If you are a Georgia licensee but are convicted of a DUI in Tennessee, your suspension will be for 90 days.  Remember that asterisk?  If you lose your license in Georgia due to a Georgia DUI conviction, you can ask the Department of Driver Services to issue an immediate work
permit so you can drive again.  Most of the time DDS issues the work permit right away and
offers early reinstatement of your full license after 120 days with proof of DUI School and a large fee (remember, the full suspension in Georgia is really one year).

However, if you are convicted of DUI in another state, the Georgia DDS will not issue you a work permit until the state where you were convicted lifts its suspension.  So if you get your DUI in
Tennessee and lose your license for 90 days,
Georgia will not issue you a work permit until those 90 days are over - and after those 90 days, you'll still need to wait another 30 days to reinstate, and you may want a work permit during that time.

What I regularly tell my clients is this: if you're arrested in another state and charged with a DUI on your Georgia license, hire a local, competent DUI lawyer in the state where you were arrested and then contact a Georgia attorney for advice on how to obtain a work permit as soon as possible.  I am happy to refer you to a DUI attorney in the state, county or municipality where you need one.

Just a few days later, Cobb County police captain David Gallmon was arrested by the Georgia State Patrol in the early morning of July 24, after his car was hit by a wrong-way driver (who is also facing charges). He resigned a few days ago.

Now surely these two men see the results of drunk driving often. Surely they've made a DUI arrest or two in their time and appeared in court on the prosecutor's side. I can't imagine anyone understands the consequences of drunk driving more clearly than these two.

On the bright side, I'm very pleased to see that other law enforcement officers believe the law applies to everyone, even their colleagues.

Dear Jessica,

I was convicted of a drug offense last year and was sentenced to four years probation under the Georgia first offender act. I would like to know will this appear as a felony on my record? My lawyer told me to put no to a conviction when it comes to applications but my probation officer said to put yes. I am confused, and I don't want to lie on a application causing a future employer to not want to hire me at all.

My answer:

You paid your lawyer good money for good advice. Listen to it. You are NOT a convicted felon today, and you can avoid ever being a convicted felon by finishing your sentence with no new arrests or violations of probation. You can't get firearms, but you can vote. You probably want to make sure a future employer understands this, and you'll want to make sure your file and GCIC are properly recorded when your sentence is over.

Do you have questions like these?

• I was arrested for a DUI in Georgia. I don't know if I want to contest the charges. How do I determine if I have a case?
• I definitely don't want to pay an attorney to "hold my hand," but what do I need to do to handle this on my own?
  
• Should I hire a lawyer or can I plead guilty by myself?
• What is the maximum income/debt-to-income ratio that would allow me to obtain a public defender?
• If I decide to not get a lawyer, is there any pre- or post-trial things I need to know?
• Will everything be self- evident as to how I get a work permit, etc?

Instead of surfing all over the Internet trying to find this kind of information and hoping what information you do find is good, try calling a local attorney and offering a fee for a consultation instead of getting a "free consultation." Lawyers cannot give someone who's not a client advice.

In a free consultation, you can try and ask questions like these, but they really can't be answered specifically for your situation. Instead, you should ask questions such as how many of the attorney's current cases are DUI, how many he's handled before in the past, and his general approach. The information you gather in a "free consultation" is crucial information to have when deciding which attorney to hire.

When you pay money for a consultation, you will get answers that are specific to your situation. In fact, you may get all of your answers in that consultation and decide not to hire an attorney. Remember, cases are specific to the arrest area, so you need someone within a 50-mile radius of where you were arrested.