How Long Does a DUI Case Take?

A DUI case starts the moment you’re pulled over. If an officer suspects you’re driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, you’ll be asked to perform field sobriety tests and, in most cases, submit to a breath, blood, or urine test. If the officer believes there’s enough evidence, you’ll be arrested, processed, and released with a citation that lists your first court date.

From there, the case moves through Illinois’s court system on its own timeline, one that runs separately from the automatic license suspension the state also puts in motion. Most Illinois DUI cases take somewhere between a few months and just over a year to fully resolve, though the exact length depends on the charge, the county, and the choices you and your attorney make along the way. Ktenas Law, a criminal defense firm built entirely by former Illinois prosecutors, walks through what actually drives that timeline below.

The Real Timeline: Weeks for a Simple Case, Well Over a Year for a Contested One

A straightforward first-offense DUI with no aggravating factors, where the person accepts a plea early, can sometimes resolve within a few months of the arrest. A case where the defense contests the stop, the testing, or the charge itself typically runs six months to a year or more, since it has to move through pretrial motions and, if it doesn’t settle, a trial.

Two timelines run at the same time, and it helps to keep them separate. The criminal case moves through arraignment, pretrial motions, negotiation, and possibly trial. The administrative license suspension under Illinois’s implied consent law runs on its own statutory clock, and it doesn’t wait for the criminal case to finish. Understanding both is the difference between being surprised by a suspension and planning around it.

From Traffic Stop to Arraignment: The First Steps in a DUI Case

The citation you receive lists your first court date, called the arraignment. At arraignment, you enter a plea.

Most attorneys have a client enter a not guilty plea at this first hearing, even if a guilty plea may come later. That choice preserves time to review the evidence: the police report, dashcam or body camera footage, and the results of any chemical test.

After arraignment, the case typically moves through a series of additional court dates. During that stretch, the defense reviews evidence and negotiates with the State’s Attorney’s office. If you decide to contest the charge rather than accept an early plea offer, the next phase is pretrial motions.

A motion hearing gives your attorney the chance to cross-examine the arresting officer under oath. It’s also where details like these get pinned down:

• Whether the traffic stop itself was justified.
• How the field sobriety tests were administered.
• Whether the chemical test followed the required procedure.

If those motions don’t resolve the case, you have the right to a trial, either before a judge or a jury.

Most attorneys enter a not guilty plea at arraignment even when a plea may come later, because it preserves time to review the evidence. Our Illinois DUI process page walks through each stage.

The 46-Day Clock: How the License Suspension Timeline Runs on Its Own

Separately from the criminal case, Illinois’s implied consent law puts every licensed driver, and anyone driving on Illinois roads, on notice that they agree to chemical testing when an officer has reasonable grounds to believe they’re impaired. Refuse the test, or fail it, and the Secretary of State imposes a statutory summary suspension automatically, without a separate hearing, unless you act.

When the Suspension Starts and How Long You Have to Fight It

That suspension takes effect on the 46th day after you receive notice of it, regardless of what’s happening in your criminal case.

You get a longer window to challenge it: 90 days from the arrest to file a written request for a judicial hearing. But that filing window doesn’t pause day 46. The suspension still starts on schedule whether or not your hearing has happened yet, so acting early gives you the best chance to avoid a gap in your driving privileges.

How Long Each Type of Suspension Actually Lasts

Under 625 ILCS 5/6-208.1(opens in a new tab), the length depends on whether you failed the test or refused it, and whether you qualify as a first offender:

• First offense, failed test: 6-month suspension.
• First offense, refusal: 12-month suspension.
• Second or subsequent offense, failed test: 1-year suspension.
• Second or subsequent offense, refusal: 3-year suspension.

If you refuse testing as a first offender, Illinois law does not allow a Monitoring Device Driving Permit to drive to work, school, or treatment during that suspension.

What Counts as a “First Offender” in Illinois

Illinois defines a first offender as someone who has not had a DUI-related license suspension or revocation within the past five years. That five-year window is what controls how long your suspension runs.

It doesn’t erase an older DUI from your record, though. A prosecutor can still reference a decades-old conviction during sentencing on a new charge, even one that technically counts as a first offense for suspension purposes.

What Makes Some Illinois DUI Cases Take Longer Than Others

Several factors extend both the criminal case and the penalties a court can impose if you’re convicted.

• A crash, even without injuries. Prosecutors and judges tend to treat a DUI involving a collision more seriously, and that added scrutiny can slow negotiations.
• A refused chemical test. Beyond the longer administrative suspension described above, refusal often becomes its own point of contention in the criminal case.
• A blood alcohol concentration of 0.16 or higher. Illinois law adds a mandatory minimum of 100 hours of community service and a $500 fine on top of standard first-offense penalties.
• A passenger under 16 in the vehicle. A first DUI with a minor passenger becomes a Class A misdemeanor carrying a mandatory minimum of 6 months imprisonment, an additional $1,000 fine, and 25 days of community service in a program benefiting children. A second such violation is charged as a Class 2 felony.
• A third DUI. A third violation is charged as aggravated DUI, a Class 2 felony, carrying a mandatory minimum of 90 days imprisonment and a $2,500 fine.
• Serious bodily injury to anyone involved. Cases involving injury carry more serious charges and typically take longer to work through the court system.

Each of these adds legal complexity, and more complexity generally means more time in court before a case resolves.

Mistakes That Quietly Add Months to a DUI Case

How you handle the stop itself can shape how long your case takes to resolve. A few common missteps tend to complicate cases the most:

• Talking to the officer more than necessary. Statements about how much you had to drink are difficult to walk back later and can undercut challenges to the field sobriety tests.
• A hostile or uncooperative attitude. How you treat the officer tends to show up in the police report, which can complicate negotiations.
• Poor performance on field sobriety tests. These tests are voluntary in Illinois, but a weak performance becomes evidence prosecutors will point to.

There’s a fourth one worth flagging separately, since it’s less about the stop and more about the attorney relationship: leaving out an old DUI arrest or conviction. Your attorney needs the full picture of your driving record early, no matter how long ago a prior case happened. A decades-old conviction can still surface and affect how the current case is handled, so leaving it out only slows things down once it surfaces on its own.

Is Hiring a DUI Lawyer Worth the Time It Takes to Find One?

Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a DUI case without legal training is difficult. DUI law changes frequently, and the facts of every case are different.

Many DUI defense attorneys, including our team, offer a free consultation. Bring your citation and any paperwork from the arrest, and come with a list of questions. Meeting in person, even briefly, is a useful way to gauge whether an attorney is the right fit before you commit.

Prosecutors’ offices often extend a standard plea offer on a straightforward first DUI with no aggravating factors. That offer tends to look the same whether you’re represented by a public defender, a private attorney, or no attorney at all. On paper, that can make hiring an attorney for a simple first offense seem unnecessary. In practice, a standard offer is usually a starting point, not a final word.

An experienced defense attorney reviews the state’s evidence for weaknesses: the basis for the stop, how the field sobriety tests were conducted, whether the chemical test followed the required procedure. Those weaknesses, if they exist, become leverage to negotiate from a stronger position.

Accepting the standard offer without that review means you may never find out whether a stronger option was available. There’s no way to know that without at least getting an attorney’s opinion first. A case that goes into negotiation on the wrong information also tends to take longer to resolve than one that starts with a clear strategy.

How Ktenas Law Approaches an Illinois DUI Timeline

Ktenas Law is built entirely by former prosecutors, including Alex Ktenas, a former Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney. That background matters here specifically: our team has sat on the other side of the table during arraignments, motion hearings, and trial preparation. We know how a State’s Attorney’s office builds and moves a DUI case toward resolution.

If there’s a viable challenge to the stop, the testing, or the evidence in your case, we look for it early. The sooner a weakness is identified, the sooner it can shape negotiations, instead of surfacing late and adding months to the process.

If no such challenge exists, we discuss the options honestly, including what a negotiated resolution might look like. We won’t promise an outcome no attorney can guarantee.

To talk through your specific timeline and what to expect at each stage, contact Ktenas Law today at (312) 800-1626 for a free case review.

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