DUI and DWI law by state

Impaired-driving law is written state by state, and the spread is wider than almost anyone expects. The deadline to save your license runs from seven days to thirty, or sixty to petition a court in Minnesota, depending on which side of a state line you were stopped on, and in some states it costs money to ask.

Written from primary sources · Editor-reviewed · Law current as of October 4, 2026

By the duistatelaws.com editorial team · Published September 19, 2026 · Last reviewed October 4, 2026 · 6 min read

How we verify our legal content

Every state runs this clock differently, and none of them waits for a court date. *Virginia and Minnesota: review is by a court, not an agency, and the license is already taken when the clock starts; the figure is the window in which review can be asked for.

The same diagram as a table

Deadline to request a hearing on the administrative license action, by state
State	Days	Authority
Colorado	7	C.R.S. § 42-2-126(6)(d), (7)(b)
Virginia*	7	Va. Code § 46.2-391.2(A), (C)
Washington	7	RCW 46.20.308(7)
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(F), (G)
Georgia	30	O.C.G.A. § 40-5-67.1(g)(1)
South Carolina	30	S.C. Code § 56-5-2951(B)(1)
Minnesota*	60	Minn. Stat. § 169A.53, subd. 2

Every state this site has read, with its deadline

A figure is in this table only if it was read out of that state’s own statute or a linked reproduction of it. Linked rows have a full page.

Impaired-driving limits, license deadlines and prior-offense windows by state
State	Called	Limit	License deadline	Prior-offense window
Texas	DWI	0.08	15 days	no lookback period at all
California	DUI	0.08	10 days	10 years
Georgia	DUI	0.08	30 days	10 years, measured from arrest dates
Florida	DUI	0.08	10 days	5 years for the second, 10 years for the felony third
Colorado	DUI	0.08	7 days	none for the misdemeanor ladder
Arizona	DUI	0.08	30 days	84 months
Washington	DUI	0.08	7 days	7 years for sentencing, 15 years for the felony
Minnesota	DWI	0.08	60 days	10 years for criminal enhancement, 20 years for license revocation
South Carolina	DUI	0.08	30 days	10 years
Virginia	DUI	0.08	7 days	10 years, with a tighter 5-year window

States with a full page

Start with the ZIP where the arrest happened

We will carry it up to the form. Nothing is sent until you press the button.

The thing every one of these pages has in common

An impaired-driving arrest opens two cases, and only one of them is the one people prepare for. The criminal charge is decided by a court on a timetable set by a docket. The license is decided by a state agency on a timetable set by a statute, and that second clock is already running when the first one has not started.

Every state on this site handles that second proceeding differently. Colorado gives seven days and revokes on the seventh. Florida starts the suspension the moment the notice is issued and says in terms that asking for review does not stop it. Georgia wants the request in writing within thirty days with a filing fee attached. California gives ten days and holds the hearing before the suspension begins if the request arrives in time. Arizona gives thirty and suspends on the thirtieth. Texas gives fifteen and suspends on the fortieth. Washington gives seven, charges $375 to ask, and lets the temporary license run for thirty. South Carolina gives thirty days to request a contested case hearing, but suspends only after a refusal or a reading of 0.15 or more. Virginia suspends at the warrant for seven days on a first charge and lets the general district court review it only while it runs. Minnesota revokes at the notice and gives sixty days to petition a district court, without stopping the revocation.

Not one of them notifies you again.

What to do in the first week, whichever state you are in

The order below is the same everywhere on this site, because the license proceeding is designed almost the same way everywhere: an agency acts first, a court acts later, and only the first one has a deadline measured in days. Minnesota and Virginia, where a court does the reviewing, are the exceptions noted below.

Find the notice, not the citation. The document that matters is the one headed with words like notice of suspension, order of revocation or temporary permit. It carries the date the clock started, and that date is frequently not the date printed at the top.
Work out which day is day zero. Most of these statutes run from the day you were served or the day you received the notice, not from the arrest and not from the offense. Colorado and Florida are the tightest: in both, the temporary permit expires on the same day the request is due.
Send the request in writing, to the agency. Not to the court. No judge starts this for you, and in Georgia and Washington the request has to arrive with a fee or it does not count. Minnesota and Virginia are the exceptions: in Minnesota the review is a petition filed with the district court, with the civil filing fee, and in Virginia it is a request to the general district court made while the seven-day suspension is still running.
Then deal with the criminal case. It is slower, it is the one with the lasting consequence, and it will still be there in a fortnight. The license proceeding will not.

Two things are worth knowing about what the request buys. In most states a timely request stays the suspension until a hearing is held, which can mean months of continued driving. And in every state it puts the arresting officer under oath, on a record, long before any criminal trial — which is why the request goes in even in cases where nobody expects to win the hearing. Florida is the exception on the first point and worth reading separately: the request there does not stay anything.

What is deliberately missing

There are no average costs on these pages, because none were measured. There are no conviction rates, no attorney rankings and no reviews, because the only payment we would accept is the same whichever attorney a reader speaks to, and we have no basis for any of them. And there are 40 states without a page, because their statutes have not been read yet. That list will get shorter by reading, not by estimating.

Common questions

Why does this site not cover all fifty states?

Because it publishes figures read from a primary source and nothing else. Each state with a page here has had its impaired-driving statutes, licensing codes and record-relief provisions have been read and have pages. The rest will follow as their statutes are read, not before. A table with fifty rows and no citations cannot be checked and gives a reader no way of telling which of its rows anybody verified.

Is the license case the same as the criminal case?

No, and the confusion costs people their licenses. Every state on this site runs an administrative proceeding against the driving privilege that starts at the arrest (in South Carolina, only after a refusal or a reading of 0.15 or more) and ends by default if nobody acts inside a deadline measured in days. In every state here but Minnesota and Virginia an administrative agency decides it; in those two the license is taken at once and review is by a court. In Minnesota review is a petition to a district court. The criminal case usually has not started by the time that deadline passes.

Does it matter whether my state calls it DUI or DWI?

Almost never for the consequences. It matters in two situations: where a state runs two separate offenses with two different penalty levels, as Texas and Colorado do, and when you are searching and the wrong term returns another state's law. The DUI vs DWI guide works through which states use which.

Which state on this site has the shortest deadline?

Colorado and Washington, both at seven days from the notice. In Colorado the same seventh day is when the revocation takes effect and the temporary permit expires; Washington keeps the temporary license valid for thirty days but wants the written request, with a $375 fee, inside seven. Among the agency hearings, Georgia, Arizona and South Carolina are the longest at thirty days, and Georgia also charges a filing fee. Minnesota allows sixty days, but that is the time to petition a court, and its revocation has already started at the notice. Virginia's seven days are different again: the suspension itself, during which the general district court can be asked to review it.

Before you go further

DUI lawyer: what the charge is called in each state — nine names for one thing, with the statute behind each
DUI vs DWI — which states use which term and the two states where both exist as separate offenses
How long a DUI stays on your record — three records, three clocks, and only one of them ends
Refusing a breathalyzer — what implied consent costs in each of these states
DUI expungement — where it exists, where it is a set aside, and where the answer is never