The main reason they do not give you more jail time is economics it is simply too expensive to keep you in jail.
Drunk driving causes a huge number of deaths in the USA.
So the judge believes he is doing you and everyone else a favor by putting you in jail.
The penalties vary a lot from state to state. In California your first offense gets you a couple of days in jail but your third offense gets you from 3 months to a year.
In most states your first offense will not get you much if any jail time but your second offense will. Pennsylvania will give you from 0 days to 6 months of jail time for your first offense and from 5 days to 5 years of jail time on your second offense.
There are so many factors that go into deciding if you will get jail time and of so how much.
In Pennsylvania your blood alcohol is a major deciding factor. So you might want to request a blood test.
Has the judge known someone who died in a drunken driving accident? I know that his is not supposed to effect his decision but let’s be honest judges are people too.
So…
At this point you need to actively do everything you can to stay out of jail. This means you do not bury your head in the sand.
What can you do to avoid DUI jail time?
- Research good Attorneys on the web. Look at their sites.
- Talk to a few attorneys. I don’t care how hopeless your case seems.
- Take their advice.
What can an attorney do for you?
- They can often find errors in the evidence trail and get you case thrown out.
- They can appeal so many times that the prosecutor will plea bargain to get rid of them. Remember prosecutors have a LOT of cases. They don’t have time to continually fight one attorney.