Chicago DUI lawyer explains when you can drive after winning your driving privileges in a Chicago DUI

Last week, I posted an update indicating that Alderman Sharon Dixon won her petition to rescind statutory summary suspension.  I have read a few news articles that suggest Alderman Dixon was free to drive that same day.  Unfortunately, she is not, and neither are you if you win your driving privileges back based on a DUI arrest.

May 21, Chicago, Il

Ald. Sharon Dixon (24th) was back behind the wheel Thursday evening after a judge ruled her license was improperly suspended when she was arrested for drunken driving in January.

Dixon allegedly smelled of alcohol and failed sobriety tests after arguing for half an hour with four Chicago police officers on the Far North Side. Her license was suspended when she refused to take a Breathalyzer test.

But at the end of a four-hour hearing at the Daley Center on Thursday, Judge Eileen O'Neill Burke said one officer's claim that Dixon appeared drunk was undermined by his own testimony that he told her to drive home moments before arresting her.

Three other officers told Dixon either to move her car or go home before the arrest, evidence showed.

It "wasn't reasonable" to believe that "four seasoned officers" would have used "their full authority to order her to drive her car" if they believed she was drunk, Burke said.

Pay close attention to the first sentence, the one that says Ald. Dixon was back behind the wheel last Thursday.  Assuming that is true, although she won her hearing to have her driving privileges restored, it is not an automatic event.  First the lawyer must draft an order for the judge to sign indicating that the Petition to Rescind Statutory Summary Suspension is granted.  Then that order has to be submitted to the Secretary of State.  It is not until the Secretary of State receives that court order, and then lifts the suspension, is the petitioner free to drive.  If Alderman Dixon was driving that night, as the article suggests, and she was stopped by a Chicago Police Officer she would be facing another criminal misdemeanor charge.  After running her license in the system it would show up suspended.  The officer then can arrest her for driving while her license is suspended based on a DUI arrest.  Hopefully, the charge would be subsequently dismissed, but that would be up to the judge.

Bottom line, if you win your Petition to Rescind Statutory Summary Suspension you cannot drive until the Secretary of State removes the suspension from your license.  Unfortunately, that usually takes at least a few days, if not a week.