Chicago DUI
& Criminal Defense
You Can Rely On

A first offense DUI in Illinois is a high stakes encounter for professionals with everything to lose. Despite being a misdemeanor, the consequences including a mandatory Statutory Summary Suspension can derail your career. At Ktenas Law, we take a first offense as seriously as you do. We challenge the reasonable suspicion for your initial stop and the probable cause for your arrest. By auditing the twenty minute observation period and breathalyzer calibration logs, we aim to suppress evidence and secure a dismissal to ensure one mistake does not define your future.

When facing a second or third DUI, the State attorney shifts from rehabilitation to retribution. These cases carry mandatory jail time and long term license revocation. Defending multiple offenses means taking apart how the State is using your prior record against you. We deep dive into the technicalities of the current arrest while simultaneously evaluating the validity of past convictions. Our approach focuses on motion to suppress strategies, challenging the chemical testing accuracy and officer testimony to prevent the devastating repeat offender labels that trigger mandatory incarceration.

Charges involving a fatality are the most severe in the Illinois Vehicle Code, often carrying non probationable prison sentences. These cases need more than a lawyer; they need careful forensic work. We collaborate with independent accident reconstruction experts and toxicologists to challenge the State narrative. Whether it is disputing the proximate cause of the accident or exposing flaws in the forced blood draw procedures, our defense is built to answer the emotional weight of the prosecution with cold hard scientific facts. In high stakes litigation, precision is your only protection.

For commercial drivers, the legal limit is not 0.08, it is 0.04, and a conviction means a lifetime disqualification. A CDL is your most valuable asset, and the State Zero Tolerance policy leaves no room for error. We specialize in the complex intersection of Illinois traffic law and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations. We fight both the criminal charge and the administrative suspension. By scrutinizing the specific nuances of commercial vehicle stops and chemical testing protocols, we work to save your career from a permanent major violation mark.

A DUI becomes a felony based on specific aggravating factors like driving without a license, multiple priors, or accidents involving injury. This elevates the case to a Class 4 felony or higher. We attack the aggravating elements of the charge to de felonize the case. Our defense involves a careful audit of the State paperwork and procedure. By challenging the underlying basis for the felony enhancement, we aim to reduce charges to misdemeanors or secure total acquittals, shielding you from a permanent felony record and prison time.

Illinois Zero Tolerance laws mean any trace of alcohol can result in a license suspension for a minor. For students and young professionals, the stigma of a DUI can jeopardize college admissions and future employment. We provide a protective, aggressive defense that focuses on the legality of the police interaction. Were the minor rights violated during questioning? Was the portable breath test administered correctly? We fight to keep these mistakes off a permanent record, utilizing diversion programs and evidentiary challenges to ensure a lapse in judgment does not derail a lifetime of potential.

DUI drug cases are notoriously flawed because presence in the system does not equal impairment behind the wheel. Unlike alcohol, there is no universal limit for many controlled substances. We use independent toxicology to test the State expert witnesses. Whether the charge involves cannabis, prescription meds, or narcotics, we expose the gap between a positive blood test and actual driving capability. By deconstructing the Drug Recognition Expert evaluation which is often highly subjective, we take apart the claim of impairment with real science.

In Illinois, just paying the ticket is an admission of guilt that adds points to your record and spikes insurance premiums. For those with a CDL or a high profile career, even a speeding ticket is a threat. We handle petty and misdemeanor traffic offenses including aggravated speeding and reckless driving with the same intensity as a DUI. We scrutinize radar and lidar calibration records and officer positioning to beat the ticket in court. Our goal is to avoid supervision and seek outright dismissals to keep your driving abstract pristine and your insurance rates low.

A Reckless Driving charge is often the primary strategic target when fighting a DUI. While still a serious Class A misdemeanor, securing a reduction from "Driving Under the Influence" to "Reckless Driving" can save your license from the mandatory revocation that comes with a DUI conviction. In Illinois, this negotiation is high-stakes; the prosecution requires substantial leverage to agree to a reduction. Our team generates this leverage by exposing flaws in the chemical testing or field sobriety procedures. We pursue this outcome to keep a drunk driving record off your name, and to protect your driving privileges and insurance rates from a full DUI conviction.

For doctors, nurses, lawyers, and CPAs, a criminal charge triggers an immediate threat from the IDFPR. We do not just handle the courtroom; we handle the board room. We work to keep your professional license protected during and after the criminal proceedings. We coordinate your defense strategy to satisfy reporting requirements while minimizing the risk of suspension or revocation. We defend your livelihood on both fronts at once, with the care your career deserves.

In Illinois, carrying a firearm while under the influence is a Class A Misdemeanor that immediately jeopardizes your Second Amendment rights. Under the Concealed Carry Act, your license is rendered invalid the moment you are deemed impaired, effectively treating you as unlawfully armed. This creates a dual crisis: the threat of up to one year in jail and the immediate revocation of your FOID card and Concealed Carry License (CCL). At Ktenas Law, we defend this specific overlap of DUI and gun law. We challenge the prosecution’s proof of impairment to prevent a conviction that strips you of your ability to legally own or carry a firearm forever.

A criminal charge in Cook County follows you long before any verdict does. It shows up in background checks, in job applications, and in conversations you should not have to have. Most people arrested for the first time have no idea what happens next, and that uncertainty is often worse than the charge itself. We defend felonies and misdemeanors across Cook, Will, and DuPage counties, and we start by telling you plainly what you are facing and what your realistic options are. Every case gets the same first step: a close read of how police built it, and where it does not hold together.

Illinois has some of the strictest firearm laws in the country, and the rules change often enough that people who believed they were following them still get arrested. An aggravated UUW charge is a felony, and a conviction ends your FOID card and your concealed carry license along with it. We defend UUW, unlawful possession, and FOID related charges throughout the Chicago area. These cases frequently turn on whether the stop and the search were lawful in the first place, which is exactly the ground where a case can be won before it ever reaches a jury.

Illinois separates simple possession from possession with intent to deliver, and the difference between them can be the difference between probation and prison. That line is often drawn by how police interpreted what they found, not by anything you actually did with it. We defend possession, intent, and trafficking charges, and we look first at how the search was conducted and whether the evidence was handled properly from the roadside to the lab. For eligible clients we also pursue diversion and treatment based outcomes that keep a conviction off your record entirely.

In Illinois, the value of what was allegedly taken decides whether you are facing a misdemeanor or a felony, and that threshold is lower than most people expect. Retail theft over three hundred dollars can be charged as a Class 3 felony, and a prior conviction can turn even a small amount into a felony on its own. We defend retail theft, burglary, criminal damage, and related property charges. These cases often rest on identification, intent, or the value assigned to the property, and all three are open to challenge.

An order of protection can remove you from your home, restrict contact with your children, and cost you your firearm rights, and it can be entered on far less evidence than a criminal conviction requires. Many people do not realize how much is at stake until the hearing is already underway. We represent clients on both sides of these petitions across Cook, Will, and DuPage counties. Because these hearings move quickly and the record you create in them can follow you into a related criminal case, getting the first hearing right matters enormously.

Fraud, embezzlement, and financial crime investigations usually begin long before anyone is charged, which means the most important decisions often get made before you have a lawyer. What you say to an investigator early can shape the entire case against you. We defend financial crime allegations and work alongside your professional obligations, not against them. These cases are built on documents and paper trails, so the defense is built the same way: reconstructing what the records actually show, rather than what the State assumes they show.