Long Island DWI Lawyers

Last Updated on: 14th December 2025, 12:38 am

Long Island DWI Lawyers

The DWI case you’re fighting isn’t actually one case. It’s two. There’s a criminal proceeding in court where you face fines, probation, and potentially jail. And there’s a completely separate DMV proceeding where you fight to keep your license. You can win one and lose the other. Most people don’t find this out until they’ve already made decisions that destroyed their options in both.

Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the real information about Long Island DWI defense – not the sanitized version you’ll find on other law firm websites. We’re going to tell you what actually happens, what decisions matter, and what mistakes we’ve watched people make that cost them everything. Todd Spodek has handled hundreds of DWI cases across Nassau and Suffolk County, and what we’ve learned is that the people who get the best outcomes are the ones who understood the system before they started making decisions.

This isn’t meant to scare you. It’s meant to prepare you. Because on Long Island specifically, the stakes are different. A New York Times investigation called this region the “drunken-driving capital of New York.” Suffolk County has had double the DWI felonies of Nassau County for over two decades. The police are aggressive. The prosecutors have policies that limit negotiation. And if you don’t know how the system actually works, you’ll make choices in the first 48 hours that determine everything that happens for the next year.

The Breathalyzer Decision That Changes Everything

Heres the first thing you need to understand, and almost nobody explains this clearly. Refusing the breathalyzer dosent help you avoid a DWI charge. It makes everything worse.

People think if they refuse the test, the police wont have evidence. Thats not how it works. If you refuse a breathalyzer in New York, you automatically lose your license for one year. Thats not a court penalty – thats a civil penalty from the DMV that happens regardless of wheather your convicted of anything. You could be completly aquitted of the DWI and still have your license suspended for a full year becuase of the refusal.

But wait – it gets worse. When you refuse, you also loose your ability to get a conditional license. A conditional license is what lets you drive to work, school, and medical appointments while your case is pending. Its the only way most people can keep there jobs during a DWI case. Refuse the breathalyzer? No conditional license for you. So now your sitting at home, unable to drive anywhere, for an entire year – and your still fighting the DWI charges in court.

And heres the part that realy destroys people: the District Attorney’s office has a policy on refusals. They dont negotiate. If you refused the breathalyzer, there policy is to require a plea to the full DWI charge with 3 years probation. No reduction to DWAI. No favorable plea bargain. The refusal itself becomes the reason they wont work with you.

Think about that for a second. If your BAC was actualy under .08%, you would of only been charged with DWAI – a traffic infraction with a 90-day suspension. By refusing the test, you traded that for a 1-year suspension, no conditional license, and a DA who wont negotiate. The decision you made trying to help yourself destroyed your case.

Todd Spodek has seen this pattern play out dozens of times. Someone comes in who refused the breathalyzer becuase they thought they were being smart. Now there options are basicly gone. The refusal can even be used against them at trial – the prosecutor argues that you refused becuase you knew you were over the limit. Its not evidence of guilt, but juries hear it and draw there own conclusions.

The people who get the best outcomes are the ones who took the test and blew under .08%, or the ones who blew over but had a lawyer who knew how to challenge the stop, the testing procedure, or the equipment calibration. Thats were cases get won. Not by refusing and hoping the evidence dissapears.

What Happens at Your First Court Appearance

Your first court appearance is called the arraignment, and most people dont understand what actualy happens there. They think its just a formality. Its not. Critical things happen at arraignment that will effect everything that follows.

Heres the system revelation nobody tells you: if your BAC was .08% or higher, the judge is legaly required to suspend your license at arraignment. Required. The judge has no discretion. It dosent matter if your innocent. It dosent matter if the evidence is weak. It dosent matter if the cop violated your rights. The moment the prosecutor says your BAC was .08%, the judge takes your license. Its suspended pending prosecution – which means untill your case is resolved, one way or another.

Let that sink in. Your losing your license before youve been convicted of anything. Before theres been a trial. Before any evidence has been challenged. The system is designed to punish you immediatly while you wait to prove your innocent.

Now heres the deadline that destroys cases: you have exactly 45 days from your arraignment to file all defense motions. Miss this deadline and your defense options basicly evaporate. Within those 45 days, your attorney needs to file motions to suppress evidence, demand hearings on wheather the stop was legal, challenge wheather the arrest had probable cause, question wheather any statements you made were voluntary, and examine wheather proper procedures were followed.

45 days sounds like alot of time. Its not. Your lawyer needs to get the police reports. They need to request the bodycam footage – which can take 1 to 5 months to obtain. They need to review everything, identify the weakneses in the prosecutions case, and draft legal arguments. If you wait to hire a lawyer, if you try to handle the arraignment yourself and then decide to get help, you might not have enough time left to build a real defense.

At Spodek Law Group, we start working on your case before the arraignment happens. We want to be there when that judge suspends your license so we can immediatly request a hardship exemption. We want those 45 days to start with a strategy already in place.

The Two Cases Your Actually Fighting

Heres something that confuses almost everyone: your DWI creates two completly seperate legal proceedings, and they dont talk to each other.

Theres the criminal case. Thats what most people think about – the courtroom, the prosecutor, the potential for jail or probation. That case can take six months to a year or longer to resolve. Your fighting there to avoid a criminal conviction, minimize penalties, and hopefully get the charges reduced or dismissed.

But theres also a DMV proceeding. If you refused the breathalyzer, theres a refusal hearing that must be scheduled within 15 days of your arraignment. This is a completly seperate process with its own rules. A DMV judge – not a criminal court judge – decides wheather to uphold your license suspension. And heres the inversion that trips everyone up: you can win your criminal case and still lose your license.

Read that again. The criminal court could aquit you completly – find you not guilty, dismiss all charges – and it dosent matter to the DMV. If you lost the refusal hearing, your license stays suspended. The DMV dosent care what happened in criminal court. These are seperate systems with seperate outcomes.

This is why people who refuse the breathalyzer get destroyed twice. They think beating the criminal case means they win. But the DMV already took there license at a hearing that happened months earlier. By the time there aquitted in criminal court, theyve already been unable to drive for a year.

We handle both proceedings simultaniously. We’re preparing your criminal defense while also fighting at the DMV hearing. We understand that these are two different battlefields with two different sets of rules, and you need a strategy for both.

How Long Island Became the DWI Capital

Long Island has a DWI problem that dosent exist anywhere else in New York, and the reason is something nobody wants to talk about.

According to a New York Times investigation, Suffolk County has recorded more alcohol-related crashes then any other county in New York every year since at least 2001. Nassau County takes second place most years. Together, they’ve given Long Island a reputation as the drunken-driving capital of the state.

Why? Heres the uncomfortable truth: its the infrastructure.

If you live in Manhattan and youve been drinking, you can take a train. A bus. A subway. A taxi on every corner. Uber and Lyft everywhere. The city is designed so you dont need to drive.

Long Island isnt. Nassau and Suffolk are suburban and partly rural. Public transportation basicly dosent exist outside of the LIRR, and the LIRR dosent go most places you need to go. If your at a bar in Huntington or a restaurant in Garden City, your options for getting home without driving are extremly limited.

The infrastructure that dosent exist creates the crime. People who would never drive drunk in Manhattan get behind the wheel on Long Island becuase they literaly have no other way to get home. This isnt an excuse – its an explanation. And it means Long Island police are looking for DWIs constantly. They know the problem. They run checkpoints. They patrol bar areas aggresivly. The enforcement matches the reputation.

What this means for you is that the system your facing is harsher then it would be anywhere else in New York. The police have experience. The prosecutors have handled thousands of these cases. The judges have seen every excuse. You need lawyers who know this specific system and have relationships in these specific courts.

Spodek Law Group has been handling Nassau and Suffolk County DWI cases for years. We know which prosecutors will negotiate and which wont. We know what the judges care about. We know how to navigate a system thats designed to move cases through as quickly as possible.

The cost of a typical DWI on Long Island runs between $4,000 and $15,000 when you add up fines, surcharges, lawyer fees, the DMV’s $750 Driver Responsibility Assessment, and the various programs your required to complete. And thats before your insurance premiums – which will tripple. DWI offenders get put in the risk pool and pay three times what normal drivers pay for years after the conviction.

This isnt a traffic ticket. This is a financial catastrophe that follows you for years.

When DWI Becomes a Felony

Most first-time DWIs are misdemeanors. But there are situations were a DWI automaticaly becomes a felony, and the consequences explode.

The most common path to felony DWI is Leandra’s Law. In 2009, an 11-year-old girl named Leandra Rosado was killed in a crash when a friends mother was driving drunk. Her death led to one of the toughest DWI laws in the country.

Under Leandra’s Law, if your driving while intoxicated with a child 15 or younger in the vehicle, its automaticaly a Class E felony. First offense. No prior record. Dosent matter. The presence of a child transforms the charge. Your looking at up to 4 years in state prison, fines up to $5,000, and a minimum one-year license revocation.

It gets worse. If a child in your vehicle is seriusly injured, its a Class C felony – up to 15 years in prison. If a child dies, its a Class B felony – up to 25 years.

Heres the hidden connection most people dont think about: a felony DWI dosent just effect your driving. It triggers automatic review of your professional license. If your a lawyer, your bar license is in jeopardy. If your a doctor or nurse, your medical license. Real estate brokers, mortgage brokers, stockbrokers – all of these professionaly licenses can be revoked after a felony conviction. Your BAC is connected to your career in ways most people dont realize untill its to late.

Second and third DWIs within 10 years also become felonies. A second DWI is a Class E felony. A third within 10 years is a Class D felony with potential prison time up to 7 years. The lookback period means that a DWI from 9 years ago can turn todays mistake into a felony.

Clients come to Spodek Law Group faceing felony charges who had no idea their situation was this serious. They thought it was there second offense, not realizing the first one from years ago still counted. They didnt know having there kids in the car changed everything. By the time they understand the stakes, the cascade has already begun: felony charge leads to potential prison leads to job loss leads to inability to pay child support leads to custody issues leads to complete life destruction.

This is were early legal intervention actualy matters. Todd Spodek has worked felony DWI cases were we got charges reduced, were we found procedural errors that led to dismissals, were we negotiated outcomes that saved peoples careers. But we can only do that if we get involved early, before pleadings are entered and deadlines pass.

The Checkpoint Question

Sobriety checkpoints are legal on Long Island, but theres a paradox that creates defense opportunitys.

Under normal Fourth Amendment rules, police need reasonable suspicion that your commiting a crime to pull you over. They cant just stop random drivers. But checkpoint are different – the Supreme Court has ruled that temporary DWI checkpoint stops without reasonable suspicion dont violate the Fourth Amendment, as long as there following specific procedures.

And heres were it gets intresting. Those procedures must be followed exactly. The checkpoint needs to operate under a pre-established plan set by supervisory personel. There needs to be neutral selection criteria – stopping every vehicle, or every third vehicle, something systematic and not based on officer discression. Proper safety precautions including adequate lighting. Fair warning to drivers that a checkpoint exists.

If any of these requirements arnt met, every case from that checkpoint gets thrown out. A Queens criminal court judge ruled that officers were conducting an illegal sobriety checkpoint – that was the fifth case thrown out from the same service road since 2012. Five cases, all dismissed, becuase the checkpoint wasnt run correctly.

This is one of the first things we investigate when a client comes to us from a checkpoint stop. Were the procedures followed? Was there a written plan? Was the selection truly neutral? These are technical questions that require knowing what to look for.

Heres another thing most people dont know: you can legaly turn away from a checkpoint if you do so without commiting a traffic violation. Avoidance by itself is not grounds for a stop. But if you make an illegal U-turn or run a red light trying to avoid the checkpoint, now they have a reason to pull you over.

One more thing people mess up: you can get a DWI without actualy driving. If you turn on your engine while intoxicated – even if you never intended to drive, even if you were just running the heater to stay warm – you can be charged. The law dosent require movement. It requires operation, which courts have interpreted to include turning on the ignition.

What a Good Lawyer Actually Does

In June 2024, Justin Timberlake was arrested in Sag Harbor – right here on Long Island. According to police, he had bloodshot glassy eyes, a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, slowed speach, was unsteady on his feet, and failed field sobriety tests. He refused the breathalyzer three times. He told the arresting officer he’d only had “one martini.”

Heres what happened: Timberlake pled to DWAI – driving while ability impaired. Thats a traffic violation, not a criminal conviction. $500 fine plus a $260 surcharge. 25 hours of community service at a nonprofit of his choosing. No jail time. No DWI on his record.

The District Attorney said Timberlake recieved “the same treatment as any other defendant.” And thats actualy true. The outcome he got – reducing a DWI to a DWAI – is the same outcome good lawyers get for there clients all the time. The difrence is that most people dont have good lawyers. They plead to things they didnt have to plead to. They miss deadlines. They dont know what challenges are available.

This is what a good DWI lawyer actualy does:

• We look at the stop. Did the officer have probable cause? Was there an actual traffic violation, or did they pull you over on a hunch?
• We look at the field sobriety tests. Were they administered correctly? Are there medical conditions that could of affected the results?
• We look at the breathalyzer. Was it calibrated? Is the maintenance log up to date? Was the operator certified?
• We look at the timeline. When exactly were you pulled over? When exactly was the test administered? Blood alcohol rises after you stop drinking – if there was a long delay between the stop and the test, your BAC at the time of testing might not reflect your BAC at the time of driving.
• We look at the video. Bodycam footage often shows something different then what the police report describes. Officers write reports hours after the arrest, and memory is imperfect. The video is what actualy happened.
• We look at the procedures. Was Miranda given correctly? Were you informed of your rights regarding the chemical test? Was the refusal warning properly administered?

Every one of these is a potential attack on the prosecutions case. Supress the evidence from the stop, and there might not be a case left. Challenge the BAC results, and maybe you get a reduction to DWAI. Find procedural errors, and charges get dismissed entirely.

Thats the difrence between pleading guilty becuase you think you have no options and actualy understanding what your options are. The system is complicated. Its designed to process you through as efficiently as possible. Without someone who knows how to slow it down, examine every piece, and fight were fighting is possible, you get whatever outcome the system decides to give you.

Call Spodek Law Group Now

If your reading this, your probly dealing with a DWI charge on Long Island right now. Or someone you care about is. Time matters.

Remember:

• You have 45 days from arraignment to file motions
• You have 15 days for the DMV refusal hearing if you refused the test
• You have 30 days before you can apply for a conditional license

These deadlines are real, and missing them changes your options permanantly.

Spodek Law Group is located in the Woolworth Building in Manhattan, but weve been handling Nassau and Suffolk County DWI cases for years. We know these courts. We know the prosecutors. We know what works.

Call us at 212-300-5196. The consultation is free. The mistake of waiting isnt.