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Driving-Ticket-300x225If you have received a traffic ticket in Illinois, you may be concerned about how it will affect your driving record and whether it will lead to a suspension of your driver’s license. The Illinois Secretary of State operates a point system to track traffic violations, and accumulating too many points can have serious consequences. As an experienced Illinois criminal defense and traffic attorney, I have helped countless clients navigate the Illinois point system, fight traffic tickets, and protect their driving privileges. Understanding how this system works is crucial if you are facing a traffic violation and want to minimize the impact on your record.

What Is the Illinois Secretary of State Point System?

The Illinois Secretary of State’s point system is a method of assigning demerit points to drivers who are convicted of traffic violations. When you receive a traffic citation and either pay the ticket or are found guilty in court, points are added to your driving record. The number of points assigned depends on the severity of the violation. If you accumulate too many points, your driver’s license may be suspended or revoked.

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Unlawful-Use-of-a-Firearm-300x200Transporting a firearm in Illinois can be a complex process, as the state has specific laws and regulations designed to balance public safety and the rights of gun owners. Understanding these requirements is essential to avoid criminal charges and ensure compliance with Illinois firearm transportation laws. As criminal defense attorneys, we often see individuals facing legal consequences for failing to properly transport their firearms, often due to confusion about the law. This article aims to provide a comprehensive guide on how to legally transport a firearm in Illinois while avoiding common pitfalls.

Understanding Illinois Firearm Transportation Laws

Illinois law governs firearm transportation under the Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) Act and other related statutes. The primary objective of these laws is to ensure that firearms are transported safely and securely to prevent accidental discharge, unauthorized access, or criminal misuse.

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DUI-300x200As an experienced criminal defense attorney in Illinois, I have seen firsthand how the definition of “driving” can significantly impact DUI cases. When facing DUI charges, it is essential to understand what the law considers as “driving” under the state’s statutes. This blog post aims to provide clarity on what constitutes driving for a DUI in Illinois, the legal nuances involved, and how an experienced DUI defense attorney can help protect your rights.

The Legal Definition of “Driving” in Illinois

In Illinois, DUI laws do not limit the offense to merely operating a vehicle on public roads. The legal definition of “driving” is broader and includes several actions that might not be immediately apparent. Under Illinois law, a person can be charged with DUI if they are in control of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. But what exactly does “in control” mean?

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Criminal-Lawyer-300x200I frequently get calls from clients asking me what they should do because the police called asking them to come to the police station to answer some questions. Being asked by the police to come to the station for questioning can be intimidating and confusing. Whether you’re a witness, a person of interest, or potentially a suspect, it’s crucial to handle this situation carefully to protect your rights and avoid unintentionally complicating matters. Here, I will guide you through the essential steps to take if the police request your presence for questioning, so that you are informed and prepared.

1. Stay Calm and Composed

First and foremost, remain calm. A police officer’s request for questioning doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in trouble or under arrest. However, it’s important not to assume your role in their investigation. Keeping a level head allows you to think clearly and respond appropriately.

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Pretrial Fairness Act

Illinois’s new bond law, officially known as the Pretrial Fairness Act, has been a topic of heated debate since its implementation. As a defense attorney who’s seen the law in action, I’m deeply concerned about its unintended consequences. While the intent of the law was to create a fairer pretrial system by eliminating cash bail, the reality has been that it’s resulting in people being incarcerated who otherwise wouldn’t have been. Let’s take a closer look at why this is happening and why we, as defenders of justice, must call for changes.

The Promise of Reform

The Pretrial Fairness Act is part of Illinois’s SAFE-T Act, which aimed to eliminate cash bail and address disparities in the criminal justice system. The goal was laudable: no one should be jailed simply because they can’t afford to pay bail. In theory, the system should evaluate a person’s risk to the community or likelihood of flight, not their bank account.

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DUI-1-300x200In almost every DUI case that I sign up, the client wants to know whether they were right to take a Breathalyzer Test or whether they made the right decision to refuse to take the Breathalyzer Test. It’s so common that I often answer the question before the client asks the question. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to that question. That’s because there can be serious consequences when you decide whether to take the test or refuse to take it. In Illinois, the mere refusal to submit to a Breathalyzer Test carries a mandatory 12 month suspension of your Illinois driver’s license. If you take the Breathalyzer Test, and the result shows that the blood alcohol content was over the legal limit of 0.08 or above, your Illinois driver’s license will be suspended for 6 months. This is known as the Statutory Summary Suspension. These suspensions kick in 46 days after the date of your DUI arrest. If you have had a DUI within 5 years of your current DUI, the suspension of your license for taking a Breathalyzer Test can be 12 months, and a refusal would be a 36 month suspension of your license. Even if you don’t have an Illinois driver’s license, your driving privileges in Illinois will be suspended during the suspensions and this could affect your out-of-state driver’s license as well. This could be important for people who live outside of Illinois with an out-of-state license who need to drive in Illinois for work. Since deciding whether or not to submit to a breathalyzer is not a straight-forward decision, let’s talk about the different factors that should come into play when making this decision.

In most DUI cases, the police officer will request that you take a breathalyzer test. If the officer suspects that you may be under the effects of illegal drugs, the officer may ask you to submit to a blood test or provide a urine sample. A refusal to take a blood test or provide a urine sample will have the same effect as refusing to submit to a breathalyzer test. If the sample is over the legal limit you will be facing a 6 month Statutory Summary Suspension and a refusal will lead to a 1 year suspension of your license.

There’s a difference between the Portable Breath Test (PBT) that the officer will request you perform at the scene, and the Breathalyzer Test which is performed at the police station. The PBT is a small device that the officer has at the scene which will display your blood alcohol level immediately on the device. The results of the PBT are not admissible in Court to prove that your blood alcohol level was over the legal limit. The reason for this is that the PBT is not sufficiently scientifically reliable to be admissible in Court. However, it can be used by the State to show that the officer had Probable Cause to place you under arrest and take you to the station for further investigation. A refusal to submit to a PBT will not lead to a suspension of your license. If the blow into the PBT indicates that your blood alcohol content is over the legal limit, your license will not be suspended. The Statutory Summary Suspension only applies to the Breathalyzer test that is performed at the police station.

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DUI-300x200Being pulled over by a police officer can be a stressful and confusing situation for most motorists. This is especially true If you have consumed alcohol earlier in the day. When the officer approaches your car and starts asking you where you are coming from, and where you are going, and if you have been drinking. Now your mind starts racing and your heart starts beating. Am I getting arrested for a DUI? The officer takes your license and walks back to his vehicle to run your license. The officer returns to your car and asks you to get out of your vehicle and perform some tests to see if you are okay to drive. Let’s talk about what Field Sobriety Tests are and whether you are required to perform them.

What Are Field Sobriety Tests?

The Field Sobriety Tests are the tests administered by a trained officer to asses whether a driver is impaired. If the tests are properly administered by a properly trained officer, they have been scientifically proven to be 90% accurate. The results of a Field Sobriety Test are legally admissible in Court and are usually an important part of the state’s prosecution of a DUI case. There are three (3) basic tests that are designed to asses your balance, coordination, and your ability to divide your attention to more than one task at a time. The 3 Field Sobriety Tests are as follows:

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Identity TheftIllinois law places severe restrictions on the ability of people convicted of a felony from legally changing their names. Illinois law is among the strictest in the United States for convicted felons seeking to change their names. The Illinois Secretary of State allows Illinois license owners to put their gender identity on their licenses. Under current Illinois law, felons convicted of a crime that requires that individual to be placed on a state registry, such as a Sex Offender Registry, are barred from ever changing their name. The lifetime ban also applies to people convicted of Murder, Arson, and Identity Theft. Anybody convicted of any other felony has to wait at least 10 years after the completion of their sentence before they can petition the court to legally change their name.

For many years, efforts have been underway in Springfield to change the law to allow convicted felons to petition the court to legally change their names. The efforts have been led by the LGBTQ community in Illinois. People that have had gender-affirming surgery have been seeking to change Illinois law to reflect their current gender. Supporters of the legislation also point to the plight of victims of human trafficking who want to change their name to make it more difficult for their traffickers to find them.

A bill that would drastically change current Illinois Law for convicted felons who are seeking to change their name is currently sitting on the desk of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker after being approved by the Illinois Senate on January 10. The bill passed the Illinois House with bipartisan support in 2021. The Bill would lift the lifetime ban for those convicted of the certain crimes, such as Identity Theft, and for those convicted of a crime that requires registration to a registry. For those convicted of any other felony, the 10-year waiting period is removed and people do not have to wait 10 years to apply for a change of name just because they have a felony conviction on their record. However, anyone convicted of a felony who wants to legally change their name will be required to convince a judge to let them do this before they can change their name. Anybody who had been the subject of the lifetime band will have to convince a judge to approve it and County prosecutors will be allowed to object to the petitions. In cases in which County Prosecutors are objecting to the name change petitions, the petitioners will be required to convince the Judge that they are changing their names because they are transgender, were legally married, were the victims of human trafficking, or have valid religious reasons for changing their names.

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Over the holiday weekend, the Schaumburg police conducted their annual “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” enforcement campaign. The enforcement campaign ran from December 16 to January 2. The annual campaign is run by the Illinois Department of Transportation and is managed funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, which provides the funding for the campaign. Most of the local police departments in the area participated in the campaign. The funds allowed the Schaumburg Police to add four additional units to be dedicated to enforcing the traffic laws during the campaign.

The Schaumburg Police released their numbers last week. The vast majority of citations issued were for Distracted Driving. That is not surprising. I have seen a drastic increase in the number of tickets issued for Distracted Driving in recent years.. Distracted Driving is what is commonly known as “texting and driving”. However, there’s much more to distracted driving than just texting. Authorities have been struggling with trying to curb the use of cell phones while driving. Numerous studies throughout the years have shown that using a cell phone while driving is more dangerous than drinking and driving. When cell phones started becoming popular, the state legislature made it illegal to text while driving. That’s why any new laws or rules having to do with the use of cell phones by drivers are commonly associated with texting. After the initial texting and driving laws were passed, authorities realized that much more needed to be done. The cell phone rules were tightened, and today, the rules against using a cell phone while driving are much more strict than ever. It is against the law to use a cell phone when driving as long as the phone is completely hands free. As a general rule, touching your cell phone while you are driving can land you a date in Traffic Court. There are some very limited exceptions to the general rule, but officers have become increasingly diligent and aggressive when it comes to enforcing the cell phone laws. On any given day in Traffic Court, it is not uncommon to see that a large percentage of citations issued are for Distracted Driving. When the first cell phone laws were passed, the punishment for getting caught was a fine that was not reported to the Secretary of State so it did not affect your license. The current laws have made a ticket for Distracted Driving to have the same effect on your license as any other traffic tickets. Distracted Driving tickets are reported to the Secretary of State and these tickets can count points against your license, just like any other ticket.

Only one speeding ticket was issued by the Schaumburg Police during the campaign and 1 DUI occurred during the campaign over the holiday.  The only DUI arrest was For Driving Under the Influence of Drugs. When Illinois legalized the recreational use of Marijuana, authorities were concerned that it would cause a big jump in the number of people charged with a DUI for Driving Under the Influence of Cannabis. That did not materialize. While it became much more common to see DUI cases involving the use of Marijuana, I have not noticed a big increase in such cases. It is not very common to see DUI cases involving marijuana.

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DUI-300x225Last week, the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists released their annual survey of DUI arrests in Illinois. The Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists conducts annual surveys of DUI arrests by the 700 police agencies in Illinois. The survey is funded by the Illinois Department of transportation. The survey gives us an understanding of where most DUI arrests happen and allows us to compare previous years to see any emerging patterns and trends involving DUI cases and DUI arrests.

As usual, the Chicago Police Department reported the largest number of DUI arrests in Illinois. The Chicago Police Department made 1,622 DUI arrests in 2021. This figure represents an almost 28% decrease from 2020, when the Chicago Police made 2,240 DUI arrests.  Decatur came in second with 353 DUI arrests in Illinois in 2021. Aurora, the second largest city in Illinois, came in third with 325 DUI arrests in 2021. Aurora’s numbers are significant because the number of DUI arrests increased almost 63% over 2020. In 2020, Aurora only had 200 DUI arrests. Compared to 325 DUI arrests in 2021, one can see how significant the increase in DUI arrests was in Aurora in 2021.

The Illinois State Police also saw a big increase in the number of DUI arrests in 2021 compared to 2020. The Illinois State Police made 6,596 DUI arrests in 2021. In 2020, the Illinois State Police made 5,947 DUI arrests. The Illinois State Police saw an increase of almost 11% in 2021 over 2020 in DUI arrests.

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