Claiborne Ferguson is THE Memphis DUI lawyer, with his practice, the Claiborne Ferguson Law Firm in Memphis, Tennessee, devoted to DUI defense and capital murder cases. Both require a vast knowledge of science and law, which is why he has extensive training in both areas. In this article, he discusses how your driver’s license could be suspended after a DUI charge, and what to do about it.
Whether or not your license will be suspended following a DUI conviction is a loaded question. The answer depends on your individual state. Some states, such as here in Tennessee, require a judicial fact-finding of either having committed the offense of DUI, or having refused to submit to a test to check your BAC, or blood alcohol content. Other states such as Mississippi automatically revoke your license the minute you refuse to blow.
And even more confusing is that each state reports the status of your license in that state to a national database. Why is that important? Well, for example, just imagine that you get pulled over in Mississippi. A police officer asks you to submit to a blood test, which you smartly or rightly refuse. Your license is automatically suspended.
From State to State
However, if you are a resident of the state of Tennessee that would not have gotten your license suspended. Even though you have a Tennessee driver’s license, the state of Mississippi will report that revocation to the state of Tennessee, and because of reciprocity laws, Tennessee will give “full faith in credit” of that revocation. So now your license is suspended in Tennessee as well.
But then it gets even worse. Because in Mississippi the revocation period is only 90 days. So good sense will tell you your license will be suspended in Tennessee for 90 days. Not so. They give full faith in credit to the refusal, not to the time period of the revocation. Tennessee will suspend your license for its legal time period. Which is one year.
Adding Insult to Injury
To make matters worse, if you get convicted of a DUI, it could be another year before you get your license back. And if you have a Tennessee license, the state of Mississippi cannot give you a restricted driver’s license. Because they cannot tell Tennessee what to do with your license, even though they just got your license revoked.
In a situation like this, an attorney from your state could possibly be able to get you the necessary court order for a restricted driver’s license. Such a license will allow you to drive to specific places and specific appointments only, such as to and from work or university classes. But it’s not the same thing as having a full license.
