DUI Law, making $500 a pop for villages in Illinois

Well, if you haven’t heard it before our local municipalities are charging a $500 “administrative fee” if you are ARRESTED for DUI.  You are charged the fee not for being guilty of DUI, you are charged the fee when you try to retrieve your car from the impound lot.

I am not going to take a lot of time here to whine about how this is just pure theft.  Nor am I going to answer the obvious question, “How can they do this?”

What has happened to my clients in a number of cases is that they are later found not guilty, or the charges are dropped entirely … and the village is grousing about returning the money.  As it turns out many municipalities have ordinances (that they copied from one another) that say, if you are found not guilty you get the money back, but if the case is dismissed in court you don’t.

But both of those clients are the same, their DUI was NOT A DUI.  Why are they treated differently?  And why are the municipalities balking at giving the money back when it is them that dismissed the charges?  I suspect that the municipalities will change their tune when they get hit with a couple of lawsuits.  We will see.

Stay tuned.

Law Dude, Ray Flavin, Trial Attorney in McHenry County Illinois. His law offices are located across the street from the McHenry County IL Courthouse in Woodstock, IL. Visit Ray’s other website @ www.rayflavin.com.

Mobile: 815-334-9004

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