Chicago DUI attorney answers the simple question about what number gets you charged with a DUI

Earlier this week, this Chicago DUI attorney was the featured guest on the Cook County Bar Association’s call-in show.  There were lots of great questions that didn’t get answered.  Here’s one of them.

How high must an individual’s blood alcohol concentration level be for him/her to be arrested for a DUI?

                    

This is a great question.  It has a down and dirty easy answer, but then it gets complicated.

Easy-off-the cuff-answer:  In Illinois a person is deemed over the legal limit (for purposes of a DUI) if there Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) is over 0.08.

Unfortunately, you can be arrested for a DUI in any of the following scenarios as well:

1)     There is no Blood Alcohol Concentration result because there is no testing.

2)      The BAC is well under 0.08.

3)     The BAC is 0.00.

In Illinois, even if you submit to chemical testing and the result is under the legal limit of 0.08 you can be charged with a DUI. 

Additionally, you can be charged with a DUI for any amount of cannabis/marijuana in your system, or a combination of alcohol and cannabis/marijuana, or any intoxicating compound (this could very well be doctor prescribed medications).

So now you can understand why the answer to a direct question isn’t quite so simple.