Tennessee DUI laws are designed to discourage people from drinking and driving. The penalties for driving under the influence are both financially significant and involve meaningful jail time. If you are charged with a DUI in Tennessee, you should take those charges seriously and hire a knowledgeable DUI attorney as soon as possible.
Legal Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) in Tennessee
The legal BAC in Tennessee is 0.07 or lower. That is identical to most other states. If you drive with a BAC of 0.08 or higher, you are guilty of violating the DUI laws in the state.
While this is the law that applies in most cases, there is one situation where a person can be charged with a DUI while driving at a lower BAC. If you are under the legal drinking age of 21 years old, the maximum legal BAC you can have is 0.01. Anything higher earns a DUI.
Implied Consent Law in Tennessee
A driver’s license is a privilege, not a right. To take advantage of that privilege, you must agree to follow specific regulations. One of those regulations is that you must consent to a blood alcohol test when a police officer requests you to take one. This is called implied consent.
If you refuse to take this test, your driver’s license will be automatically revoked for at least one year. The automatic revocation is increased to two years if this is not your first offense or if you were in an accident that resulted in an injury. Finally, if you were involved in an accident where someone died and you refused to take a blood alcohol test, your license would be revoked for five years.
DUI Penalties in Tennessee
As previously noted, the DUI penalties in Tennessee are quite prohibitive. Tennessee law requires everyone convicted of a DUI to spend at least some time in jail, and the average monetary costs are often in the thousands of dollars. The following shows the penalties based on the number of offenses.
The first offense may not seem so bad, but there are other factors to take into account. First, there is a high BAC penalty for first-time offenders if their BAC is 0.20 or higher. This penalty increases the minimum jail time to seven consecutive days.
Furthermore, while the maximum penalty may appear to be $1,500, once all fees, fines, and increased insurance costs are accounted for, the average costs of a first offense are close to $5,000, even if the judge waives the fines. Anyone facing a second offense or later won’t be that lucky because fines can’t be waived for later offenses.
Finally, there are penalties that offenders face regardless of how many offenses they have incurred. These penalties are:
- Mandatory enrollment in an alcohol or drug treatment program (at the offender’s cost)
- Installation of an ignition interlock device
- Paying restitution to anyone harmed due to driving under the influence
- License reinstatement costs
All of these penalties are in addition to any implied consent penalties.
What to Expect After a DUI Arrest in Tennessee?
If you are arrested for a DUI, typically, the officer that arrests you will request that you submit to a blood alcohol test. You can legally refuse. However, you will be subject to implied consent penalties if you do. Furthermore, the police might get a court order requiring you to submit, at which point you can no longer refuse.
From the moment you are arrested, you have the right to be represented by an attorney. You also have the right to remain silent when questioned by police. You should invoke both those rights if you wish them to be respected. Shortly after the arrest, you will receive a hearing where you will be officially informed of the charges, allowed to enter a plea and likely assigned bail.