What to do after a DUI arrest in Wyoming, day by day.
You were released this morning with a citation, a form from the Department of Transportation you have not read, and a receipt for your car. Two things in the next week are timed, one tightly, and most of the damage people do to their own cases is done in the first seventy-two hours. This is the checklist.
Call or text me. Clients get my cell number from day one, and I answer. Just been arrested or charged? Here's what happens next.
Three documents came home with you.
Read all three tonight.
The charge: a statute, a court, and a date to appear. A DUI arrest is custodial by statute (W.S. § 31-5-1204(a)(ii)), which is why you were booked, and the citation you signed on release is your promise to appear. Breaking it is a separate misdemeanor. In Teton County the court is the Circuit Court at 250 East Simpson Avenue.
If the test was 0.08 or more, the officer served a notice that is also a temporary license. Twenty days from its date is the last day to request a hearing from WYDOT, in writing, with the fee; on day thirty the ninety-day suspension begins if you do not (W.S. § 31-6-102(f)). A blood result can arrive by mail; the clock runs from the notice's date.
The conditions of release are court orders. In a DUI case they commonly include no alcohol and, when ordered, the 24/7 sobriety program, twice-daily breath tests at the sheriff's office; a missed or failed test is an arrest without a warrant (W.S. § 7-13-1708, § 7-13-1709). The property receipt says where the car is. Storage is by the day.
The first week, day by day.
Then two deadlines, and the department's clock does not wait for the court's.
- Day 1. Read the three documents and photograph them. Write down the evening while it is fresh. Confirm what the notice lets you drive on, and drive nothing else. Tell the facts to no one but a lawyer.
- Days 2 to 3. Call a lawyer with the dates in front of you. Get the car out of impound. If a license, a clearance, or a contract requires reporting an arrest, find its deadline before deciding how to say it.
- By day 7. The hearing request is written, sent to WYDOT with the fee, and copied, with proof of the date it went. The discovery request is drafted and waiting for the case to be filed.
- Day 20, then day 30. By day 20 the hearing request must be in; a timely request stays the suspension until the examiner rules. If none was made, on day 30 the ninety-day suspension of your Wyoming driving privilege starts and runs to day 120. The first court date is whatever the citation says.
Tonight: what to write, what not to do.
Write it down before you sleep
The times: last drink, last meal, when you left, when the lights came on, when you were told you were under arrest, when you blew. The stop: where, what reason the officer gave, what you said in reply. The roadside exercises: which ones, on what surface, in what footwear, in what weather. The test: breath at the jail or blood at the hospital, whether you were read the advisement about the suspension, and whether you were told you could get your own test afterward, which the statute requires (W.S. § 31-6-102(a)(ii)). The people, the medications, the sleep, the bad knee. Date it. Give it to nobody but your lawyer.
Do not
Do not call the officer to explain, and do not go back to the bar to ask what the staff remember; both conversations become evidence. Do not post about the night or text the friends who were with you; their phones are as discoverable as yours. Do not drive on day thirty-one if you did not request the hearing: driving under suspension is its own misdemeanor, up to six months and $750, with seven mandatory days when the suspension came from a DUI conviction (W.S. § 31-7-134). Do not skip a 24/7 test because it is snowing. Do not plead guilty at the first appearance to make it go away; the license consequences do not go with it. Do not assume a dismissal in court ends the suspension. The department's own guide says it does not.
The hearing, the court date, and the rest.
How the request works, the initial appearance, the report, the employer, the insurer, visitors
How the request works
The hearing request is the one piece of paper in this week that cannot be late. It goes to the Department of Transportation, not to the court and not to the officer, in writing, with the fee the statute sets for a hearing before a hearing examiner, and it should say plainly that you are requesting a contested case hearing on the notice of suspension served on the date it was served (W.S. § 31-7-105(d)). Keep a copy and proof of the date it went. The department forwards the request to the Office of Administrative Hearings, whose examiner must schedule the hearing within forty-five days and give you ten days' notice, and from the day the request is received until the examiner's order, and through any appeal, the suspension is stayed (W.S. § 31-6-103(a)). Day 0 is the date on the notice, which is normally the night of the arrest but can be later if blood was drawn and the result came back by mail.
The initial appearance
If you were held overnight, the rule requires that you be taken before a judge without unnecessary delay and that probable cause be found within seventy-two hours, in person or by video from the jail; if you were released, the initial appearance is the date on the citation (W.R.Cr.P. 5(a)). It is short. The judge states the charge and the maximum penalty, advises you of the right to counsel, to a jury, and to remain silent, asks how you plead, and reviews the conditions of release. In a misdemeanor case a plea may be entered that day, and the ordinary plea, while the report and video are still in an envelope, is not guilty. That is not a statement about the facts. It is the plea that keeps every option open, including the deferred prosecution a first-time defendant may later ask for. Counsel changes the day in two ways. The statute lets an attorney satisfy your promise to appear on the citation, and the rules let a misdemeanor court, once you have consented in writing, take the arraignment and plea without you in the room, or with you on a screen (W.S. § 31-5-1206(b); W.R.Cr.P. 43(c)(2), 43.1). For a client who has already flown home to Denver, that is the difference between one trip and four. Which hearings a judge will excuse is decided case by case, in writing, in advance.
The report and the video
The police report, the body-camera and dash-camera video if the agency recorded them, the breath-test ticket and the instrument's records, or the blood result and the warrant that authorized it, come to the defense through discovery once the charge is filed. The implied-consent statute adds a second route: a person who was tested is entitled, on request, to full information about the test, delivered to the person or the attorney (W.S. § 31-6-105(e)). Both requests go out the week the case is filed. Neither is a public-records request.
The employer and the insurer
Nobody is required to tell an employer about an arrest unless a contract, a professional license, a security clearance, or a commercial license says so, and each has its own rule and deadline; a commercial driver's are the strictest. If you drive for work and the suspension takes effect on day thirty, the employer will learn whether you tell them or not. When a disclosure is required, make it once, in writing if the policy asks for writing, and make it short: arrested, charged, represented, pending. Your insurer learns of a conviction from the driving record, not of an arrest from the police. Reinstatement after a conviction suspension requires an SR-22, a certificate your insurer files and maintains for three years, and some insurers decline to file one, so the question of who will is worth asking early. Do not cancel the policy on the car during the case; a lapse can lead to a suspension of its own.
If you were visiting
The notice is your license for thirty days on Wyoming roads; it is not a federal identification, so fly home on a passport or another government photo ID. A rental counter wants a physical license, and if the officer kept yours, ask Driver Services and the rental company before you count on driving out of the valley. Wyoming reports a conviction to your home state, not an arrest; the DUI defense page explains what the home state then does. Bond conditions travel with you: no alcohol means no alcohol in Denver, and a 24/7 condition has to be converted to something you can satisfy from home, which the court must order before you leave. The assessment, if one is needed, can be done by a provider certified in your own state. The expungement page is where the question of the record belongs.
Asked in the first week.
How many days do I have to request a hearing after a DUI arrest in Wyoming?
What happens at my first court date for a DUI in Wyoming?
Do I have to come back to Jackson for court if I live out of state?
The officer kept my license. Can I drive?
How do I get the police report and the body-camera video?
Should I get the substance use assessment now or wait for court?
Start with a confidential conversation with Aaron Herzberg.
Criminal matters begin with a thirty-minute call. Book it through the chat button in the corner of this page, day or night, and it goes straight onto my calendar; or send the note here and my office will call you, usually the same business day. Bring the citation or charging paperwork if you have it, and call or text any time.
40 E Simpson Ave, Jackson, WY 83001 · by appointment · video consultations for out-of-state clients · info@puzzlegroup.com