the person is not eligible for sentence deductions or trusty status, and the court has no discretion to use the sentencing alternatives at all.
The same diagram as a table
| Offense | Confinement | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| DWAI, first | 2 to 180 days | § 42-4-1307(4)(a) |
| DUI, first | 5 days to 1 year | § 42-4-1307(3)(a) |
| Second offense | 10 consecutive days to 1 year | § 42-4-1307(5)(a) |
| Third offense | 60 consecutive days to 1 year | § 42-4-1307(6)(a) |
| Fourth offense | set by the felony sentencing provisions | § 42-4-1301(1)(a) |
| Offense | Level | Confinement | Fine | License | Also required |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DWAI, first | Misdemeanor § 42-4-1307(4)(a) | 2 to 180 days the minimum is suspendable on program completion | $200 to $500 § 42-4-1307(4)(a)(II) | no revocation on the DWAI alone § 42-2-126(3) | 24 to 48 hours of useful public service |
| DUI, first | Misdemeanor § 42-4-1307(3)(a) | 5 days to 1 year 10 days minimum if the test read 0.20 or more | $600 to $1,000 § 42-4-1307(3)(a)(II) | 9 months § 42-2-126(3)(a)(I)(A) | 48 to 96 hours of useful public service |
| Second offense | Misdemeanor § 42-4-1307(5)(a) | 10 consecutive days to 1 year no sentencing alternatives during the mandatory ten days | $600 to $1,500 § 42-4-1307(5)(a)(II) | 1 year § 42-2-126(3)(a)(I)(B) | 2 years probation and a suspended 1-year sentence |
| Third offense | Misdemeanor § 42-4-1307(6)(a) | 60 consecutive days to 1 year work release only, and only if the county runs a program | $600 to $1,500 § 42-4-1307(6)(a)(II) | 2 years § 42-2-126(3)(a)(I)(C) | 2 years probation and a suspended 1-year sentence |
| Fourth offense | Class 4 felony § 42-4-1301(1)(a) | set by the felony sentencing provisions three or more priors from separate criminal episodes, any year | set by the felony sentencing provisions § 42-4-1301(1)(a) | 2 years § 42-2-126(3)(a)(I)(C) | — |
Section 42-4-1307(3)(b) raises the first-offense DUI minimum from five days to ten where the test read 0.20 or more at the time of driving or within two hours after. Subsection (4)(b) does exactly the same to DWAI. Pleading down from DUI to DWAI does not escape the high-reading minimum.
From the second offense the sentence has a second half that is easy to miss. Sections 42-4-1307(5)(a)(IV) and (6)(a)(IV) require at least two years of probation running from the start of the sentence, plus a suspended one-year jail sentence held over the person for the whole of it. The court can impose all or part of that suspended year at any point during the probation if a condition is broken, and time served on it does not reduce the probation term.
Seven days, and everything happens on the seventh
Colorado calls this express consent, and the timing is unlike any other state here. When the officer takes the license, section 42-2-126(5)(c) has them issue a temporary permit “valid for seven days after the date of issuance”. Section 42-2-126(6)(a) then makes the revocation effective seven days after the person received the notice. Permit expiry and revocation are the same day.
The same subsection contains the only lever: if the department receives a written request for a hearing “within that same seven-day period”, and issues a temporary permit, the effective date of the revocation is stayed until a final order issues after the hearing. Seven days is therefore not the deadline to start thinking about it. It is the deadline for a written request to have arrived.
The revocation periods are longer than the criminal sentences suggest. Excess BAC at 0.08 costs nine months for a first violation, a year for a second and two years for a third or subsequent regardless of when the earlier ones happened. Refusal costs one, two and three years on the same ladder. Section 42-2-126(4) keeps the revocation independent of the criminal case: the disposition of the charges, the statute says, “shall not affect any revocation under this section”.
The same diagram as a table
| Step | Criminal case — decided by a court | License case — decided by the state licensing agency |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrest and booking, hour 0 | Notice of suspension served, day 0 |
| 2 | Charge filed by the prosecutor | Deadline to demand a hearing, frequently 7 to 30 days |
| 3 | First court setting, on a date the court picks | Hearing held if the request was filed — the suspension is stayed until the judge rules |
| 4 | One or more pretrial settings | Suspension takes effect automatically with no hearing |
| 5 | Trial, plea or dismissal | — |
| Clock | Weeks to months. No filing deadline runs against the driver. | Counted in days from the notice, and fixed by statute. |
| What happened | First time | With a prior | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excess BAC 0.08 | 9 months | 1 year | C.R.S. § 42-2-126(3)(a)(I) |
| Refused the test | 1 year | 2 years | C.R.S. § 42-2-126(3)(c)(I) |
What Colorado then does, unusually, is sell the time back. Section 42-2-132.5(4)(a)(II) lets a driver aged 21 or over who is facing a first nine-month revocation apply for early reinstatement with an interlock-restricted license at any time — not after a waiting period. A driver revoked for refusal can apply after two months. The price is the device, a minimum restriction period, and proof of financial responsibility held for the longer of three years or the restriction.
No lookback, and a felony with no time limit
Colorado's second and third-offense sentencing provisions contain no time window. Sections 42-4-1307(5) and (6) describe what happens on a second and a third conviction and never say “within” anything. A conviction from 2004 is a prior in 2026.
The felony provision is written the same way and it reaches further. Section 42-4-1301(1)(a) makes DUI a class 4 felony where the violation occurred after three or more prior convictions “arising out of separate and distinct criminal episodes” for DUI, DUI per se or DWAI, or vehicular homicide or vehicular assault under the impaired-driving paragraphs of the criminal code, or any combination. Three DWAI convictions from the 1990s make a 2026 DUI a felony. That is the rule, and it is why Colorado cases turn on the driving history far more often than on the reading.
The interlock-restricted license
Colorado does not order an interlock as a sentence. It restricts the license, which is a different mechanism with a different clock: section 42-2-132.5 requires the driver to hold an interlock-restricted license for a period running from reinstatement, not from conviction.
| Situation | Term | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| After a first nine-month revocation | Early reinstatement available at any time | § 42-2-132.5(4)(a)(II) |
| After reinstatement | At least 1 year interlock-restricted | § 42-2-132.5(1) |
| Multiple convictions or persistent drunk driver | At least 2 years, up to 5 | § 42-2-132.5(1), (3) |
Sealing, and the line that excludes this
Colorado allows conviction records to be sealed under section 24-72-706, and it is a genuinely broad provision. It also carries a list of what it does not apply to, and that list is where DUI cases stop.
Subsection (2)(a)(III) excludes “a conviction for a violation of section 42-4-1301 (1) or (2)”. Subsection (1) is DUI and DWAI; subsection (2) is DUI per se. Both are named. Items (I) and (II) of the same list separately exclude class 1 and class 2 misdemeanor traffic offenses and class A and class B traffic infractions, so the exclusion holds even where a case resolves to something adjacent.
A Colorado DUI conviction is therefore permanent on the criminal record. What can change is the driving record: the revocation ends, the interlock restriction comes off after the monitoring period, and the financial responsibility filing expires. Those are different files with different rules, and running one clock's answer into the other is a common and expensive mistake.
What a Colorado DUI lawyer is actually working with
Seven days, two charges, and a driving history with no expiry date on it. That is the brief.
The seven days is a logistics problem more than a legal one. A written request has to reach the department inside a week of the notice, and everything else — reviewing the video, reading the maintenance records on the instrument, deciding whether there is anything in the stop — happens afterwards. Missing it does not end the criminal case, but it hands over the only proceeding in which the revocation can be examined.
The two-charge structure is the negotiating ground that Colorado has and most states do not. DWAI is a lesser included charge that a prosecutor can accept without dismissing the case, and where the reading sits in the 0.05 to 0.08 band it is the charge the statute was built for. It is not a free outcome: it is a conviction, it is a prior for the felony count, and above 0.20 it carries the same ten-day minimum. But it is a real option, and its availability is why the exact reading and the timing of the test matter more here than the shape of the stop.
Where the case is actually heard
Common questions about Colorado DUI law
How long do I have to request a Colorado DMV hearing?
Seven days. Under C.R.S. section 42-2-126(6)(a) the revocation becomes effective seven days after you receive the notice, and a written request for a hearing received by the department within that same seven-day period stays the revocation until a final order issues. The temporary permit the officer gives you under section 42-2-126(5)(c) is valid for seven days, so it expires on the same day.
What is the difference between DUI and DWAI in Colorado?
DUI is driving under the influence; DWAI is driving while ability impaired, which section 42-4-1301(1)(b) defines without any BAC figure. The evidentiary ladder in subsection (6) makes the practical difference: above 0.05 there is a permissible inference of impairment, and at 0.08 a permissible inference of being under the influence. DWAI carries a lower sentence but it is still a misdemeanor conviction and still a prior.
Does Colorado have a lookback period for DUI?
Not on the misdemeanor ladder. Sections 42-4-1307(5) and (6) set the second and third-offense sentences without any time window. The felony provision in section 42-4-1301(1)(a) is written the same way: three or more prior convictions from separate criminal episodes make the next offense a class 4 felony no matter how old they are.
Can I get a Colorado DUI sealed?
No. Section 24-72-706(2)(a)(III) says the sealing provisions do not apply to a conviction for a violation of section 42-4-1301 (1) or (2), which covers DUI, DUI per se and DWAI by name. Items (I) and (II) of the same list separately exclude class 1 and class 2 misdemeanor traffic offenses and class A and B traffic infractions.
Can I drive during the revocation?
Often, with a device. Section 42-2-132.5(4)(a)(II) allows a driver aged 21 or over facing a first nine-month excess-BAC revocation to apply for early reinstatement with an interlock-restricted license at any time. A driver revoked for refusing the test may apply after two months. Proof of financial responsibility has to be filed and held for the longer of three years or the restriction period.
Will a municipal court hear my Colorado DUI?
No. Section 13-10-104 creates municipal courts to hear violations of the town or city's own ordinances, and a Colorado DUI is a violation of state law. Section 13-6-106(1)(a) gives the county courts concurrent original jurisdiction with the district court over state misdemeanors, so the case goes to the county court for the county where the stop happened.
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More for Colorado
- Denver and City and County of Denver — which court hears the case, and what the first weeks look like on the ground
- How long it stays on your record — the three separate records a single arrest creates
- Expungement, sealing and set aside — which of the three, if any, exists in Colorado
- Refusing the test — what implied consent costs here against what it buys
- SR-22 filing requirements in Colorado — in preparation
- Ignition interlock providers and costs in Colorado — in preparation
Sources
- C.R.S. § 42-4-1301(2)(a) — read in force 2026 — the authoritative text is published by the state at the official portal
- C.R.S. § 42-2-126(6)(a) — read in force 2026 — the authoritative text is published by the state at the official portal
- C.R.S. § 42-1-102(68.5)(a)(IV) — read in force 2026 — the authoritative text is published by the state at the official portal
- C.R.S. § 42-2-132.5(1), (3) — read in force 2026 — the authoritative text is published by the state at the official portal
- C.R.S. § 24-72-706(2)(a)(III) — read in force 2026 — the authoritative text is published by the state at the official portal
- C.R.S. § 13-6-106(1)(a) — read in force 2026 — the authoritative text is published by the state at the official portal
Each entry names the section that carries the figure and the document that was actually opened to read it. Where the two differ, the state’s own publication is linked as well. Statutes change; check the linked text before relying on a number from any website, including this one.