I represent a lot of people who have more to lose than a driver’s license. Doctors and other medical professionals. Lawyers. Business owners who hold a liquor license or a lottery license, or who run a location under a franchise agreement. When one of them is arrested for DWI, jail is usually not what keeps them up at night. They are worried about the licensing board, the franchisor, the employer, and a career or business that took years to build.

I have defended DWI cases on Long Island for 31 years, and these clients make up a good part of my practice. What I have learned is that the charge on the day of the arrest matters less than the label the case carries at the end. A criminal conviction and a traffic infraction can look close together on paper. To a licensing board or a franchisor they are very different things. For the full picture of how DWI cases work here, see my Long Island DWI page.

Most of these cases come down to one goal: finish with a result that is not a criminal conviction. Sometimes that is possible early. Sometimes it takes a fight. Below is how it works for each kind of license, and what I do about it.

A Crime Versus a Traffic Infraction

New York has several impaired driving offenses, and they are not equal. Driving while intoxicated under Vehicle and Traffic Law section 1192, subdivisions 2 and 3, is a misdemeanor, and a conviction is a criminal conviction. Driving while ability impaired by alcohol, subdivision 1, is a traffic infraction. Section 1193 says so directly. It is not a crime.

A repeat DWAI within ten years can also be charged as a misdemeanor. For a first offense, though, DWAI by alcohol is a traffic infraction, and that difference drives almost everything else on this page. A lot of licensing rules are written around a conviction for a crime. A traffic infraction is not one.

Doctors and Other Medical Professionals

For physicians, Education Law section 6530(9) makes a conviction for a crime professional misconduct. Once there is a conviction, the proceeding that follows is generally about the penalty, not about whether misconduct happened. Nurses and other professions licensed through the State Education Department fall under a similar rule in Education Law section 6509.

A traffic infraction is not a conviction for a crime. That is why a reduction to DWAI matters so much to a medical professional. I represented a medical doctor charged with DWI in Suffolk County. A criminal conviction would have put his license in front of the Board for Professional Medical Conduct. I negotiated a reduction to a traffic infraction, and that never happened.

A reduction does not make every question go away. Renewal forms and hospital credentialing applications ask different things. Some ask only about convictions, and some ask about arrests and pending charges. I check what applies to you before a plea is entered, not after.

For licensed professionals, a DWI conviction can threaten more than driving privileges. Understanding how a charge may affect a professional license is essential before accepting a plea.

Attorneys

For lawyers the line is a felony. Under Judiciary Law section 90(4), an attorney who is convicted of a felony ceases to be an attorney upon conviction. A hearing does not come first. The rule reaches an out-of-state offense that would be a felony in New York.

A DWI becomes a felony in a few ways, including a prior conviction within ten years and a child fifteen or younger in the car. I represented an attorney charged with felony aggravated DWI and Leandra’s Law counts after a stop with a child in the vehicle. The state was pursuing a felony conviction that would have ended her law license by operation of law. I got the case reduced to a misdemeanor.

A misdemeanor does not carry the automatic result a felony does, but attorneys have their own reporting and disciplinary rules to think about, and I review them before any plea is entered. For more on how these cases are handled, see my felony DWI and aggravated DWI pages.

Business Owners With Liquor Licenses, Lottery Licenses, and Franchises

Some of my clients are not licensed professionals in the usual sense. They own a restaurant, a bar, a convenience store, or a franchise location. What a DWI does to them depends on what the license or the contract says, and those documents are not all written the same way.

Liquor licenses are the clearest. Under Alcoholic Beverage Control Law section 126, a felony conviction bars a person from holding a liquor license unless the person has a pardon, a certificate of relief from disabilities, or a certificate of good conduct. A misdemeanor DWI is not one of the offenses the statute lists. But the State Liquor Authority asks applicants about DWI and DWAI convictions on its questionnaire and weighs character and fitness, so a DWI can matter even where the statute does not bar the license.

Lottery licenses and franchise agreements vary. Some turn on a conviction for a crime. Some turn on a felony. Some give the agency or the franchisor discretion to act after an arrest. I read the actual license or agreement before I talk to a prosecutor, because the language decides what a good result looks like.

Other Licensed Professionals

If your profession is not listed here, the same approach applies. Each license has its own rules about what must be reported, when, and to whom. Some are triggered only by a conviction for a crime. Some ask about arrests at every renewal. Some reach licenses issued in other states. I have represented clients licensed in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where a result in a Suffolk County court also had to hold up with a licensing agency back home. Commercial drivers have their own federal rules, which I cover on a separate CDL page.

These are real results. Every case turns on its own facts, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. You can see more in my case results.

Getting to Work While the Case Is Pending

Professionals still have to get to the hospital, the office, the job site. The license side of a DWI runs on its own track, and it starts at arraignment. The court will typically suspend your license while the case is pending, though you may qualify for a hardship privilege that allows driving to work and a few other places. If you refused the chemical test, there is a separate DMV hearing under section 1194 with its own revocation exposure, which I cover on my DMV refusal hearing page. After a plea or conviction, a conditional license under section 1196 may let you drive to work and school, depending on the charge and your record.

Each county handles these cases differently. Suffolk often requires a longer monitoring period after a reduction. Nassau’s post-plea contract is shorter, which gets a client to a conditional license sooner. I explain both on my Suffolk County DWI and Nassau County DWI pages.

How I Approach These Cases

I start with the license or the contract, not the charge. Before I talk to a prosecutor I want to know what your board, your agency, or your franchisor actually requires, because that tells me which results are acceptable and which are not.

Then I defend the case like any other DWI. I look at the stop, the field sobriety tests, the chemical test, and whether the prosecution has met its discovery obligations. My New York State DWI defense guide goes through each of those in detail.

A client with a license to protect does not need a lecture about how serious DWI is. They already know. They need to hear exactly what each possible result will do to their career, and what we can do about it.

Edward R. Palermo, Esq.Long Island Criminal & DWI Defense

I do not promise a reduction. Nassau reduces DWI cases far less often than most counties, and a clean record alone does not change that, as I explain on my Nassau first-offense DWI page. In a county like that, a better result comes from being ready to litigate. In a county more open to reductions, I know what the office will consider and what it will not.

I am personally involved in every case I take, from the first conversation through the final result, and you will always be able to reach me directly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Talk to Me Before You Decide Anything

If you hold a license, or run a business that depends on one, the first few days matter most. Before you plead, answer a form, or call your board, call me. I have defended DWI cases in Nassau and Suffolk for 31 years and represented more than 2,000 clients, and I will tell you honestly where you stand. See my Suffolk County DWI and Nassau County DWI pages for how each county works, or look through my case results.